Two Pilots & an LSW: Chicago Life

There was a lot of fog this morning. 1/4 mile and fog, not enough to get back in if you had a problem. So my first step was to find a takeoff alternate, something close enough by that I could get back into if I had an emergency or problem. Fortunately for me, it was severe clear in Indy, which isn't far, and at least at minimums at Exec which is a hop and skip over in the Conquest. So I had a plan.

I researched the Chicago Midway trip more than I've researched about any other trip in a very long time. It's busy, it's high paced, it's the 2nd busiest airport in Chicago after O'Hare, and it's not something to be slack on. I figured out the winds, what runway I was likely to be using, looked up the two arrivals and figured out which one was most likely. Figured out how to get from the runway to my FBO, Atlantic, because the ground operations are almost harder than the flight operations. Maybe ARE harder. Single pilot, you talk, fly, and look at your map all at the same time, while writing down a string of instructions they give you. And it's only a 35 minute flight, so it all happens really fast. Of course they change the runway flows, change my arrival, and give me an ILS approach which I can't do in that plane, but it's fine because I decide I'll pull up the localizer than switch it to the RNAV for that runway when on course because it's VFR anyway. Except you can't, so I end up doing a visual and without the glideslope on the ILS. It's fine. They asked if I could keep up 200 kts and I said sure, so I came barreling in, with Southwest airlines on my tail to land right behind me. ;) The view coming in to land is great. A square of concrete runways surrounded by buildings 100%, and the skyline and the lake right behind it. But I'm not talented enough to do everything I was doing and take a picture at the same time on this one. At least not and be smart or safe about it. Too busy. Oh well, so it goes. ;)

I dressed up today. The passenger I'm flying is always very nicely dressed, and thus far I have stuck with my jeans and t-shirt attire, which doesn't much matter when I'm flying him to a vacation in Tennessee at a little private strip. However, going into Midway is a little different. So I dressed up like a professional pilot today, and it was 100% the right call as I went in there. Again, if I was just me going in there, with Steve, or me and Ethan, or Nathan, it wouldn't matter. This time it kinda did, and I was glad I'd thought to do it.

There I am sitting in Chicago Midway’s Atlantic FBO in the kitchen area, and a man walks in and says “Laura Stants. What are you doing here?” I do not recognize this man at all. He doesn’t give me his name. He is chatting in a familiar way. He tells me he's seen how busy I've been, which tells me he must be a Facebook friend. He sets his bag down, and his bag has a business tag on it with his name on it but I can’t read it from here. I take out my phone and surreptitiously take a photo of it so I can zoom in and read his name. Then I went to FB and plugged his name in and pulled up his page, all while we’re talking, and THEN I figure out who he is. And I was able to drop hints and open conversation about his stuff so he knew I knew who he was, all without having to admit I didn’t know who he was. :D But really, I'd met him in person one time, and we'd done an air-to-air, I didn't even really see him on the ground! How on earth was I supposed to recognize him??

The new hiring frenzies in aviation must have totally left a lot of rookies out here. I didn’t expect Chicago Midway to be full of rookies, but here we are. There is an entire room chock full of young white-shirted jet pilots sitting in chairs who all decided they wanted to eat lunch at 11:45-noon. Too late, suckers. By that time there were no cars left because people like me went out there at 10:45-11 and got one, to drive around for a bit, eat a nice leisurely lunch, and be back shortly, while they’re now discussing Uber Eats (not available at the moment) or Door Dash instead. If you wait until noon to go eat when there are 4 cars and 30 pilots there, you're gonna miss out. Go early and get brunch, while there are still cars. Rookies. ;)

The pilot lounge WAS stocked full of white shirted pilots all sitting in all the chairs watching Fox News in silence. I hate stuffed pilot lounges. So I sat in the kitchen area at a table with some coffee which is where I ran into the guy who knew me. Later I sat out in the main waiting area, with a full view of the skyline, all the jets taking off and landing, and a lot of sunshine. Rather than being trapped in a small room with a lot of people all feeling silent and awkward, or complaining with their buddy about their schedules, or listening to their own phone movie/video loudly no matter that other people are there too. Put in earbuds. I am definitely an introvert.

Today the President came to Chicago. The TFR was supposed to start at 3:15. I told my guy it would be best if we were out of here by then. He made it back by 2, and as we were leaving, parking lots were sealed off, black SUVs were all over, Secret Service was crawling all over, they weren't letting people in specific areas, and it was about to get real. I was glad to get out first. Chicago is a big enough pain without dealing with that too.

One of my controllers had a good sense of humor though. When they totally switched around my clearance, they sent me to a waypoint I wasn't sure of so I asked for the spelling. He comes back with "Oh man, I didn't know there'd be a spelling bee!" He then read it to me, and I was laughing as I said "Got it, thanks". It was early in the morning, they were still friendly then. ;)

When I got back to Frankfort, drove home, got Ann's dinner and meds, which is becoming more of a challenge, changed my clothes back to my normal comfortable attire, fed the cat, then went back out to Kokomo Airport to fly for almost 2 hours with Morgan working on her CFII, so instrument approaches. VOR, ILS, and RNAV, plus holds. Got home after 8, after the sun went down, over 12 hours after I left this morning. Kind of a long day, but not a bad one.

No news on the kid, the cat, or the spouse. Just daily life.