Thanks for running my case past the good lady Mademoiselle Murphy, Mike. And please relay my appreciation to her for letting me fly on (no pun intended...lol) using the FS9 414A version instead of the FSX version.
Also relay to her that the "watch the airspeed gauges" advice is 'very sage advice' at this point, and a great suggestion on her part:
I had my barber pole set at 240-241, or somewhere like that. The plane redlines at close to 250, and @260 is pegging it:
View attachment 85684
(another rookie mistake: not having the "Reference" tab open in the shift-F10 window...)
Flying over mountains that reach over 11,000 feet, and me skimming them at 12-13-14,000 -that's just asking for trouble. No wonder I was getting those microbursts.
If I would have cut back my barber pole to say 200-210-220, my plane might have taken those wind hits much better, instead of pegging the airspeed indicator every time those wind blasts occurred.
No wonder I overstressed after four of those bursts. Stock weather or not, that's too much stress on any plane.
Anyhow, I will continue on as advised. It won't be tonight, but I will resume the event soon.
I have no problem accepting the penalty, nor did I have any problem having to redo the flight from Boeing Field if the commish felt it was necessary, for the integrity of the event.
Truth be told, I'm happy enough just to tag along and fly with you guys here.
It's been a great flight plan so far (even after just 'two legs in' for me), and the area we are in is simply amazing
scenery-wise to fly around in.
Thanks again Mike, and thanks again to the rules committee.