No sane pilot would be tempted to be close to a CB not to mention of flying into one. We pilots try to stay away at least 20 miles from any such weather system
porterhouse,
You must be a power pilot. Glider pilots are often closer to Cbs than that, although these days, most would not actually venture into one deliberately.
Twenty years ago I was flying with a friend in a two-seat glider at Claresholm in Alberta. There was lots of lift but the day was very unstable with some of the Cu having showers beneath them. We noticed two of the shower clouds upwind of the airport were becoming darker and over-developing. They were about three miles apart and would pass either side of the airfield.
We were quite high - about 5000' AGL - so we decided to fly upwind between the clouds and wait until they had passed. At this point, we had a message from on high - a bolt of lightning right off the nose, from an apparently clear blue sky!
Time for Plan B - a quick descent and landing. By the time we were downwind, the two clouds had coalesced and the gust front had moved through the airport. Our approach speed was 80 kts and after landing, we sat on the runway, airbrakes out, "flying" at 30 to 40 kts in pouring rain for 15 minutes!
Usually now the height gains are done in mountain wave, which has its own points of interest.
PC,
A tow pilot friend of mine, with over 10,000 tows in his log book, used to say "The rotor's not rough until you get rolled inverted!"