Narrative:

A C152 was enroute to VT8. Both his departure and arrival airports are within btv's airspace. I identified the C152 approx 15 miles northeast of btv and he said he was going to shelburne airpark (VT8). Weather was impacting btv with snow. Visibility was approx 1 1/2 miles and this was relayed to the C152. I also had the tower check the visibility south of the airport near where aircraft X was going and they said it didn't look good. This was relayed to the aircraft. The pilot responded saying it looked ok to him and he continued to VT8. I continued to give him advisories and could see on radar that he was following the shoreline of lake champlain and then route 7 to VT8. I did not tell the pilot to remain clear of class C airspace as it looked like he was going to be clear of it enroute to his airport. I later found out that VT8 is included in our class C airspace to protect for the VOR 1 approach which was not in use at the time. This is not found on our approach maps on the displays in the radar room. I did cancel automatic releases off btv at the time the C152 passed west of btv to ensure no conflicts with any departures. There were no departures delayed. The pilot reported VT8 in sight and I terminated radar and switched him to unicom. Since the pilot did not request SVFR and I couldn't offer it. Some training on these situations may be in order. I felt that making the pilot turn around in inclement weather would have been more dangerous than allowing him to follow known landmarks so I did not make him exit class C airspace.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A BTV controller described questionable ATC service when VFR traffic was being provided service through the BTV Class C airspace was not given an appropriate clearance for the existing weather conditions.

Narrative: A C152 was enroute to VT8. Both his departure and arrival airports are within BTV's airspace. I identified the C152 approx 15 miles northeast of BTV and he said he was going to Shelburne Airpark (VT8). Weather was impacting BTV with snow. Visibility was approx 1 1/2 miles and this was relayed to the C152. I also had the Tower check the visibility south of the airport near where Aircraft X was going and they said it didn't look good. This was relayed to the aircraft. The pilot responded saying it looked OK to him and he continued to VT8. I continued to give him advisories and could see on RADAR that he was following the shoreline of Lake Champlain and then Route 7 to VT8. I did not tell the pilot to remain clear of Class C airspace as it looked like he was going to be clear of it enroute to his airport. I later found out that VT8 is included in our Class C Airspace to protect for the VOR 1 Approach which was not in use at the time. This is not found on our approach maps on the displays in the RADAR room. I did cancel automatic releases off BTV at the time the C152 passed west of BTV to ensure no conflicts with any departures. There were no departures delayed. The pilot reported VT8 in sight and I terminated RADAR and switched him to UNICOM. Since the pilot did not request SVFR and I couldn't offer it. Some training on these situations may be in order. I felt that making the pilot turn around in inclement weather would have been more dangerous than allowing him to follow known landmarks so I did not make him exit Class C airspace.

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.