Narrative:

Ready to taxi to the runway and depart for hvn at about sunset; conditions suddenly became IFR with a 6000-ft. Overcast ceiling accompanied by a thin and wispy 300-ft. Cloud layer. After waiting an hour; conditions resumed VFR after the low cloud layer blew over. I then departed and headed for hvn. After establishing cruise altitude at 3000 ft. I initiated VFR flight-following with providence approach. A few miles east of wst I encountered random bunches of cumulus clouds between 3000 and 3500 ft. I descended to avoid these and; after noticing my fuel had reached less than 1/3 of capacity; decided to divert to wst and re-asses the weather situation (of which I notified providence approach and terminated VFR flight-following). I landed and refueled self-service. I then used a metar application and weather channel application on my iphone to determine whether or not to continue on course. The metars showed VFR conditions; a 3000 to 4000 ceiling; and 17g25kts winds at wst. The wind concerned me; but I had just landed in it and there was little to no crosswind; so I determined that wind was not a deciding factor in continuing or not. At hvn conditions were VFR; 7kts wind and a 1600-ft. Ceiling with very light rain. I cross-checked with with the weather channel; confirmed; and also saw that these conditions were predicted to hold stable throughout the night. Since wst was a few-mile walk from the nearest town; we decided to take-off again and continue to hvn - noting alternate airports along the route in case diversion would be necessary. After establishing cruise altitude at 2000 ft.; I again contacted providence approach and initiated VFR flight-following to hvn. 5 - 10 minutes into flight I noticed the predicted slight rain. This did not affect visibility. 5 minutes later; however; conditions very suddenly took a turn for the worst. A few miles east of gon the light rain unexpectedly became clouds and in a matter of a minute went from reasonable VFR to IMC. I made an immediate 180-turn and descended to 1000 ft. In an attempt to land as soon as possible at gon or wst. I notified providence approach of my intentions; but received no response. Continuing to return east conditions were IMC but manageable; and I attempted to contact providence once every few minutes. Finally; another pilot in the area picked up my call and relayed it to providence. That pilot then gave me the frequency of another station on which to contact providence. I switched and then achieved 2-way communication with providence. Apparently; my radio was not strong enough to communicate directly with providence on the first frequency. I alerted them to the fact that I was a VFR pilot in IMC conditions and they said they would vector me to an airport under VFR. I complied and followed the vectoring. In doing so I traveled away from gon and lost visual ground contact. I could see nothing but clouds in all directions and did my best to maintain a level pitch and attitude and to follow the vectors. I lost all perception of time during this period. I was in IMC for what felt like 30 minutes; but; according to the hobs time; works out to somewhere closer to 90. Finally providence alerted me that an airport was 1 mile on my right (which I later discovered was ZZZ) and I was instructed to descend. At 700 feet I regained visual ground contact; spotted the airport; and came in for a successful landing on a runway.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An inexperienced private pilot departed in marginal conditions and ultimately found himself in IMC without benefit of a flight plan or an instrument rating. Air Traffic Control provided the resources to direct him to a safe landing.

Narrative: Ready to taxi to the runway and depart for HVN at about sunset; conditions suddenly became IFR with a 6000-ft. overcast ceiling accompanied by a thin and wispy 300-ft. cloud layer. After waiting an hour; conditions resumed VFR after the low cloud layer blew over. I then departed and headed for HVN. After establishing cruise altitude at 3000 ft. I initiated VFR flight-following with Providence Approach. A few miles east of WST I encountered random bunches of cumulus clouds between 3000 and 3500 ft. I descended to avoid these and; after noticing my fuel had reached less than 1/3 of capacity; decided to divert to WST and re-asses the weather situation (of which I notified Providence Approach and terminated VFR flight-following). I landed and refueled self-service. I then used a METAR application and Weather Channel application on my iPhone to determine whether or not to continue on course. The METARs showed VFR conditions; a 3000 to 4000 ceiling; and 17G25kts winds at WST. The wind concerned me; but I had just landed in it and there was little to no crosswind; so I determined that wind was not a deciding factor in continuing or not. At HVN conditions were VFR; 7kts wind and a 1600-ft. ceiling with very light rain. I cross-checked with with the Weather Channel; confirmed; and also saw that these conditions were predicted to hold stable throughout the night. Since WST was a few-mile walk from the nearest town; we decided to take-off again and continue to HVN - noting alternate airports along the route in case diversion would be necessary. After establishing cruise altitude at 2000 ft.; I again contacted Providence Approach and initiated VFR flight-following to HVN. 5 - 10 minutes into flight I noticed the predicted slight rain. This did not affect visibility. 5 minutes later; however; conditions very suddenly took a turn for the worst. A few miles east of GON the light rain unexpectedly became clouds and in a matter of a minute went from reasonable VFR to IMC. I made an immediate 180-turn and descended to 1000 ft. in an attempt to land as soon as possible at GON or WST. I notified Providence Approach of my intentions; but received no response. Continuing to return east conditions were IMC but manageable; and I attempted to contact Providence once every few minutes. Finally; another pilot in the area picked up my call and relayed it to Providence. That pilot then gave me the frequency of another station on which to contact Providence. I switched and then achieved 2-way communication with Providence. Apparently; my radio was not strong enough to communicate directly with Providence on the first frequency. I alerted them to the fact that I was a VFR pilot in IMC conditions and they said they would vector me to an airport under VFR. I complied and followed the vectoring. In doing so I traveled away from GON and lost visual ground contact. I could see nothing but clouds in all directions and did my best to maintain a level pitch and attitude and to follow the vectors. I lost all perception of time during this period. I was in IMC for what felt like 30 minutes; but; according to the HOBS time; works out to somewhere closer to 90. Finally Providence alerted me that an airport was 1 mile on my right (which I later discovered was ZZZ) and I was instructed to descend. At 700 feet I regained visual ground contact; spotted the airport; and came in for a successful landing on a runway.

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.