Editor’s Note: NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) publishes a monthly newsletter, Callback, which highlights recent reports received by the organization. The newsletter can be of limited utility to typical general aviation operators, but not the December 2020 issue, which focused on GA pilots who inadvertently found themselves flying VFR into instrument conditions. These reports are instructive and we’re taking the liberty of publishing them here, as they appeared in Callback, with supplied commentary following each narrative.
STUDENT PILOT
“I was on a solo cross country. All forecasts showed overcast clouds at 6,000 feet. My route was 4,500 feet [outbound]…. [Enroute], I realized the clouds were not at 6,000 feet as forecast. I continued, as I was still under the cloud level. Just inland, I contacted Departure that I was descending down to 4,000 feet to continue VFR. As I descended, the clouds descended with me. Just a few miles [over] the land, I flew into a cloud accidentally, as the [cloud] layer was much lower. I then put the pitot heat and carb heat on and descended out of the cloud.
