A Nutters Flight to Chicago O'Hare...........

Saturday morning (at least for me) slowly faded into the afternoon and after a Facebook message to the group, the planning stages began for a trip from Orlando (KMCO) to Chicago O'Hare Airport (KORD).  Danish was lucky enough to pick O'Hare Airport as our destination where as luck would have it, there was an event scheduled to begin at 2359 Zulu.  A few of the folks had already completed earlier flights and since my weekend was coming to a close with a botched arrival the previous evening during the FNO event with Oakland ARTCC, I was ready to redeem myself.  I was determined to figure out my issue with the Airbus A321 and flying into a busy event was a good way to sort my issues (most likely pilot induced but more on that later).  A quick trip to FlightAware provided a real world flight plan and each of us began to prepare for the flight.

We populated our respective gates at KMCO, Airside 3, and after being convinced to ditch the automated checklists with the F/O with the Aerosoft Airbus series, I quickly downloaded an Airbus checklist and started to prep for the flight.  Now granted, I also own the BlackBox Widebody Airbus series which has provided the opportunity to fly the larger variants without an automated F/O.  Having said that, I believe Aerosoft did a great job adding a virtual F/O that assists with operating the aircraft and working through the checklists during the flight.  It adds to the realism and provides some much needed help in a busy, terminal environment.  I'm also a big fan of FS2Crew with some of my other add-ons and again, it brings realism to the flight deck.

The cockpit preparation was completed and the virtual bags and passengers began to show up for the ride  which would take place on an Airbus A321.  American Airlines (AAL) 54 was my call sign for the flight and today's flight would have 170 virtual souls on board.  The VATSIM network was beginning to pick up with on-line controllers and a quick call from each of us to Jacksonville Center had our IFR clearances obtained.  The flight plans were entered into our respective FMC's/MCDU's and we would be departing 18L via the MCCOY 1 with the Savannah (SVH) transition to the north.  I entered the necessary data into my Airbus take-off performance calculator which calculated the Vspeeds along with an engine flex temperature.  Before long, the passengers and bags were on board, the doors were locked, and the jetway was retracting from the side door.  A call to the ground crew via the intercom began preparations for push-back as the APU came to life.  I slowly pushed back from gate 55 as Mr. Graham began his push from gate 57.  Engine # 2 and # 1 were respectively started and came to life as the push back truck slowed to a stop on the center line, completing the push back.  Danish and Mr. James also began to push back from their respective gates and final preparations and taxi checklists were completed.   

A conga line was quickly formed as each of us exited Airside 3 and made our way down taxiway C to holding point B1 for 18L.  Danish was the first to line up and depart 18L and the surrounding skies were covered in beautiful "cloudai" which allowed for some great screenshots during the departure.  The MCCOY1 departure would be a well choreographed departure handled by Mr. Jacksonville Center.  Another kudos to the controllers in the VATSIM world and the controller for Jacksonville Center did a great job handling inbound flights, outbound flights, departures, landings, clearances...all while keeping things in order. 

I was # 4 in the departure order and soon we were each climbing to our respective cruise altitudes while being provided headings and "direct to" waypoints to continue the MCCOY1 departure to the north.  The climbout was fairly uneventful and this flight provided some beautiful visuals along the eastern coast, thanks to Orbx's Vector + the North America openLC.  As I reached my cruise altitude, we settled into an organized track and we transitioned to Atlanta Center and as luck would have it, it is was time to start changing cruise speeds for spacing.  After a short time at Mach .74, the spacing was properly established and I was back to Mach .78 which kept me far enough behind Mr. Graham but also allowed me to keep a visual with his contrails.

 The setting sun slowly made its way behind the clouds and the evening sky was upon us.  We were a little early for the event at O'Hare and after leaving Indianapolis Center's control area, we were switched over to unicom since Chicago Center had not gone live.  The various positions began to populate at KORD and it was time to program the necessary information for the descent and the checklist was completed. Each Nutter reached their respective TOD points and we began the ride down via the WATSN 3 RNAV arrival for a westerly runway.  Chicago Center came on line as we each continued our descents and the radio traffic was beginning to pick up as flights from various locations were arriving into Chicago airspace.  The Chicago controllers handled the traffic in a very organized fashion as each of us was handed off to the approach controller and directions to intercept the localizer for the ILS 27L approach.  The final checks were made for my aircraft and the other Nutters were touching down and vacating 27L while I enjoyed the view of the Chicago Sky Line (after looking at my screenshots, I discovered that I did not have my openLC lights activated so that was a bummer-the new night lighting is very well done courtesy of Orbx).  While on approach, I experienced an issue similar one to the prior evening while flying in the FNO into KSFO.  I noticed that the set altitude was not  holding after reaching it with theV/S (vertical speed mode) mode on the main panel.  I was able to rectify the problem by removing the V/S mode and I'm thinking this is what happened the prior evening.  Anyway, with the problem rectified, the runway was clearly in sight and I was able to land my A321 and I exited the runway to the left onto taxiway "bravo."  A frequency switch to ground had me taxiing to my gate of choice and tonight, O'Hare also had a staffed ramp frequency for guiding aircraft into the ramp area.  This was a welcomed addition and added to the immersion at the termination point of my flight.  AAL 54 was parked at the gate and as the jetway attached, the respective doors were opened and the ground crew began removing the bags as passengers moved onto the jetway.  Another great group flight had come to an end and thanks to the Chicago ARTCC for hosting a fun event.   

The view from Mr. Graham's flight deck (openLC lighting activated)