PA46 pilot at FL260 reports detecting convective activity using on board radar when none was forecas...

Attributes
ACN	1159263
Time
Date	201403
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZDV.ARTCC
State Reference	CO
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PA-46 Malibu Meridian
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 45 Flight Crew Total 2500 Flight Crew Type 1100
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

Narrative:

I was flying over denver then over the rockies in the early afternoon. We were at FL260. Our briefing gave us no suggestion of convective activity. On the weather datalink there was no suggestion of convection. Yet on my onboard radar there were buildups in front of me that suggested significant convective activity. We were IMC. The tops were around FL280. I asked for this to get over the cloud cover and visually avoid any convective activity. We broke out at FL280 and continued on our route west. The activity was below us. We were able to stay out of significant weather by climbing to FL280. Our limitations on the aircraft are a maximum altitude of FL270. Due to the confusion between our radar and the data link I felt it was appropriate to climb above the weather for safety reasons. When the tops were appropriate we descended to FL260. This was exceeding the aircraft limitations for safety reasons. The plane is capable of flight at this level without damage.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PA46 pilot at FL260 reports detecting convective activity using on board Radar when none was forecast nor was it being displayed by weather datalink [Nexrad]. The decision is made to climb to FL280; out of IMC to visually avoid the cells; which is above the designed service ceiling for the PA46.

Narrative: I was flying over Denver then over the Rockies in the early afternoon. We were at FL260. Our briefing gave us no suggestion of convective activity. On the weather Datalink there was no suggestion of convection. Yet on my onboard radar there were buildups in front of me that suggested significant convective activity. We were IMC. The tops were around FL280. I asked for this to get over the cloud cover and visually avoid any convective activity. We broke out at FL280 and continued on our route west. The activity was below us. We were able to stay out of significant weather by climbing to FL280. Our limitations on the aircraft are a maximum altitude of FL270. Due to the confusion between our radar and the data link I felt it was appropriate to climb above the weather for safety reasons. When the tops were appropriate we descended to FL260. This was exceeding the aircraft limitations for safety reasons. The plane is capable of flight at this level without damage.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

PA46 pilot at FL260 reports detecting convective activity using on board radar when none was forecast nor was it being displayed by weather datalink [nexrad]. The decision is made to climb to FL280; out of IMC to visually avoid the cells; which is above the designed service ceiling for the PA46.