"Jack" wrote:
That's "No!" to "penetrating a thunderstorm", if you'll take a
closer look, and is not the same as "No!" to flying.

Mmmm, well, forgive me if I misinterpreted your statement, but who
deliberately pentrates a thunderstorm? Weather research planes are the
only ones I can think of.

Radar and FL 260 capability is no defense against
thunderstorms,

No, but that kind of altitude capability gives one a lot better look at
things most days than I get, for instance.

Day or night, with radar or without, stay VMC in areas with
thunderstorms
and give them a wide berth.

In general, I agree with this but I make some careful exceptions. Since
I now have NEXRAD in the airplane, I will fly in IMC with thunderstorms
about if 1) I am not attempting to fly through a gap in a line of storms
2) I am sure I always have a wide avenue "out" in some direction.

We didn't accumulate those hours by treating
thunderstorms lightly.

If I gave the impression that I think thundersorms should be treated
lightly, I expressed myself poorly. Thunderstorms scare the s*** out of
me.

There are a number of ways to avoid the dangers of thunderstorms,
and only one of them is "not flying".

Yep.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM