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Prepuce of Doom

Prepuce of Doom 21296

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Perhaps what I'm looking for doesn't exist, or perhaps I'm barking up the wrong tree in thinking that there's some publicly accessible repository of weather data from ORD. Maybe I need to be focusing on some kind of almanac, or consulting a local library. 

I can walk outside (or look out the window to see which way the planes are going) and figure out what direction the wind is currently coming from, but I'm trying to figure out what direction it most often comes from so that I can mount a birdhouse facing the opposite way. 

I'm trying to attract kestrels (which I guess can be challenging - I'm kind of flying blind here, as I have a five year old who is super into raptors and I'm just along for the ride), and apparently one of kestrels' primary domicile selection criteria is to have the opening face away from the wind. But even so, they can be hard to attract. One of the books says that you should give a box three full summers to attract guests before deciding that it's a bad location and moving it, and I would like to minimize the likelihood that it might take several years to put tenants in the box. 

The wind here is tremendously variable, thus my interest in finding actual data. 

Edited by Prepuce of Doom
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Best office in the world.  

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Bobby_Batronic

Bobby_Batronic 1994

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

Perhaps what I'm looking for doesn't exist, or perhaps I'm barking up the wrong tree in thinking that there's some publicly accessible repository of weather data from ORD. Maybe I need to be focusing on some kind of almanac, or consulting a local library. 

I can walk outside (or look out the window to see which way the planes are going) and figure out what direction the wind is currently coming from, but I'm trying to figure out what direction it most often comes from so that I can mount a birdhouse facing the opposite way. 

I'm trying to attract kestrels (which I guess can be challenging - I'm kind of flying blind here, as I have a five year old who is super into raptors and I'm just along for the ride), and apparently one of kestrels' primary domicile selection criteria is to have the opening face away from the wind. But even so, they can be hard to attract. One of the books says that you should give a box three full summers to attract guests before deciding that it's a bad location and moving it, and I would like to minimize the likelihood that it might take several years to put tenants in the box. 

The wind here is tremendously variable, thus my interest in finding actual data. 

ORD runways are East/West with two that run SW/NE. Also there’s a rather large body of water directly east of the city that probably creates some sea/land breeze effect. I haven’t noticed landing one direction or the other more prominently at ORD, MDW, PWK, UGN or DPA.

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Assman

Assman 1830

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22 hours ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

ORD runways are East/West with two that run SW/NE. Also there’s a rather large body of water directly east of the city that probably creates some sea/land breeze effect. I haven’t noticed landing one direction or the other more prominently at ORD, MDW, PWK, UGN or DPA.

I haven't been to ORD (yet), but I can say that I've never taken off or landed on 13 at MDW.  I know landing 13 never happens because it interferes with ORD traffic too much, but taking off 13 shouldn't be an issue but I've never done it.  @Your Mom has more experience though. 

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Bobby_Batronic

Bobby_Batronic 1994

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15 minutes ago, Assman said:

I haven't been to ORD (yet), but I can say that I've never taken off or landed on 13 at MDW.  I know landing 13 never happens because it interferes with ORD traffic too much, but taking off 13 shouldn't be an issue but I've never done it.  @Your Mom has more experience though. 

I have no recollection of departing on any of the 13’s at MDW now that you mention it. I’ve taken off on 31C countless times in heading free with all the metal in the ground playing merry hell with the AHRS. Looking at the plates I don’t see an obvious reason why other than perhaps landing south is best accommodated by the circle east (think it’s a RNAV now too) for a 22 arrival.

 

The finest ass chewing of my career happened when the primary fuel truck’s brakes failed at Signature MDW. The backup had to be filled with fuel and then service 6 airplanes before us. We were trying to get to DPA to pick up passengers and take them to Columbus for an Ohio State football game. They refused to come to MDW, it was IFR, and the plane had almost no extra fuel onboard for a repo. So, we were really late when all was said and done. Luckily, I was flying with the guy who was usually the Flight Operations Duty Manager up at the puzzle palace.  After getting my ass chewed by the owner/passenger who didn’t understand the issues at hand I sent my partner back to deal with him because it was going to end up on his desk anyway. I heard the ass chewing from the flight deck. My partner sat down, looked at me, and said “Yeah, that guys an asshat.” We turned in 15 minutes at MDW (aircraft limitation) and I saved 12 minutes of flight time by going low in the 30’s instead up climbing to the moronosphere. Didn’t matter to that guy. In the end he and his embarrassed by his actions family made the game.  They just missed brunch with their son who attended OSU.

Two of the biggest aholes I had to deal with were at MDW. The third was in CLE. I don’t think that’s a coincidence, and I don’t miss it a bit.

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Longhornmaniac8

Longhornmaniac8 255

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 1/2/2021 at 10:07 PM, Prepuce of Doom said:

Perhaps what I'm looking for doesn't exist, or perhaps I'm barking up the wrong tree in thinking that there's some publicly accessible repository of weather data from ORD. Maybe I need to be focusing on some kind of almanac, or consulting a local library. 

I can walk outside (or look out the window to see which way the planes are going) and figure out what direction the wind is currently coming from, but I'm trying to figure out what direction it most often comes from so that I can mount a birdhouse facing the opposite way. 

I'm trying to attract kestrels (which I guess can be challenging - I'm kind of flying blind here, as I have a five year old who is super into raptors and I'm just along for the ride), and apparently one of kestrels' primary domicile selection criteria is to have the opening face away from the wind. But even so, they can be hard to attract. One of the books says that you should give a box three full summers to attract guests before deciding that it's a bad location and moving it, and I would like to minimize the likelihood that it might take several years to put tenants in the box. 

The wind here is tremendously variable, thus my interest in finding actual data. 

I think this is what you're looking for. They're called a wind rose. Also used in airport planning.

https://www.isws.illinois.edu/statecli/Roses/wind_climatology.htm

Specifically: https://www.isws.illinois.edu/statecli/Roses/ord_rose_13.pdf

Winds look to average out of the W/SW predominantly. That jives with my experiences landing at ORD. I'd say putting  the birdhouses with them facing to the ENE would be a good bet.

Edited by Longhornmaniac8
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Shoxthemonkey

Shoxthemonkey 1995

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So, I keep Flightradar24 up on one of my monitors all the time. I glanced over and saw that 2 planes were forming one blob directly over my hometown. I pulled up the data and saw that one was at 38,000 ft and the other at 36,000 ft. It appeared that their paths had to cross within less than 2 miles. By the time I got out of my office and looked to the west they were already separated by a good margin. @Bobby_Batronic@DaysOff or any of the Surly pilot mafia, was that closer than normal or common as hell?

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Bobby_Batronic

Bobby_Batronic 1994

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On 1/22/2021 at 10:34 AM, Shoxthemonkey said:

So, I keep Flightradar24 up on one of my monitors all the time. I glanced over and saw that 2 planes were forming one blob directly over my hometown. I pulled up the data and saw that one was at 38,000 ft and the other at 36,000 ft. It appeared that their paths had to cross within less than 2 miles. By the time I got out of my office and looked to the west they were already separated by a good margin. @Bobby_Batronic@DaysOff or any of the Surly pilot mafia, was that closer than normal or common as hell?

Common as hell. 

Even altitudes are for westbound aircraft (180-359 degree course). Odd altitudes are for Eastbound aircraft (000-179 degree course). So it is not uncommon to have opposite direction traffic pass directly under or over you by 1,000 feet. Kinda exciting when a 747 buzzes by that close. All the planes are flying the same altimeter setting above 18,000 feet so that everyone is flying the same pressure level, and no altimetry errors occur. There’s also some other rules involved in this airspace called RVSM (reduced vertical separation minimum).

