DON'T FLY THROUGH CBs!
Although aircraft are designed and built to withstand an inadvertent entry to cbs, such situations should be avoided. Personal experience during planned testing involved a minor (20 sec) flight in the edge of a cb. In this period, flying at turbulence speed, the limits of certified normal-acceleration (+ & -) were experienced, including stick shake. The flight brief was to maintain constant attitude, however with the level of buffet, and rapid reversals in pitch, roll and yaw, all that could be accomplished was to hold everything in the centre.
During other tests adjacent to cbs, the cloud build-up was at least 3000 ft/min and possible as high as 6000 ft/min; so don’t think that you can out-climb the cloud formation. Also, beware of flying through or just under the anvil. Although the turbulence levels are low, often severe-icing conditions exist, including super cooled ‘liquid’ water. Generally the advice is to avoid cbs by a minimum of 5nm; however, to provide a margin for errors in detection (different radar systems and their responses in these conditions), rapid cloud formation and movement, anvil conditions, and misjudgment, then my experience suggests that aiming for a 15nm miss distance is safer.