Chicago area from the southwest - advice?

Courtesy car... yes.

But I don't think there is a single rental car place there... and with
good reason, it's undeniably one of the most depressing slums in
America.

Ron Natalie wrote:
Chad Speer wrote:
We're visiting friends who live in downtown Chicago next weekend and
I'm considering a few airports for our visit. Aside from lamenting
about the murder of Meigs (which would have been perfect, of course) or
suggesting a boycott, can anyone offer suggestions as to the best field
and FBO for the visit? We're flying an Archer, so fees and service to
the little guy are of interest.

Actually, as smelly as it sounds, Gary, IN has always been good
to us. Coming from the East it's the last thing before you
hit the big city. We've stopped their for fuel a few times
and have taken their courtesy car over to lunch (they have a
whole list of restaurants they give you with directions).
It's relatively easy to get into Chicago proper from there.

- Schaumburg would be my first choice for cheapest. Use mass transit. Make
sure the train schedules match your needs.

- Midway is the closest. I would choose Midway, if someone is going to pick
you up or you want to maximize your productive time on the ground. Good mass
transit access. Even with the fees, you will come out ahead by saving on car
rental.

- Gary is also a good choice for location but a little depressing. Rent a
car. You will get to experience all the glories of the Chicago area:
pollution, congestion, tolls, road construction, confusing highway
exchanges.

All of these airports are a 45 to 90 minute commute to Chicago.

IFR to Midway. VFR to Gary or Schaumburg. Coming in VFR from the SE, pass by
Gary but give them a call. They protect a very small airspace and will
probably suggest a Midway approach freq for advisories. Fly up the lakeshore
until the scenery gets boring. Then, turn around. 2500 feet, 1/2 mile or so
off shore.


-------------------------------
Travis
Lake N3094P
PWK

"Ron Natalie" wrote in message
...
Chad Speer wrote:
We're visiting friends who live in downtown Chicago next weekend and
I'm considering a few airports for our visit. Aside from lamenting
about the murder of Meigs (which would have been perfect, of course) or
suggesting a boycott, can anyone offer suggestions as to the best field
and FBO for the visit? We're flying an Archer, so fees and service to
the little guy are of interest.

Actually, as smelly as it sounds, Gary, IN has always been good
to us. Coming from the East it's the last thing before you
hit the big city. We've stopped their for fuel a few times
and have taken their courtesy car over to lunch (they have a
whole list of restaurants they give you with directions).
It's relatively easy to get into Chicago proper from there.

Not only that, but imagine that there is construction currently occurring to
remove many of the toll booths and install more high speed I-PASS lanes
which SOMEDAY will help solve the problem, but in the mean time makes it 10
times as bad.
Jim

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
Picture your typical rush hour crush in most major cities (excepting LA
or
NY) and this is what is normal for about 20 hours a day around the
Chigago
area. Now add another 40% more cars and then you have actual rush hour
in
Chicago. No lie, I've had it take over two hours to go from the Loop
out to
O'Hare...at 430 in the morning!!! Using the major surface streets can
actually work better if you are going from point a to point b and don't
mind
altering your route at will.

Jay, you forgot to add the following:

"Now picture stopping all 16 lanes of traffic every few miles to
collect a few coins from each car, causing epic traffic back-ups,
rather than simply increasing the local gas tax a penny."

And also:

"Now imagine that the occupants of this same city seem to enjoy arguing
about, and are simply baffled by, the "causes" of their traffic woes."

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
(Former Chicago Tribune Employee)
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On 29 Nov 2006 16:17:29 -0800, "Chad Speer"
wrote:

We're visiting friends who live in downtown Chicago next weekend and

Also, any comments on the advantages of IFR and VFR in the area are
appreciated. I usually file IFR, but I have no desire to get the
guided tour. :-)


Chicago has a ton of area airports, but if you are trying to fly
closest to downtown, there are really only 3 choices:
Palwaukee (PWK), OHare (ORD), and Midway (MDW).

ORD is, well ORD, one of the busiest airports in the world. I would
rule it out unless you are seeking out an adventure. I believe
arrival slots are required, and the landing fee is steep. I have
never flown there, so my comments are hearsay.

PWK is a nice airport, with nice FBOs, but it is still a long drive
from downtown, especially so in rush hour traffic (1hr).

Midway is the closest to downtown of the 3. It is probably also the
easiest to access when arriving from the SouthWest, so that is where I
would go.

I would call ahead to the FBOs (MillionAir?) to ask for latest fuel
price, landing fees, tiedown/overnight fees, and if any of these are
waived for purchasing fuel. Reading the airnav.com site, the charges
seem to be a point of contention. Either way, I would expect to
outlay for some combination of $5.00 fuel, $10.00 landing fee and $50
ramp fee.

MDW also is served by the Orange Line El Train so if your company gets
tied up, and you lose your ride, you could take the El train back to
MDW.

IFR. I have never flown IFR into MDW, but I do not think you will get
vectored too badly coming in from the SW. Do expect to get sent lower
(3000), probably as you near the Joliet VOR (JOT) or perhaps further
West. I would probably file to the JOTv, and then expect to get
vectors upon reaching JOT, or perhaps the CGTv.

VFR. If you are on flight-following, center will drop you around 30
miles West of the ORD Bravo. Chicago Approach for flight following
will be 119.35 in that area. There are a lot of MDW arrivals in that
area, so I always feel more comfortable with Approach calling out
traffic.

-Nathan

: Now, I'm definitely hoping to take a lake shore tour in the plane. It
: sounds ironically easy now that Meigs is closed. So much for security.
: Any helpful tips or local procedures for the tour?

