The goal is to learn to avoid turbulence and that's key when you have paying passengers in the back. In the meantime, I know it's a bit unsettling.

You can think of turbulence as a ripple in a pond, a wave in the ocean, or wind induced chop on a lake. Now think about speeding across any of those in a powerboat. The bigger the boat, the less you notice. Big or small, you might not be as concerned about the boat coming apart as you are about it capsizing.

Carry the boat analogy over to an airplane, while the ride can be downright uncomfortable, it's rare turbulence that strong enough to make parts fall off. So the key is to keep the airplane from "capsizing", or allowing an unusual attitude to develop (It's easier to do this if you don't have a death grip on the yoke). Try to relax and remember that:

• As long as you maintain a fairly wings level attitude,
• avoid pulling and G's if you do find yourself in a bank
• and fly at or below the POH airspeed for turbulence

Then the engineers who designed the aircraft structure have you covered. Your airplane might be a lot stronger than you think!

Thinking of turbulence in terms of the boat/wave example might help you visualize (and rationalize) what's happening to the airplane. While you might not ever be comfortable, you will learn to tolerate AND operate safely in turbulence.

Learn to understand what the winds/temp aloft gradient is telling you
Learn to read the lifted index/K index stability charts
Look for the tightly spaced isotachs and isobars
And all that other stuff you thought you'd never use that tells you about the stability of an airmass....and relax, or at least sound relaxed on the radio.