Porterhouse, if you have never been in one then you are either very low hours or have been very lucky.
Yes they are avoided, but sometimes, for various reasons it is not possible to completely avoid. My worst was a Piper Seneca - no radar, being helped round a Cb by Barcelona radar, unfortunately there was one hiding behind the one they could actually see and vectored us into it, we were on a medical repat and landed in Reus with medical equipment all over the back of the aircraft!
Been through some nasty stuff in airliners as well, that mainly happens at night when it does not show on radar - nothing that would come near breaking up the aircraft, but still stuff you would not go through by choice!
Last edited by foxmoth; 30th Dec 2014 at 22:10.
Reason: Correcting autocorrect!