The Real Chicago "Skyway"
On Saturday, September 18th, I made a flight up the Chicago lakefront that all pilots from the Chicago area feel obligated to make at least once in their lives. The weather and TFRs were finally cooperating, so my friend Wyan and I decided to pile into the 152 and make the trip. Before setting out from 1C5, we stopped off at the FBO to pick up the latest Chicago terminal chart. Mine was so old it still had Meigs Field on it, so I figured a new one was in order.
We flew southeast, past Lewis University Airport, to I-80, then followed it East to Lansing Airport. North of Lansing there is a small gap between Midway's class C and Gary's class D airspace, which runs North to the lake front. I contacted Gary tower, just in case I grazed their airspace. They cleared us through and gave us traffic advisories. Once we were over the lake, they instructed us to contact O'Hare approach for further advisories, which we did.
O'Hare gave us a squawk code and asked our type aircraft, and destination. I informed them we were a 152 on a sightseeing trip and that we would proceed as far North as Montrose harbor, then turn around and head South. Flying up the lakefront, we passed the University of Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry, Soldier Field, the Museum Campus, and Navy Pier. Unfortunately, we also saw what was left of Meigs Field -just grass with a few walking trails. We almost didn't notice it at all.
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| the Sears Tower |
When we turned around to head South, Wyan was able to take some great photos with his digital camera. On the way back, O'Hare handed us off to Gary tower again, and they cleared us through to the South. Once over Lansing, we returned to Clow the way we had come.
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| Navy Pier |
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