I’m curious what criteria you experienced pilots use to dropping back to VA for turbulence. Defining turbulence is pretty subjective and I’m curious if anybody has a working definition.

I use two techniques. If things are ‘trending’ rough, I know the trim and power settings that will get me VA. If all hell is breaking loose, power back and pitch up to bleed speed quickly then fiddle with it later.

It’s like that Supreme Court hustler case, but with turbulence

“I’ll know it when I see it”

Typically if it’s hard to adjust a heading bug, swap a freq, or write on my note pad it’s slow down time, or try a different altitude or course, if I’m having to make notable corrections on my controls to maintain course it’s VA time

But it’s all subjective to a degree, flying the work plane, what my company would call light to mod would make a delta crew secure their hats lol

In my own plane I’m seldom in a hurry and I unfortunately pay my own maintenance so I’m much faster to slow down or just land and get lunch

I clicked on this thread because I thought it was about Virginia. Oh well. My cruise speed is typically less than my planes maneuvering speed, so this isn't something I worry about.

In all seriousness, I pull the throttle when I get pissed. Usually, if the turbulence is enough to frustrate me, I slow it down. Or, when my two-year-old daughter yells "Dad, the airplane is too tippy!" Here in the high desert, it can be pretty turbulent over the sun-baked lava rocks so I tend to cruise high, lots of mountain wave around me as well. That's why I insisted on a turbo in the new bird, you have to be at 12,500-13,500 to clear mountain wave and turbulence around here a lot of the time.