Flying Today - ORD-->ATL

[TraderDude]

I have my flight from ORD to ATL today. It's a little cloudy in Chicago today, but it doesn't look bad enough to cause significant delays.

I checked FlightAware and here is a flight already en route this morning from ORD to ATL.
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/3989/ordatlhm9.th.gif (http://img86.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ordatlhm9.gif)

It appears there are some storms in central Illinois that he is going around. Looks like he is awfully close to them, but in reality, it's probably not that close. Scheduled flying time is only 1:30, so hopefully the little detour doesn't add a lot of time.

Not looking forward to it, but at least it's only an hour and a half. If anyone is available to track, its AA2411. I'll try to post a trip report when I arrive.

[Passenger Mark]

Dude,

Have a great flight. Storms are no big deal... as you can see they just go around them. Ray says they are like big trees in the road that move slow. You just steer around them!

And do post a trip report on your return!

Mark

[TraderDude]

I'm here at the airport. Got here at 11AM for a 1:40pm flight figuring security might take a while. Through in 10 minutes....only to find my flight delayed until 2:48. Weather between ORD and ATL looking a little worse. Maybe that's the reason for the delays. Seems all ORD flights to and from ATL are delayed.

Anyways, used my anxiety as an excuse to indulge in my bi-annual meal at McDonalds. Now just have a lot of time to kill.

Here's the flight that just left (i just missed getting on it) . Does the weather look bad?

http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/4785/ordatlto4.th.png (http://img363.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ordatlto4.png)

Seems like we will have to go east to go around the storms.

[Barb-SAN]

http://map4.flightaware.com/airport_map.rvt?ident=KORD;key=3fc779f0f530f70acb2 933990b1bca62d4a899ab;keytime=1155925752;height=60 0;width=800;keyv2=7b109f8fa2538b9ccc5e115299cd6415 927ad9a2

Well, Dang...where did my picture go? It was there a minute ago!!

[Barb-SAN]

Trader Dude...

If you really want to get the "big picture" of what's happening in the air while you are waiting...check out FlightAware's "Airport Activity" for ORD. I posted this by using "copy and paste", which gives a bigger picture than doing a screen shot, and then posting it as an attachment. (I'm slowly learning the computer tricks for posting!!).

Hope you have a good flight...and figure if there are delays, it probably means they are waiting for that storm to move out of the area, and it means eventually you will have a smoother flight!

:bigplane:

[Barb-SAN]

O.K., Here's the "big picture" using a screen shot, and saving it, and posting it as an attachment...which better work! You can at least see the traffic flow of planes into and out of ORD, a holding pattern to the NW (there were more planes circling there in the first shot I posted, which disappeared), and where the storm cells are.