On Tuesday, September 1, 2020 at 11:19:22 AM UTC-7, ProfJ wrote:
Typing this with my fireproof suit on...last weekend I tried to duck between two rainy cumulus clouds on my glide back to home base. As I went through the gap it became filled with virga and I was sucked rapidly upwards, probably would have been about 10m/s if I had not had the nose well down. This was not tranquil, but not terrifying either (I was about 3000 ft below cloudbase) and added some useful height and speed.

So here's the question: would you (do you?) deliberately head into virga if you needed the boost, or is this a truly dumb thing to do? Same for rain clouds (assuming you are in updraft not downdraft zone), how close would you get?

Not looking for legal technicalities here, this was good VFR at all times - just trying to calibrate risk.

I've flown a LOT in the Great Basin (Ely, Parowan) and the advice of one of my more successful soaring mentors,Carl Herold, has proven to me far more often true more than false. He advised to avoid Virga if the temperature at your current altitude is warmer than freezing and fly directly toward and through the snow virga where the temperatures at your altitude is colder than freezing. That air will be rising! I have no idea why this works, but it has proven to be a successful strategy far more often than not.