I've flow along lakeshore transitioning between Gary and Milwaukee about a
dozen times or so. So long as you stay clear the Bravo, Chicago approach is
completely fine with you being there. I've used VFR flight following about half the
time and just squawked 1200 the other half. So long as you're prompt and professional
on the radio, they don't have any troubles with you.

Of course traffice is rather "compressed" in that small corridor, so looking
out for other VFR traffic is pretty important. The lake is at about 700' IIRC, and
the bottom of the Bravo is either 3000' or 1900', depending on where you are.

-Cory

--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss, Ph.D., PPSEL-IA *
* Electrical Engineering *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

Jay Honeck wrote:


"Now picture stopping all 16 lanes of traffic every few miles to
collect a few coins from each car, causing epic traffic back-ups,
rather than simply increasing the local gas tax a penny."

There is a funny folk duo from Madison that on the beginning
of one of their albums has a history of Wisconsin (involving
things like the expedition of Merriweather Lewis and Kimberly
Clark). The talk about the expedition realizing that they
had proceded south of out Wisconsin when their indian guides
stopped periodically to throw forty cents into the bushes.

Chad Speer wrote:
We're visiting friends who live in downtown Chicago next weekend and
I'm considering a few airports for our visit. Aside from lamenting
about the murder of Meigs (which would have been perfect, of course) or
suggesting a boycott, can anyone offer suggestions as to the best field
and FBO for the visit? We're flying an Archer, so fees and service to
the little guy are of interest.

Flew into KPWK (Formerly Palwaukee, now Chicago Executive) for the
Thanksgiving holiday Seems any time I try to make this trip IFR (I'm
based in Missouri) I always get routed from PLANO OBK KPWK, so keep
that in mind when planning your routing. I'm usually able to get
direct PLANO from pretty far back (SPI usually) so it's not too much of
a guided tour. By PLANO I'm below 4000 MSL, usually get 3000 shortly
thereafter, then 2500 until the ILS into PWK. You'll always get the
ILS into PWK due to O'Hare being very close to the south. If they are
landing north, you won't get a circling approach to 34, cancel IFR if
you can and you'l be able to circle around to 34.

FBO's at PWK seemed to have changed hands a few times. North American
Jet, became Trajen, which became Atlantic. Signature is also on the
field.

I called Atlantic to find out what overnight parking on the ramp would
cost for my Archer, when they quoted me $50/night!!! For a 4 night/5
day stay that was going to cost me more than the fuel to get there!
Obviously Atlantic only wants the bizjet crowd.

Signature was a more reasonable $10/night. For comparison sake,
Shaumburg (06C) quoted me $7/night. Fuel at Signature was a
reasonable (?) $4.50/gal with a $0.50 discount for a weekend takeoff.
Ramp fee of $25 was waived with 7 gals purchased.

Signature was great, gave me full service in all respects, even helping
by entertaining my little one (2 years old) and the family cat which
made the journey with us.

I would have flown into 06C, but I was going to be arriving after dark,
and 06C shuts down at 7pm. There are no instrument arrivals to 06C.
I read somewhere that you could do a arrival into KDPA and then scoot
over to 06C.

In my case, PWK vs 06C is about equal from my in-laws, so ground trip
for them is minimal. MDW is probably a good choice if your going
downtown, since the train is right there.

As to departures.....

Anybody know the secret from departing the chicago area to the
south/southwest? Departing from PWK, I've either been vectored almost
to Iowa and then south, or around Midway to the south, and then brought
back on course. In addition I was told this last time when picking up
my clearance (with a filed 4000 for strong southwest windws at
altitude) that they want you to fly 8000 with the palwaukee two
departure. I've usually been able to negotiate lower, but my
"negotiations" only seem to last till I get handed off to another
sector. As far away as I was from ORD and MDW you'd think lower but
still above the MVA would be better for them, but ATC system design is
still black magic for me.

If this last departure had been closer to VFR conditions, I'd have
probably departed VFR, to pick up my clearance further down the
road.... Maybe next time.

Brian

bdl wrote:
Signature was a more reasonable $10/night. For comparison sake,
Shaumburg (06C) quoted me $7/night. Fuel at Signature was a
reasonable (?) $4.50/gal with a $0.50 discount for a weekend takeoff.
Ramp fee of $25 was waived with 7 gals purchased.


The 0.50/gal discount was taken off of the $4.50/gal so it net'd to
$4/gal in the end. Should have made that clearer

"Ron Natalie" wrote in message
...
Jay Honeck wrote:


"Now picture stopping all 16 lanes of traffic every few miles to
collect a few coins from each car, causing epic traffic back-ups,
rather than simply increasing the local gas tax a penny."

There is a funny folk duo from Madison that on the beginning
of one of their albums has a history of Wisconsin (involving
things like the expedition of Merriweather Lewis and Kimberly
Clark). The talk about the expedition realizing that they
had proceded south of out Wisconsin when their indian guides
stopped periodically to throw forty cents into the bushes.

As a Great Lakes area native, the above description just has me rolling with
laughter...

Jay B

: There is a funny folk duo from Madison that on the beginning
: of one of their albums has a history of Wisconsin (involving
: things like the expedition of Merriweather Lewis and Kimberly
: Clark). The talk about the expedition realizing that they
: had proceded south of out Wisconsin when their indian guides
: stopped periodically to throw forty cents into the bushes.

: As a Great Lakes area native, the above description just has me rolling with
: laughter...

Having gone to graduate school in Champaign, IL and driven to the folks' in Milwaukee, WI a number of
times on I-39, I roll a bit myself at the truth...

-Cory

--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss, Ph.D., PPSEL-IA *
* Electrical Engineering *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************