VFR into ORD O'hare

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NotSure

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Not Sure
If I call up Chicago Approach VFR intending to land at O'Hare, are they not obligated to give me service?

A few weeks ago I was in Chicago with my Skyhawk, and was wanting to land at O'Hare (yes I know about the fees, but just one time I was willing to deal with it).

I called them up 5 times, frequency was a little busy but not overloaded, they would not acknowledge me. Gave up, dove under the shelf and landed at Schaumburg again. I like that place, but was wanting ORD.

I thought this "I Cant hear you" crap ended a few years ago, is this still the norm in Chicago?
 
NotSure said:
If I call up Chicago Approach VFR intending to land at O'Hare, are they not obligated to give me service?

A few weeks ago I was in Chicago with my Skyhawk, and was wanting to land at O'Hare (yes I know about the fees, but just one time I was willing to deal with it).

I called them up 5 times, frequency was a little busy but not overloaded, they would not acknowledge me. Gave up, dove under the shelf and landed at Schaumburg again. I like that place, but was wanting ORD.

I thought this "I Cant hear you" crap ended a few years ago, is this still the norm in Chicago?
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Come in from the North so they can land you on 27R. ..and get as close and low as you can ..before you call. That will make you as small of a impact to the flow as possible. If you can fly IFR or with someone that can that would really be the best way.
 
Or advise ground you want VFR flight following into ORD before you depart, more likely to get it that way.
 
NotSure said:
If I call up Chicago Approach VFR intending to land at O'Hare, are they not obligated to give me service?

A few weeks ago I was in Chicago with my Skyhawk, and was wanting to land at O'Hare (yes I know about the fees, but just one time I was willing to deal with it).

I called them up 5 times, frequency was a little busy but not overloaded, they would not acknowledge me. Gave up, dove under the shelf and landed at Schaumburg again. I like that place, but was wanting ORD.

I thought this "I Cant hear you" crap ended a few years ago, is this still the norm in Chicago?
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Chicago approach radios have difficulty hearing aircraft that weigh under 12,500lbs.
 
Easy solution: They can't hear you. YOU can't hear them.

--> "Understand. Cleared to land 27 left. Three-two Bravo."
 
Keep trying and speak more slowly each time. I bet they'll eventually respond when your tying up the frequency for 20 seconds at a time.
 
mikea said:
Easy solution: They can't hear you. YOU can't hear them.

--> "Understand. Cleared to land 27 left. Three-two Bravo."
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Mmm, yeah, let us know how well that works out for you. :)
 
Everyone seems to avoid Chicago,they have a reputation of not wanting to work smaller aircraft. Coming from OSH while listening to act it seemed no one was getting a handoff to Chicago. And people think NY is bad.
 
frfly172 said:
Everyone seems to avoid Chicago,they have a reputation of not wanting to work smaller aircraft. Coming from OSH while listening to act it seemed no one was getting a handoff to Chicago. And people think NY is bad.
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And things are actually better around OSH time as ChiApp will put on a couple of extra people to specifically work GA flight following.
 
frfly172 said:
Everyone seems to avoid Chicago,they have a reputation of not wanting to work smaller aircraft. Coming from OSH while listening to act it seemed no one was getting a handoff to Chicago. And people think NY is bad.
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I've rarely if ever had a problem with NY.
 
ScottM said:
Chicago approach radios have difficulty hearing aircraft that weigh under 12,500lbs.
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I hear this from others a lot, but I've never had flight following requests to chicago approach fall on deaf ears. I think most anyone should be fine so long as they don't call up as a Cirrus.
 
Flight following during Oshkosh is a bit different than flight following at any other time in that airspace.

I've flown through Chicago TRACON exactly once...and they were great. I called for flight following, then a Bravo transition along the shoreline, had no problems. The guy was moderately busy.
 
wsuffa said:
I've rarely if ever had a problem with NY.
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I like NY approach as well.

The only time I have had any issue is over on the NJ side (west side of the Bravo). Was on VFR following in what I thought was a sector that was not that busy. Nobody had said to advise if changing altitudes so I started to climb as the turbulence was bad. Controller came on and said "If you are going to climb in to the final for Newark I am not going to deal with you" and dropped me like a rock squawk 1200. I tried to talk him out of it and told him I would descend back down quickly but he wanted nothing to do with me. Makes no sense given that if I was truly in the "final" for Newark he would want to be talking to me. Oh well.... PHL approach was much nicer which is where I landed eventually.
 
