Visiting the Chicago TRACON (Video)

Martin Pauly

Martin Pauly

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Martin Pauly
Just before Oshkosh, my friend Matt and I had an invitation from the FAA to visit the Chicago TRACON in Elgin, IL - and bring the cameras. We got a nice tour of the facility and then sat down with a controller and the district general manager for a discussion and Q&A.

The radar room was so very dark that only one of my cameras was working, and even that one was marginal most of the time. So please forgive the image quality in this video. It's a bit on the long side, but I hope pilots will find some interesting and helpful information in it.

- Martin

 
Very cool. Thanks for sharing!

I gotta say, my experience with meeting some of the Chicago TRACON controllers was just a little bit different. :p
 
It’s a good video! My invitation for local pilots to come visit still stands, but this is a great intro to the facility and anyone based near Chicago can appreciate the information.
 
Jmcmanna said:
It’s a good video! My invitation for local pilots to come visit still stands, but this is a great intro to the facility and anyone based near Chicago can appreciate the information.
Click to expand...

I was surprised to see full strips. I take it the strip printers nowadays don’t have the perforations to tear off the right half.
 
The only time I have seen the strips tear-able in half is when they were loaded upside down in the printer. They have perforations between them. If you flip them over, they have a black like on each trip which tells the printer where to separate them...so if you load them upside down, the printer cuts them halfway between the perforations. I didn’t realize anywhere did this, but I have only worked in a couple of ATC facilities.
 
I'm based at UGN and found this video very informative. Thanks for sharing and asking those questions about what they want from us as pilots.
 
Part II is finally done - the visit to DuPage Tower.
Similar format: we got to spend some time in the tower cab, and then chatted with controllers in a conference room.

Enjoy!

 
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