Weather strategy - biggest daily threat?

[neila83]

Weather avoidance is something that has always fascinated me, partly because I am a rather bi-polar plane lover who can almost break into a panic attack if things get shakey, and partly from a lifelong interest in meteorology. As I live in the tropics, it also seems that weather is the single biggest 'risk' factor that almost every flight has to deal with. While everything else might behave rouinely, thunderstorms are always a possibility.

This came to mind because I seem to read so many different mentalities regarding avoidance, and in the 787 engine icing thread someone mentioned always satying 100NM away from ITCZ weather, which seems a lot. So I remain unclear what is proper. Some pilots categorically say, 'never go anywhere near', others say sometimes they have to fly into stuff they'd 'rather not'. What does that mean? Personally I'd prefer the pilot stayed as far away as possible/he deems prudent because any turbulence does cause a lot of fear at the back, and I feel if you're transporting passengers you shouldn't enter areas you're not comfortable with, no-one is paying to take risks.

So I'd be interested and grateful to hear your general strategies? And how much are you considering the commercial side i.e. do you fly in areas you'd rather not if the deviation would be 'too far'? And what is too far? I'm inclined to think the pilot should be free to take all avoidance he deems necessary. Do you feel some colleagues are 'too brave'?

I also occasionally read here about poor radar technique being common, but I reassure myself it can't be that bad or we'd be seeing a lot of incidents in SE Asia with the number of flights dodging around the monsters down there! Seems those guys do a pretty stellar job, I'm based in Colombia and hats off to the guys here and in Bolivia, with the weather, terrain, and more rustic airfields they deal with day in day out.