Marco Rispoli wrote:

To me it felt like we were getting slammed. To him this wasn't even a
tickle. Obviously our concepts of turbulence differed dramatically.

To folks that haven't experienced a lot of turbulence, a little can seem
like a lot. I gave a ride to a COZY builder who had never been in a
small plane - he asked whether we were in moderate to severe turbulence
when I hadn't really even noticed that we had hit a tiny burble.

If I am clear air (VFR), and I am not close to mountains (so I don't
have to
worry about mountain waves), and I am flying around in my little cutie
Piper
Cherokee 180 do I even need to worry about turbulence?

Not really. I fly in the NE, like you do, and while I've experienced
mild to moderate turbulence down low on VFR days, I've never really
gotten hammered. Even when it __feels__ like I'm getting hammered, it's
still considered moderate - go look up the definition of severe
turbulence - basically, you can't control the plane.

I don't plan to fly into thunderstorms any time soon ... so, do I even
need
to worry about manouvering speed if I am just flying in one of those
gusty
fall or spring Northeast VFR days?

Nope. If you can keep the plane upright, there's no issue.

Is staying below the green arc good enough?

You mean red? Below the green arc, I don't think the plane will stay in
the air :-). On my COZY (admittedly a homebuilt, but the concept is the
same) the red arc begins at 220 mph IAS and the yellow arc begins at 140
mph IAS. Va is 140 mph, but I NEVER fly that slow - usually I'm
cruising at about 175 - 180 mph IAS, no matter what the turbulence level
(I'm VFR only). The only thing I slow down for in cruise is if the
visibility sucks.

--
Marc J. Zeitlin
http://marc.zeitlin.home.comcast.net/
http://www.cozybuilders.org/
Copyright (c) 2004