"Jack" wrote:
With onboard radar and a cruising altitude of FL260,
one would think it would be relatively easy to avoid
penetrating a thunderstorm.

It's just as easy with no radar and a service ceiling in the
low teens: just say, "No!"

If you 'just say, "No!"' to flying any time the NEXRAD is blooming, you
won't use your airplane for travel very much near the Gulf Coast for
most of the year - unless you can finish all your flights before 10 AM.

CBs down here are like ants at a picnic: you're just going to have to
deal with them if you want to play. Getting up high enough is one way,
but that means flying at least a turbo or preferably a pressurized
turbine airplane. If you don't have that, you have to decide where you
can fly and still see the bad boys. On most summer days, towering CU
tops are 10,000 by noon, so if there are more than a few isolated
storms the best bet is to stay down below the bases. There, you can at
least see where the dark spots are. Of course the down side of this is
that you will have a hot, muggy, bumpy ride, but at least you won't
blunder into a trap because you couldn't see what was coming.

Some kind of weather detection gear is a must. I tried doing without up
until last year and it is simply too frustrating, unnerving and
dangerous. Fortunately, there are lots of solutions appearing for light
GA aircraft in addition to the old spherics stanbys. Yes, there are
still days when I can't get there because of thunderstorms (once, so far
this year), but it takes a solid line of rough stuff to stop me.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM