O’Hare Airport’s New Runway Means Busy Skies Over 60646

By: Markus Azadeh • January 21st, 2009 • Filed Under • Print This Print This

If you happen to live in North Edgebrook, or Wildwood, you may have noticed that just a couple of days before the last Thanksgiving holidays, airplanes headed for a landing at Chicago’s O’Hare airport were flying right over Touhy Ave. It seemed strange to me at the time, because aircraft approaching the airport from the east typically line up over the I 90 expressway in two rows to land at runways 9R/27L (north of the terminals) and 10/28 (south of the terminals). This would all happen well south of Wildwood and North Edgebrook, although we would be able to see these planes on their final approach, from our homes. It turns out that just before Thanksgiving, a new runway dubbed 9L/27R was opened at O’Hare by the City of Chicago. This runway is located north of and parallel to runway 9R/27L, and is the recipient of all landing airplanes that you see flying over your homes in Wildwood and North Edgebrook.O'Hare Airport Map

The noise, in my opinion, is somewhat bearable, although sometimes air traffic controllers squeeze in big jumbo aircraft diagonally into the landing path which then leaves me standing in my driveway, staring at a 747 jet passing right over my house. Those are the moments when I rediscover religion, and pray that the roaming flock of seagulls having lunch in the Costco parking lot behind my residence decides to stay down a little while longer (visions of a US Air jet in the Hudson River resurface). Incidentally, this tight threading of aircraft into the landing path also reminds me of the movie “Pushing Tin“.

Our neighbors over in Edison Park, on the other hand, are miserable. And so are their neighbors to the west in Park Ridge, because they can almost touch the planes’ landing gear, standing in their back yards. Imagine the noise. And of course, we’re all affected by the jet exhaust pollution. Btw, Matt Tooley, an Edison Park resident, and operator of the “Stop O’Hare Airport Expansion” blog has asked me to let you know about O’Hare Residents for Environmental Safety and Trust (ORD-REST), “a community action group focused on finding solutions to the effects of new and increased noise and environmental pollution in the established, historic residential communities bordering Chicago O’Hare International Airport”. Check it out.

Meanwhile, check out the short video clip that I shot from my backyard. Matt has a few video clips of his own, from Edison Park.

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There are 6 social media / blog comments thus far to “O’Hare Airport’s New Runway Means Busy Skies Over 60646”

  1. Nick & Erin says:
    May 9, 2009 at 9:14 am

    We just found this posting and wanted to comment. It’s now May, and in Gladstone Park, which is not directly impacted by the new runway, but rather an existing one, we’ve noticed that landings now fly over our house every day, rather than the every few days it has been in the past. Something has changed at Ohare and the patterns are now more constant and predictable. Every morning starting at 6 am, and every afternoon around 5 pm, they begin and continue for a few hours. Did something change that we need to know about?

    Reply
    • Markus Azadeh says:
      May 9, 2009 at 9:39 am

      With the installation of the new 9L/27R runway, I can see how take-off and landing patterns at O’Hare may have changed, although I’m not an expert on the matter. Like you, Nick and Erin, I observe the O’Hare air traffic occasionally from the ground, but we’d really need to have an air traffic controller (preferably one that works at O’Hare) chime in on this question.

      I have noticed that airport officials have begun using 9L/27R as a take-off runway for a few months now. Initially, it was only used as a landing strip.

      Reply
  2. JB says:
    May 22, 2009 at 1:57 pm

    Not an air traffic controller, but I can report that sometime around the opening of the new northern E-W runway, traffic patterns to the southern E-W runway(s) have changed. Planes are often turning into the E-W runways that line up w/ Lawrence Avenue, Bryn Mawr, et. al., much later than they used to. Flights from the West Coast using these runways used to go out over the lake before circling into a westbound landing approach. A few weeks ago I noticed a plane circling into a landing pattern above Gale Street Inn, and I began seeing similar patterns during my commute home out the Kennedy Expressway. These patterns may take planes over a new section of Gladstone Park.

    Reply
  3. Markus Azadeh says:
    May 24, 2009 at 10:07 pm

    Apparently, other people think that flight patterns at O’Hare have changed. Look what I found here —> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22392825-new-ORD-flight-patterns

    Reply
    • Markus Azadeh says:
      May 30, 2009 at 12:30 pm

      So, on DSLreports, “MrWags” and “ordpilot” opine:

      MrWags: The pattern has changed. The traffic that previously used 4L/22R is now using the new 9R/27L.

      ordpilot: The main reason is that southwest arrivals off the BDF5 now by default land 28 and the southeast arrivals off the WATSN1 land 27L. In the past, southeast arrivals AND southwest arrivals would land 28. Due to the traffic, the southeast arrivals would be sent from over Gary north along the lake to join the localizer for 28 over the lake. Because of the shared runway, the southwest arrivals where vectored over the lake, then north with the southeast arrivals. The new arrivals from the southeast go over the lake from South Bend and joining the 27L localizer closer to Michigan than Chicago. This allows the southwest arrivals to have 28 all to themselves, so in good weather, the most likely time you’ll see the planes, they’re given a visual approach to maximize the number of planes landed. This usually ends up with us flying base over Old Irving Park, about 6-7 miles outside ORD. Hope that helps!

      For more nerdtastic aviation information, please see http://www.fly.faa.gov/PLAYBOOK/pbindex.html and http://www.fly.faa.gov/ois

      Make of that what you will.

      Reply
  4. Dave says:
    November 5, 2010 at 12:21 am

    Find out how busy the skies are in your neighborhood.

    http://www.homefacts.com/airports.html

    Reply

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