Narrative:

I was acting as the flight instructor for a 141 training flight in lynchburg; va. My student and I had taken off from falwell airport (W24) and headed about 4 NM west to lynchburg regional airport (klyh) for traffic pattern operations. The ceiling when we took off was reported broken at 2300 ft. As we entered the pattern at klyh the tower advised that ceilings had gone down to ovc at 1500; 1500 ft is the minimum ceiling for traffic pattern operations according to our specific operating procedures; so we therefore decided to return to W24. Klyh elevation is 938 ft; so we were not expecting clouds below 2400 ft MSL. As we were climbing through 1500 ft MSL we accidentally entered a cloud. Because we had terrain on each side of us and could not descend out of the clouds I elected to climb in order to avoid terrain. I then contacted roanoke approach control to obtain a pop-up IFR clearance. However; they advised that we were below the minimum vectoring altitude so they could not give us an IFR clearance. We advised that we were VFR into IMC and needed a clearance and they again advised that they were unable to issue a clearance unless we could maintain our own terrain and obstruction clearance. Because I knew the area well and knew that we were now at 2400 ft MSL and well above any obstructions I advised that we could maintain our own obstruction clearance. Roanoke then issued us an IFR clearance and we diverted to klyh. We received vectors to the ILS runway 4 approach and landed full-stop. On the approach we broke out of the clouds at 700 ft AGL. We did get safely on the ground; but from this I learned that the clouds can be lower than reported and IFR clearances may be limited on their issuance.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: VFR training flight to LYH encountered IMC conditions and requested IFR clearance from ROA TRACON; clearance issuance was based upon reporter being able to provide terrain clearance because of ATC MVA limitations.

Narrative: I was acting as the flight instructor for a 141 training flight in Lynchburg; VA. My student and I had taken off from Falwell airport (W24) and headed about 4 NM west to Lynchburg Regional Airport (KLYH) for traffic pattern operations. The ceiling when we took off was reported BKN at 2300 FT. As we entered the pattern at KLYH the tower advised that ceilings had gone down to OVC at 1500; 1500 FT is the minimum ceiling for traffic pattern operations according to our specific operating procedures; so we therefore decided to return to W24. KLYH elevation is 938 FT; so we were not expecting clouds below 2400 FT MSL. As we were climbing through 1500 FT MSL we accidentally entered a cloud. Because we had terrain on each side of us and could not descend out of the clouds I elected to climb in order to avoid terrain. I then contacted Roanoke Approach Control to obtain a pop-up IFR clearance. However; they advised that we were below the minimum vectoring altitude so they could not give us an IFR clearance. We advised that we were VFR into IMC and needed a clearance and they again advised that they were unable to issue a clearance unless we could maintain our own terrain and obstruction clearance. Because I knew the area well and knew that we were now at 2400 FT MSL and well above any obstructions I advised that we could maintain our own obstruction clearance. Roanoke then issued us an IFR clearance and we diverted to KLYH. We received vectors to the ILS RWY 4 approach and landed full-stop. On the approach we broke out of the clouds at 700 FT AGL. We did get safely on the ground; but from this I learned that the clouds can be lower than reported and IFR clearances may be limited on their issuance.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.