Milt did you feel that you were flying dangerously?
Not really but my mission this day was a lot different than David's.
Ceilings were 2700' and vis was good, I live here and there are no towers so flying underneath was not an issue and I only had 15 (30 as it turns out ) miles to go. I think scud running under this stuff for several hundred miles would have been less than prudent.
This was last saturday over Southwest Mississippi. The Nexrad looked much like Davids picture above but I was just flying around in the leading edge of the system.
Thanks to all the stimulus dollars our local airport is closed for a monthfor runway resurfacing. With the storm coming I had to reposition an RV 8 from a grass strip to a local paved airport 15 nm away so we could get out the next day. My airport of intended landing seemed to be a magnet for thundershowers and after circling the area for 45 minutes. I diverted to another airport 30NM North as fuel was becoming an issue and now I couldn't get back in to the grass strip because it was soaked.
As luck would have it the new destination had recieved stimulus money for a new fuel farm and their fuel pumps were down. At that point I parked the plane and drove home in the courtesy car. Just shows you should check notams even when flying on home turf.
Decades ago I cancelled a lot of flights because the briefer said "VFR not advised" then I learned to go take a look and more often than not was able to complete the flight.
With XM it takes several flights to really learn what a nexrad picture means and doesn't mean. Depending on your mission and conditions at the departure point it usually never hurts to go "take a look" after a THOROUGH weather brief.
I hear a lot about having an Instrument rating increasing the utility of an airplane but in my opinion knowledge of weather systems and the ability to interpret a weather brief are just as if not more important relative to utility and safety. This is even more important with the advent of XM in the cockpit.
I am a big fan of being cautious but also think that starting a trip for a look see is a good way to learn and gain experience as long as you use good judgement and not press on into less than safe conditions.
I think David's initial choice was a good one given his route and distance to be flown as well as Metars along the route and what the system eventually did. You need to remember conditions along the front and tail end of a moving mass of storms are often much different than those in the middle.