The tropical storm named Laura is likely going to become a hurricane in the Cat 1-3 range before it impacts in or near my bailiwick sometime near the middle of next week. This will be about a day after Marco hits in or near the same area. Still too early to tell where exactly they’re going within a couple hundred miles or how strong they’ll be when they get there. I mean, yesterday afternoon, they were saying I was was going to be between them. Last night, they were worried about Laura. This morning, they were worried about Marco. Tonight, they say both. IOW, they have no clue, as usual. Nothing to panic about–all this will certainly change 4 or 5 more times between now and then and will STILL be wrong right up until landfall. As these predictions always are. That’s “Hurricane Roulette” on the Gulf Coast. And if both hit me, I’ve seen worse.
Still, these storms are worth keeping an eye on and MSFS provides a means to do this. So this afternoon I took the opportunity to check out Laura, which was then just north of the east tip of Hispaniola. I welcome all reports on both Laura and Marco (which I plan to visit tomorrow). Hunting hurricanes is a popular sport already in MSFS–I saw plenty of folks in Live Players on the East US server–so feel free to add your own observations.
Anyway, when I went out hunting this evening, Laura was caressing eastern Hispaniola. So I took off from MDST Santiago-Cibao in the western Dominican Republic and flew through the bulk of the storm to TJSJ Luis Muñoz Marin in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Having been the other way with my pipeline pilot friend earlier today, I remembered there was clear air from 9k-11k and this still held true this evening, although the overcast was now patchy. Also, it was MUCH bumpier at that altitude this evening. El Grande Caravana, despite being nearly MTOW with fuel for ballast, was tossed around like a paper airplane. I think I busted altitude both above and below a dozen times each from the turbulence. ATC must have gotten tired of nagging me about that.
The initially filed altitude of 9k was too rough so we briefly went up to 11k where it was even worse, so finally went down to 7k where it was still quite bumpy but not as bad as higher up, and could still scrape over the mountains below. But as always on Sweatshop Airlines flights, the “No Smoking” light is NEVER on, even if the seatbelt light NEVER went off, which is most of the time. We find that smoking helps passengers in restraints chill, so they’re less likely to attack the flight crew 
As mentioned, I saw plenty of folks out also hunting this storm. So most of the pics that follow are mostly to record their names, some of which come from sources darker than my own nightmares. For example, one of the 1st folks I saw, once at cruise “enjoying” the turbulence, was this guy. That kinda set the stage for the rest of the characters in this untidy drama:
Not long thereafter, I had a brief Close Encounter of the Intimate Kind with the Monolith from “2001: A Space Oddity” Or was it from KSP? I forget… Or maybe it was because of the self-proclaimed hacker at 1 o’clock? Who knows?
From thenceforth, using the drone caused El Grande Caravana to enter is left spiral dive. Never had this problem before, so I blame the Monolith. Or the hacker. Or both.
Pretty soon, things started getting weirder. Like I noticed I was being stalked by a vampire, so I stayed in the sunshine as much as I could while the foul undead hugged the shadows.
As I reached Puerto Rico in the Golden Hour, I was met by a squadron of bons vivants also out enjoying the weather. Again, some imaginative names.
OK, that’s 2 folks with “■■■■” in their names just on this 2-hour trip. At least I can thank this 2nd person for giving me fair warning, and I hope your IBS clears up, but is that really how you want to be known to posterior—er, posterity?
TJSJ was pretty busy with yet more hunters. The AWOS said the wind was 173/25, my MFD said it was about 300/08, and I really didn’t notice much of anything–maybe they canceled each other out?
Anyway, just as my main gear started making contact with the pavement and the stall horn started up, Tower told me to go around. ■■■? There was nothing on the runway ahead so I said “Unable” and finished landing. I’ll be ■■■■■■ if I’ll take a “deadman’s wave-off” at the end of a perfect approach–they should have told me sooner if there was a problem, especially as I could clearly see I had the runway ahead all to myself. And if there was anything faster coming from behind, I couldn’t get out of its way regardless.
So I greased it in and exited the 1st high-speed taxiway to the left. Good thing I was able to because a split second before I started to turn off, a real traffic Bonanza spawned right in front of me and I only just missed it. And no sooner than i’d turned parallel to the runway on the adjacent taxiway than a 747 took off from behind me, barely clearing the Bonanza, apparently having spawned on the runway just after I crossed the threshold because it ain’t in the pic above. I felt like I was in an Airforceproud95 video 
And then the weirdest thing yet happened. As I was making my way to the GA parking between the runways, I got to see Outbreak 2PTO grease a perfect landing on the inactive runway right in front of me.
How this happened I have no idea. You can see this guy in several of the above pics. Sometimes he’s ahead, sometimes behind, sometimes higher, sometimes lower. I get the feeling he must have salvaged some UFO technology from the nearby Bermuda Triangle. But hurricanes always bring out the strangeness so I just roll with it 
