Had a close one out on task some years ago at Cordele. Beautiful classic strong day. Lots of marker clouds, all working. I was coming up under a lovely flat bottomed cu and just starting to feel the surge. Suddenly my forward view is completely full of Ventus. Got a brief but close look at the top of a bucket hat. The “senior” pilot never saw me. He was bombing along with all his control levers hard forward and had yanked on the middle one when he felt the lift. Had he pulled up half a second sooner, he would have speared me right in the belly. He completed his ballistic arc and dove for mach out the other side. Don’t forget to look up before you pull!

WB