Above 41,000 aircraft must be separated by 2,000 feet vertically. So Eastbound altitudes are 41,000, 45,000 and so forth while west is 43,000, and 47,000. Everyone is flying a pressure level above 18,000 feet so we refer to them as flight levels and 36,000 feet would be called FL360. 

Above FL410 traffic is fairly sparse and you can talk ATC into letting you fly an altitude that is wrong for direction of flight such as maybe heading East at FL430. 

When you’re really high up in the mid 40’s traffic often appears to be above you before it goes under you due to the curvature of the earth. 

Hope that helps. 

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Assman

Assman 1830

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On 1/23/2021 at 8:12 PM, Bobby_Batronic said:

Common as hell. 

Even altitudes are for westbound aircraft (180-359 degree course). Odd altitudes are for Eastbound aircraft (000-179 degree course). So it is not uncommon to have opposite direction traffic pass directly under or over you by 1,000 feet. Kinda exciting when a 747 buzzes by that close. All the planes are flying the same altimeter setting above 18,000 feet so that everyone is flying the same pressure level, and no altimetry errors occur. There’s also some other rules involved in this airspace called RVSM (reduced vertical separation minimum).

Above 41,000 aircraft must be separated by 2,000 feet vertically. So Eastbound altitudes are 41,000, 45,000 and so forth while west is 43,000, and 47,000. Everyone is flying a pressure level above 18,000 feet so we refer to them as flight levels and 36,000 feet would be called FL360. 

Above FL410 traffic is fairly sparse and you can talk ATC into letting you fly an altitude that is wrong for direction of flight such as maybe heading East at FL430. 

When you’re really high up in the mid 40’s traffic often appears to be above you before it goes under you due to the curvature of the earth. 

Hope that helps. 

Show off

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Bobby_Batronic

Bobby_Batronic 1994

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7 minutes ago, Assman said:

Show off

Well, my current ride tops out at 39,800. The private jet went a lot higher,  but I’ve yet to clean a turd, stock a drawer, vacuum and wipe the seats and tables, throw bags or get a rolling rest wake up call in the Airbus. 

You at least can turn off two motors and still have extra motors to keep flying. 

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Armybrat

Armybrat 41448

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On 1/23/2021 at 8:12 PM, Bobby_Batronic said:

Common as hell. 

Even altitudes are for westbound aircraft (180-359 degree course). Odd altitudes are for Eastbound aircraft (000-179 degree course). So it is not uncommon to have opposite direction traffic pass directly under or over you by 1,000 feet. Kinda exciting when a 747 buzzes by that close. All the planes are flying the same altimeter setting above 18,000 feet so that everyone is flying the same pressure level, and no altimetry errors occur. There’s also some other rules involved in this airspace called RVSM (reduced vertical separation minimum).

Above 41,000 aircraft must be separated by 2,000 feet vertically. So Eastbound altitudes are 41,000, 45,000 and so forth while west is 43,000, and 47,000. Everyone is flying a pressure level above 18,000 feet so we refer to them as flight levels and 36,000 feet would be called FL360. 

Above FL410 traffic is fairly sparse and you can talk ATC into letting you fly an altitude that is wrong for direction of flight such as maybe heading East at FL430. 

When you’re really high up in the mid 40’s traffic often appears to be above you before it goes under you due to the curvature of the earth. 

Hope that helps. 

Always fun flying back & forth to Lss Vegas to see another flight zipping by in the opposite direction a few thousand feet below. 

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Bobby_Batronic

Bobby_Batronic 1994

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1 hour ago, Armybrat said:

Always fun flying back & forth to Lss Vegas to see another flight zipping by in the opposite direction a few thousand feet below. 

We were headed to LAX the other day watching another bus below us headed to LAS. He was either not RVSM approved for a maintenance deferral or the like, or he was sightseeing he Grand Canyon because he was in the low 20’s (if that high) nearly 300 miles out from Vegas. 

The view was probably spectacular. 

