Flew round trip from Troutdale, OR to Coeur d'Alene Idaho last night in a
PA-28R and hit a weather system that was reported to be much further south.
The weather brief mentioned isolated thunderstorms that would dissipate
after sunset.

To make a long story short, the weather turned ugly and between Spokane and
Tri-Cities I filed a PIREP noting that there was lighting bursting once per
minute or more from the cloud layer directly on the victor airway, and much
more activity developing to the north. Meanwhile, a SIGMET had been issued
further south reporting hail 1" in diameter. Not going that way...

I could see the lights of the city ahead and two giant murky areas which I
avoided. No rain, but as I was filing the PIREP lightning started blazing
on either side of me, ahead of me, and arcing and corksscrewing over the top
of me from cloud to cloud. Meanwhile, all the ATIS and AWOS reported calm
winds and unrestricted visibility and the FSS reported nothing on the radar
in my way. I noticed that the lightning was coming from three distinct
clouds, all moving north, and I could see Tri-Cities between them so I
observed the hole for awhile to make sure it wasn't going to close on me,
figured out with the DME about how long it would take me to get past them,
checked the chart to make sure it was safe to deviate from the airway at
altitude, set the throttle a little higher and ran the gauntlet without
further problem except for the occasional unnerving flash of lightning
behind me somewhere. Took all the fun out of the flight, though.

Question: Anybody ever been hit by lightning in a small plane? What
happens?

-c