Not light aircraft but larger turbo prop and jet aircraft and a lot of night flying- seen it many times (guessing at 50+ events), no lightning strikes nor noticeable effects beyond radio static.

tescoapp Not sure where all the aggression comes from?!

Actually, it is as my question - you shout and scream 'certain death', others are equally confident that it's not an issue. I'm intrigued by the variation, that's all.

What IS clear is that it is extremely rare (at least for my flight profiles) and is neither a sign that you definitely will, nor definitely won't, be struck by lightning...

Never seen it in a light aircraft but I've seen it literally hundreds of times doing the day (night) job. Most recent experience was near Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago, where the windscreen was covered in bright lines that looked like mini forked lightning. It was a fantastic light show that lasted for well over 10 minutes.

I've been hit by lightning six times and none of those involved St. Elmo's fire. Read into that what you will (but I have no problems flying in/with it).