Listers:

 

A "defining moment" occurred for me when I (stupidly) entered a cigarette-standing-on end-shaped cloud in the Houston area of Texas in February of 2002 -- looked harmless -- had a maximum diameter of one quarter mile -- got progressively darker -- entered the cell (yes, now I define it as a cell) -- serious chop -- then violent pitch/roll instability -- wishing I were anywhere else -- suddenly perpendicular to horizon as reported by AH -- felt awkward -- then inverted flight with the brown color of  AH on the top -- felt strangely comfortable -- reached to pull power from a/c and simultaneously to pull back on the stick (avoid inverted stall/spin) -- kicked slight rudder and hard left stick to upright a/c -- felt better than inverted -- now losing 2500' pm -- perhaps straight down but no visual horizon -- needed to pull a/c out of dive that would go vne too quickly in violent thrashing within cell -- using AOA (LRI), pulled stick back to mid white arch on LRI gage which rapidly arrested unnecessary increases in speed (perhaps avoiding structural overstress) -- held constant heading so as to exit cloud as quickly as possible -- emerged from dim interior of cloud about 1800 feet lower in altitude than had entered.

 

Much wiser now, I avoid - and remain respectful of nearly all harmless-looking clouds.  The LRI was a critical gage in this event because pulling back too hard might have caused either overstress or secondary stall/spin.  Not pulling back sufficiently would have resulted in greater altitude loss and higher speeds within the turbulent cloud possibly causing overstress.  The LRI defined the quickest, safe pathway out of cloud.

 

As a final point, I use the LRI on short final constantly adjusting the a/c power to arrange touch down at minimum lift which is, of course, minimum airspeed.  As matter of habit, I do not refer to the ASI as the ASI does not factor in crosswinds, slip, vehicle weight/loading, attitude, ground effect on lift and other factors.        Greg Nelson