Weather Related

[Bennett]

Many years ago I stupidly tried to twist and turn my way through a line of thunderstorms using my Stormscope, forgetting that the image was not tied to a gyro, and therefore what I saw, was not what I got. Never made that mistake again, and I will gladly fly well around thunderstorms. I now have XM (and soon Nexrad), but I won't use either of these to try and thread my way though T-Storm weather. Since I once took a lightning strike a bit more than 10 miles away from the nearest buildup, I am ever more wary.

[Oscar Avalle]

I have many times too. However, now that I am flying more and more in Central America I have to trust my WX 500 and my eyes. So if I can not see it... I don't fly through it.

[Earl]

I have no problem with IMC and I know a lot of airline captains that fly SPIFR in single engine planes all the time.  Having said that, I am not going to fly in an are of embedded t-storms in IMC, even though I have XM weather and a stormscope.  My rule with t-storms is I need to see it to believe it....or more to the point avoid it.  That is really not that limiting a factor to productive flying, even in the SE where I live.

[jetdriven]

After you stumble through an embedded thunderstorm you quickly realize the benefit or using either the Mark I eyeball or onboard radar. 

I managed to punch through the top of one at FL410 in north Africa on a dark night a couple years ago. The first bang was the entire airplane getting slammed upward. I looked down and the airspeed was into the barber pole, the Mach was .91-something and the altimeter showed a 1500 foot gain in just a few seconds.  And then it was over.