Jeff,

That's pretty odd. Were you in the Bravo at the time you initiated the climb or were you in Class E?

In either case it's weird, because a) if you were in the Bravo, with a clnc, New York generally gives a hard altitude while in the Bravo (an exception being if your descending through it after a XC flight and are landing locally), or b) if you were in Class E, he shouldn't be telling you to descend before dropping you, he should just drop you if that's what he wants to do.

That said, N90 has a habit of assigning altitudes for VFR aircraft in Class E now that I think about it.
 
my friend who is a 777 check capt for American regularly fly's his personal 172 into LAX when he is going to work.
When he first told me about it, I questioned whether he was allowed to land at LAX, his response is that its a public airport and as long as you follow the rules its no problem.
Of course it doesn't hurt that he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the rules and doesn't let self important controllers get the better of him...I've been promised this ride soon.....
 
ferrari-tech said:
my friend who is a 777 check capt for American regularly fly's his personal 172 into LAX when he is going to work.
When he first told me about it, I questioned whether he was allowed to land at LAX, his response is that its a public airport and as long as you follow the rules its no problem.
Of course it doesn't hurt that he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the rules and doesn't let self important controllers get the better of him...I've been promised this ride soon.....
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True but for GA, LAX is a very different animal than ORD, particularly on the ground.

I fly GA into PHX all the time. I have zero desire to try ORD unless someone is paying me.
 
Much as I like to bash Chicago ATC you need to see the sky from their side of the mike during rush times.
Every landing slot on the inbound runways during push time has been bought and paid for by large commercial aircraft and the landing lights descending at 170 knots are now like stair steps in the sky and hitting the concrete one a minute. If you can't maintain 170 knots with gear and flaps deployed you have no business in the conga line.

Now comes the call: "Chicago, aaaaah Bug-Smasher-3-0-1-Really-Dense is aaaahhh 20 miles aaaaahhh South, uuuunh inbound aaaaahh landing"
Controller flicks a look at his list of scheduled flights inbound, you ain't there, glances at his supervisor who looks like a thunder head about to implode, and since your pop-up radio call is not a flight designator like AirAmerica Heavy 185 or Airforce One, decides he can't hear you.

You want the 'thrill' of having your wheels touch the concrete at ORD - do it at 2AM. - you won't be advised to "maintain 170 knots over the fence" and the controller might even want to chat.
 
I was just listening to ORD Final App and the controller is turning ten planes a minute (by actual count) at 6:50 AM.
If I were the controller I would not hear you either.
 
What Denny said.

Landing at Kansas City just for grins is one thing but Chicago? Really?

The landing fee should be how must jet A is wasted by airliners that are delayed.
 
In this months Flying magazine 'I Learned About Flying Fron That', there is a submission by a guy who flew into ORD with a 340. He regretted it.....all because of the ground ops.
 
Fearless Tower said:
In this months Flying magazine 'I Learned About Flying Fron That', there is a submission by a guy who flew into ORD with a 340. He regretted it.....all because of the ground ops.
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I just read that also, good article.....made me enjoy and appreciate listening the liveatc feeds from ORD and JFK even more.

There is one controller at Kennedy who routinely verbally smacks someone, every time he's on someone gets a talking to...generally a "what are you doing there" or "I told you left on XXX and hold on YYY, where are you going" LOL love it
 
coma24 said:
Jeff,

That's pretty odd. Were you in the Bravo at the time you initiated the climb or were you in Class E?

In either case it's weird, because a) if you were in the Bravo, with a clnc, New York generally gives a hard altitude while in the Bravo (an exception being if your descending through it after a XC flight and are landing locally), or b) if you were in Class E, he shouldn't be telling you to descend before dropping you, he should just drop you if that's what he wants to do.

That said, N90 has a habit of assigning altitudes for VFR aircraft in Class E now that I think about it.
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I think in my case he was just having a bad day or whatever...

I was in class E, and am used to having alts assigned from NY Approach. In this case there was no alt assignment and a quiet frequency on that side of the airspace.

He probably wanted to drop me, but of course hearing that I am climbing through a busy approach area and then being dropped left me with a bad taste for sure. Next time I am staying IFR :)
.
 
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