Anyone Else Fly in Chicago Center Airspace Today?

[Dave Piehler]

I was on an IFR flight plan with Minneapolis Center today, approaching Chicago Center airspace, when I was assigned a heading 30 degrees off direct.  Seems they needed to hand me off to an approach control, with a plan to give me a scenic tour to eventually get to my destination via Class C services.  Thank goodness for the massive High over the center of the US!  Squawk 1200, climb 500', call the Class C at my destination 40 miles out, and Bob's your uncle.  At my destination the ATIS announced that there was a ground stop on all IFR departures.  The charter pilots at the FBO were all trying to figure out Plan B.  What a mess!

 

Called LMFS at 1:15 LCL and they told me that there were still no IFRs.  Went home VFR (haven't done that in a while).

 

I'll bet this means new psychological tests for all FAA personnel (no jokes, please -- too easy).

 

Anyone else got a story to tell?

 

 

[Ned Gravel]

Heard about it on the news tonight. Apparently a disgruntled contact employee set a small fire in the basement of a building at O'Hare that shut down ATC for some time. Cancellations ruled.

Sent from my iPad

[Dave Piehler]

Flanders!

[DAVIDWH]

Are we close to the edge or what.  A small fire and complete chaos.

 

One little suit cased dirty bomb, not so soon. (Can you say decades?"

 

Flights returning to somewhat normal today.

[Ned Gravel]

So if you are pretty happy ... Does that make you a "gruntled" employee?

Yup. Work for myself. Get to practice servant leadership without the moronic influence caused by fear and self-loathing.

But that is just me.

[cliffy]

AHH Yes, Jumpseating, trying to get home. Seems I remember something about that from years ago when I had to do it :-) :-)

Actually flew a lot with the guy that signed the first jumpseat agreement in the industry at Eastern Airlines decades ago.

If the power grid ever goes down, everything will stop.

[Andy95W]

At around 5:00 P.M. Friday I flew about the 15th airplane to leave ORD after the fire. Stayed at 9,000 feet for a good long ways, then 13,000 until reaching Kansas City Center. Had to stay Tower Enroute Control to get out of Chicago Center airspace- like back in the '80's when the ar traffic controllers went on strike.

AHH Yes, Jumpseating, trying to get home. Seems I remember something about that from years ago when I had to do it :-) :-)Actually flew a lot with the guy that signed the first jumpseat agreement in the industry at Eastern Airlines decades ago.

Wow, Cliffy... that was a long time go... I'm gracefully stopping myself from asking exactly how long ago that actually was...

[alex]

It wasn't a small fire, the basement where the computers were stored was in flames... the massive amount of computer cables were all  melted...It will be at least three weeks to fix.