"Watson" wrote
As an aside: Is your Va close to, or at Vno? (In the old days we
called Va "Rough Air Penetration Speed" now it is called, rather
inappropriately I think; "maneuvering speed".

The 'Maneuver Envelope' with which the average pilot is familar,
and which contains Va, is not the same as the 'Gust Envelope'.


Section 23.333: Flight envelope
(c) Gust envelope. (1) The airplane is assumed to be subjected
to symmetrical vertical gusts in level flight. The resulting
limit load factors must correspond to the conditions determined
as follows:

(i) Positive (up) and negative (down) gusts of 50 f.p.s. at VC
must be considered.........

(ii) Positive and negative gusts of 25 f.p.s. at VD must be
considered...........

Quoted from Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators:

"As a general requirement, all airplanes must be capable of
withstanding an approximate effective +/- 30 foot per second
gust when at maximum level flight speed for normal rated power.
Such a gust intensity has relatively low frequency of occurrence
in ordinary flying operations. The highest reasonable gust
velocity that may be anticipated is an actual veritical velocity,
U, of 50 feet per second."

Bob Moore
ATP, CFI