What my instructor never taught me and why that might be a good thing

The Aviation Safety Reporting System, ASRS, is a repository of voluntary, confidential reports of various types of potential safety issues. It contains a lot of interesting reports that are fascinating reading. The one below is from a flight that occurred last year at SQL. Reading it makes you wonder what was this pilot thinking??? In particular, this pilot used a special VFR clearance to depart SQL when the airport was below VFR minimums. My CFI never taught me about SVFR and perhaps that is something that should never be taught to a private pilot.

Here is the narrative has reported by the pilot.

I arrived at the airport from San Francisco and although there was a cloud deck at approximately 600 FT I had noted a number of holes, which I had deemed sufficient to fly through and get on top for VFR conditions. In checking the conditions for the route the conditions were showing overcast at 600 FT with 8 miles of visibility in the bay area and clear to the south and east with 12,000 few in the central valley. I had made the trip the day before under the same conditions with no issue. As I was looking to plan my route, I saw that there was a hole with clear sunlight over Coyote Hills, which meant asking for a special VFR clearance with a cement plant departure and climbing on top as soon as I reached the hole. This was exactly what I had done the day before. In the worst case I had 8 miles of visibility so even with the low ceiling I could always make a u-turn and come back to the airport if there was a problem. I performed the normal preflight and asked for my clearance from the Tower. Once I received this I taxied to the run up area and when I was ready I asked for a clearance.

Just as I was taxiing onto the runway I was stopped by a large goose standing right on the 12 numbers which initiated a dialog with the Tower. Eventually the goose left the runway and I taxied onto the runway for a cement plant take off. In the time I was in the run up and paying attention to the goose I had not noticed that the conditions were changing rapidly and that the fog was moving very swiftly. Once I took off and made a 20-degree turn off the end of the runway, as is the normal procedure and then proceeded to turn towards the cement plant. At this point I was at approximately 400 FT and noticed there were a number of clouds below 600 FT that I needed to avoid. I began to weave around the clouds when the Tower called and inquired about my strange flight and if all was ok. I indicated that I was avoiding clouds and all was fine. At this time the Tower called to hand me NCT Approach. At about the same time I lost sight of the cement plant and the hole I was flying towards. The situation was rapidly getting worse. At that time I decided to turn back to San Carlos and radioed my intentions to the Tower.

I told the Tower that I was turning back due to the clouds and proceeded to turn into a cloud. What I had not realized was the 8 miles of visibility had closed to 0 behind me within a matter of minutes. I was in a cloud with no visibility in any direction. I told the Tower of my situation and tried to descend and see if I could get below the clouds. I was at 300 FT and could not see the water below me and remembered the power lines so I began a steep climb. I then tried turning left and right to see if I could find any visual reference. At this point being a VFR pilot in a cloud with complete white out conditions and no clue which way to go I began to panic. I tried to fly the plane and when I looked at the instruments I was descending at a rapid rate completely uncoordinated and given my height above the water did not have much time before I would crash. I stopped the descent at about 200 FT and remembered my flight instructor telling me to stare at the instruments, as you will have no idea what you are doing otherwise. I can honestly say that until I stared at the gauges I did not realize I was turning at a 45-degree bank while slipping. I immediately began to stabilize the plane and was reporting to the Tower my altitude to make sure there was no traffic that would be a factor.

Once the plane was stable I began to fly coordinated with the instruments and realized that I had no clue of where I was and certainly could not find the airport. I decided to try and get the GPS set so I could use the moving map however after 5 tries it would not accept my input of direct to San Carlos this may have been due to my hitting the wrong buttons in my state or a problem with the GPS. I was lost over the bay in the clouds with traffic and obstacles all around. The Tower was talking to me almost constantly and asking if I could see anything I reported that I was in total white out conditions. He asked if I was IFR certified and I reported I was not. He reported I was just about over Coyote Hills and that I should fly a westerly heading. I began to turn however I was still lost. I flew the heading and he told me there was an instructor in the Tower to help. He had me verify my altimeter with his and the heading I was flying at that point he directed me to fly a heading and report when I can see anything. I flew that heading for what seemed an eternity however could not have been more than a couple of minutes. Eventually the ground below came into sight. I reported seeing the power lines and was able to make sure I was above them however I still could not see the airport. I kept flying and then the 101 highway appeared almost instantly. I reported the highway in sight and then the airport. At that point there was a large hole above the airport and there was very good visibility and not a problem to land.

I made my go no go decision without paying attention to how fast the conditions were changing. As my Hobbs meter indicted .6 from the time I started the conditions went from 600 with 8 miles visibility to complete white out within minutes. The visual reference points all disappeared including the ones behind me that would get me back to the airport in case I could not go forward. From a risk management standpoint the margin for error with a 600-foot ceiling was too narrow. In looking back the questions I should have asked myself were

1.  What is the margin for error in this situation?

2.       What are the consequences of failure if I am wrong? Given the answer to 1 is 600 FT with power lines below and clouds all around the answer is very little. The answer to 2 is I will end up in a cloud and likely to crash into the Bay. An easy answer in hindsight I should have stayed on the ground.