"Jose" wrote in message
. com...
[...] Ten to twenty miles is what I was taught, especially considering
that hail can fall that far away.

Hail will fall downwind, which is in the direction of the storm movement.
Jay was flying upwind, behind the storm.

As far as other hazards of thunderstorms go...

Turbulence and reduced visibility are generally experienced only within the
thunderstorm, especially if it's a small, isolated one. Likewise
microbursts. Lightning needs a cloud to start from, so again...if the sky
is clear where one is flying, that's unlikely to be an issue.

I agree that as a rule of thumb, 10 or 20 miles (depending on the size of
the storm) is a good distance to maintain. However, just as 20 miles is
excessively cautious for a medium- to small-sized storm, so too 10 miles is
not a hard and fast rule to be followed even when dealing with a relatively
small, isolated, dissipating thunderstorm, especially when flying upwind of
it, and especially when one has a weather report indicating good flying
conditions in that area.

Whether any of this applies to Jay's situation, I cannot say. Sounds like,
though, his biggest transgression was his habit of exaggeration (in which,
this time, "a mile or two" becomes "five or six miles").

Pete