ORD 12/29

[Iberia A340-600]

Well it certainly seems like the 29th was a popular day for spotting!

My mother had the MLA conference in Chicago this past week and my dad and I joined her for the trip. I was planning on having 1 day to spot at ORD and unfortunately the weather was looking grim for the duration of the trip. Finally on Saturday we rented a car, turned out to be a red PT Cruiser, and headed out to the airport on a cloudy cold day.

My main goal was to get a shot of the BMI A330-200 arrival from MAN and a shot of a United 747-400. ORD has 6 runways and has something interesting configurations going on at anyone time. Luckily for me they were using runway 27L, runway 27R, and runway 22R for arrivals. Earlier in the afternoon the international heavies were coming in on 27L which was where I was located. Unfortunately BMI went to 22R so that screwed the pooch. It appeared that most heavies were now going to 22R so I headed over to the Target near the approach however when I got there the heavies started going back to 27L.

This was the first spotting trip with the new scanner to that came in handy. Unfortunately the United heavies started using runway 27R so I was out of luck.

Here are the unfortunate shots from Saturday, it seems like I was the unlucky one with bad weather. These are my first shots edited on my new MacBook so sorry if the quality seems a little rough.

Happy New Year!

United 777-200 N773UA old colors
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k170/swfshots/n773ua.jpg

Lufthansa A340-600 D-AIHM
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k170/swfshots/daim346.jpg

Aeromexico 737-700 XA-VAM
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k170/swfshots/xacam73G.jpg

Delta 767-300 N144DA (Charter from MSY)
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k170/swfshots/N144DA.jpg

Comair CRJ-900 "30th"
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k170/swfshots/N695CA.jpg

American 757-200W N693AA
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k170/swfshots/N693AA.jpg

Fed Ex MD-11 N599FE
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k170/swfshots/N599FE.jpg

Iberia A340-300 EC-GHX
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k170/swfshots/ecghx.jpg

Alitalia 767-300 EI-CRO
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k170/swfshots/eicro763.jpg

Virgin Atlantic A340-300 G-VSEA
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k170/swfshots/gvsea.jpg

Air France A330-200 F-GCZI
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k170/swfshots/fgzci.jpg

BMI A330-200 G-WWBM
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k170/swfshots/bmi3322-1.jpg

[SengaB]

Nice shots Gordon,
Those angles brimg back momories good and bad about Chicago.
If I knew you were going to ORD I would have told you what runway to expect for what aircraft and what freqs to use.
Senga

[PhilDernerJr]

Though cloudy, the snow really helped light up the aircraft. Those shots came out great.

I like that 30th CRJ and the UA777 best. :)

[HLF_B737-8K5]

Nice shots I think.. even the weather wasn't on your side but I like them!

Welcome to the MacBook-Club ;-)

All the best for 2008 to all of you!!

Thanx a lot for your help in February as my 1st trip to NYC was mostly planed HERE!! ;-)

[MarkLawrence]

Great catch on the 30th anniversary CRJ!!!....good shots!

[AirtrafficController]

Really cool shots Gordon. The snow really makes the aircraft's white color stand out differently.

[lijk604]

Good stuff Gordon, makes me lament not owning a decent camera when I worked in Chicago.