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markstanco

markstanco 12808

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Always fun flying back & forth to Lss Vegas to see another flight zipping by in the opposite direction a few thousand feet below. 
About 4 years ago I caught a ride on a lear 45xr to north Carolina. I told the pilots if there was anything cool happening to come get me.

Midway through the flight he told me we were about to pass another lear just below us. Good Lord it was mind blowing with us doing 475 kts and the other doing similar. It happens fast.
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markstanco

markstanco 12808

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Posted
4 hours ago, Upgrayedd said:

I need to check out flightradar24.  I've always used Flightaware.  Is 24 more better?

I installed one of their antennas at our club years ago.  By doing so we got a $500 per year free business plan.  Had to take it down, so lost it but I still like their layout better. Also, I think they likely have significantly more local antennas for better tracking of low level flights. Just a hunch though. 

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BTW

BTW 370

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Posted

Finally got my high performance and complex endorsements this morning.  I've had my PPL ticket for about two and a half years and was in need of access to a hp/complex plane to fly.  Recently though, I've gotten the opportunity to use an A36 bonanza on a dry hourly rate and knocked it out.

I've gotta say, the Bo really scoots compared the C172 I had been flying around.  It turns out it also falls out of the sky when you pull the power ... so that was sobering.  Also, hand cranking the gear down is a real son-of-a-bitch. 

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Scooter Monzingo

Scooter Monzingo 821

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On 1/23/2021 at 9:12 PM, Bobby_Batronic said:

Common as hell. 

Even altitudes are for westbound aircraft (180-359 degree course). Odd altitudes are for Eastbound aircraft (000-179 degree course). So it is not uncommon to have opposite direction traffic pass directly under or over you by 1,000 feet. Kinda exciting when a 747 buzzes by that close. All the planes are flying the same altimeter setting above 18,000 feet so that everyone is flying the same pressure level, and no altimetry errors occur. There’s also some other rules involved in this airspace called RVSM (reduced vertical separation minimum).

Above 41,000 aircraft must be separated by 2,000 feet vertically. So Eastbound altitudes are 41,000, 45,000 and so forth while west is 43,000, and 47,000. Everyone is flying a pressure level above 18,000 feet so we refer to them as flight levels and 36,000 feet would be called FL360. 

Above FL410 traffic is fairly sparse and you can talk ATC into letting you fly an altitude that is wrong for direction of flight such as maybe heading East at FL430. 

When you’re really high up in the mid 40’s traffic often appears to be above you before it goes under you due to the curvature of the earth. 

Hope that helps. 

You made that easy to understand, and interesting. I don’t fly, I just like reading about those that do. 

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BTW

BTW 370

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I had heard that insurance rates for pilots have gone on quite the run lately, but damn ...

I just had Assured Partners (AOPA) tell me that I'm uninsurable in a PA-46.  It looks like I can get insurance in a bonanza, but it's gonna be like $15k in premium, with a high deductible.  Someone convince me not to just roll without insurance?   Thanks mostly to the Surly $tonks thread, I'm paying cash for the plane, so my exposure would mostly be liability, and if I kill/hurt someone with my plane, I'll have much bigger problems than how to pay for the damages.

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markstanco

markstanco 12808

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Just 100 hours, no incidents. Wanting to do my instrument training in my own plane, lack of insurance options is making that difficult.
100 hours is the balk. You can always do some couch flying over the next year for better rates. Hell, you may be near 300 hours in December.

We had a C6-300 in our club for a while. The magical number for the insurance was 200+ to fly it.
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Bobby_Batronic

Bobby_Batronic 1994

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Posted
21 hours ago, Armybrat said:

Demise of the LearJet line

https://www.bloombergquint.com/onweb/learjet-s-fall-from-luxe-to-loser-reflects-rising-bar-for-swank

The Phenom and Legacy products took away the Lear’s niche. The Phenom is cheaper and goes farther with the same pax load (but is slower than molasses), and the Legacy 450-550 is darn near a Challenger 300 for not much more than Lear 75 prices. 

Once the Lear 85 was shelved the end was inevitable. 

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