Narrative:

A band of showers had moved through my airport's area from west to east. I had been monitoring the weather via adds.aviationweather.gov. The band had moved out of the area and conditions had become VFR. A nearby airport was reporting VFR conditions; but two other area airports were still marginal. I had decided to depart with the intent that if conditions were not good; I would return to my departure airport. Upon departure; the weather in the area was holding up as expected. Although there was residue clouds from the band of showers; I had positive visual contact with ground references and otherwise fair horizontal visibility. I continued on a 180 degree heading from at 1700 ft MSL. At approximately 3 miles south of my departure airport; I found myself in a cloud. I remained in level flight while I composed myself for a gradual 180 degree turn to return to my departure airport. Before I could execute the turn; I was out of the cloud. At this point I again had positive visual contact with the ground; but the horizontal visibility was vastly improved. The conditions continued to improve; and I was able to begin a climb as I was now under the 3000 ft MSL shelf of the class B. Visibilities and conditions continued to improve; and I was able to maintain 5500 ft MSL cruise altitude for the remainder of the trip. Upon reflecting on what could have gone wrong at any time in this flight; I reminded myself that the area in question has enough risk without contending with marginal conditions; and should have never been attempted. This situation does not reflect the decision-making process that I use when flying. I plan to review and use techniques for decision-making that I saw at an FAA safety seminar.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An M20 pilot reported departing his airport in marginal weather only to encounter IMC conditions for a short time after takeoff. He continued to his destination in clear weather.

Narrative: A band of showers had moved through my airport's area from West to East. I had been monitoring the weather via adds.aviationweather.gov. The band had moved out of the area and conditions had become VFR. A nearby airport was reporting VFR conditions; but two other area airports were still marginal. I had decided to depart with the intent that if conditions were not good; I would return to my departure airport. Upon departure; the weather in the area was holding up as expected. Although there was residue clouds from the band of showers; I had positive visual contact with ground references and otherwise fair horizontal visibility. I continued on a 180 degree heading from at 1700 FT MSL. At approximately 3 miles south of my departure airport; I found myself in a cloud. I remained in level flight while I composed myself for a gradual 180 degree turn to return to my departure airport. Before I could execute the turn; I was out of the cloud. At this point I again had positive visual contact with the ground; but the horizontal visibility was vastly improved. The conditions continued to improve; and I was able to begin a climb as I was now under the 3000 FT MSL shelf of the Class B. Visibilities and conditions continued to improve; and I was able to maintain 5500 FT MSL cruise altitude for the remainder of the trip. Upon reflecting on what could have gone wrong at any time in this flight; I reminded myself that the area in question has enough risk without contending with marginal conditions; and should have never been attempted. This situation does not reflect the decision-making process that I use when flying. I plan to review and use techniques for decision-making that I saw at an FAA Safety seminar.

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.