YYZ-ORD-YYZ

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Member for

17 years 5 months

Posts: 43

A quick report on my weekend to Chicago from Toronto (Chicago is a great city, btw).

Sorry, I don't recall the flight numbers, and it was paperless ticketing so...

3/22/07
YYZ-ORD
AC EMB175

I arrived to Pearson, dropped off my bag a web baggage check-in and proceded effortlessly through US immigration (now they carry machine guns, which is somewhat frightening to see) and arrived at gate 162 in the new central pier of terminal 1. I'm still struck by the peaceful ambiance of Toronto's new massive terminal (there is still one final pier yet to be completed).

Our EMB 175 pulled onto the gate and ground crew readied it for a quick turn around. We boarded the aircraft for my second trip on an EMB175. Again, seat back monitors with a great selection of entertainment - awesome - it's the only way to fly now. We closed the door and then the captain made an annoucement that due to low ceiling in ORD we would be following a "gear up" policy as outlined by ORD air traffice control. This resulted in us waiting on the gate in YYZ for one hour. Anyway, I started watching Casino Royale and thought nothing of it.

We were pushed back and taxied to runway 6L for a north easterly departure. The captain really motored down the taxiway. We were airborne quickly and soon banked left to north for about three or four minutes, then banked left again for a south westerly heading to American airspace.

Our decent into ORD was gradual and between cloud layers for the last twenty minutes. Suddenly we heard the landing gear, cleared the cloud layer to find out we were just meters above the ground and landed promptly. We slowed down very quickly and took a rapid exit making out way to gate E1.

I'm a HUGE fan of the EMB. I flew the CRJ200 back and there is just no comparison for comfort.

Oh, there was a Flybe Q400 departing Toronto. Must have been a delivery flight.

3/25/07
ORD-YYZ
AC Jazz CRJ200

I arrived to ORD and quickly checked in and made my way through a fairly quiet security. I quickly proceded to the end of finger F in T2 and sat down for what can only be described as an orgasim of aircraft movement. ORD is unbelievable. Airplanes EVERYWHERE in EVERY DIRECTION. I was struck by how many non-Boeing aircraft occupy ORD's tarmac. Loads of CRJ and EMB by United. Oh, and it's United, United, United, United. AA has a pretty strong presence as well, but ORD is clearly a United hub. Got to see a LH744 landing and saw three UA744's and one JAL 744 take off.

Oh, and on the way to the airport I took the train. We passed under a taxiing UA777- very, very cool.

I made my way back to my gate, AC is housed at gates E1, E1A and E2. Our aircraft pulled up to the gate and again a very quick turn around by ground crew. We boarded and I was too tall (6'2) to stand straight in the plane. We sat in our cramped seats, full flight and readied for taxi. We got held up about 15 minutes due to the terminal alley being backed up with aircraft being pushed back. Our gate was closed to the main terminal area so we were the last out. Taxiing took a good twenty minutes to the runway (I believe 22L) and we passed the international terminal which at that point housed a LH744, BD330, Turkish A340, SK330 (first time to see that) and parked in a remote area of the international tarmac was an ELAL 763. At the threshold of the runway a Mexicana A320 flew by and we immediately booted it onto the runway very very quickly and the captain instantly applied full throtles (it's hard to imagine the Mexicana was even off of the runway - I've noticed the US regulations for space btw landing and take offs seems to be closer than Canada). We lifted off and banked hard to the left while the gear was being retracted. We followed an MD80 banking in front of us, we kept banking to the left and the captain gradually applied more and more power until we cleared metropolitan Chicago.

We had a beautiful clear flight into Canada then a thick cloud base formed. We decended into YYZ approaching from the s.w. so straight in. We neighboured an AC 763 right into Pearson. Landing gear was extended above the cloud base. It was so cool to see the AC slip below the clouds, it was literally like a shark's fin. We cleared the clouds a the fence line of Pearson and landed on the new runway. We took a rapid taxi off to a remote pier for AC jazz and were bussed back to the terminal.

Again, love the EMB 175 great choice, Mr. Milton.

Original post

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 6,503

Excellent report. :)

Member for

20 years 11 months

Posts: 12,842

That's a very tidy report...can you elaborate on the gear up policy???

Member for

17 years 5 months

Posts: 43

Sure. The gear up policy seemed to be that ORD tells the departing carrier/aircraft/airport what time they can place their "gear up" - essentially take off from the departing airport, so that ORD can deal with congestion, or weather.

The airport is a wonderland of aircraft movements.

Also forgot to mention it was a green Jazz livery.

Member for

20 years 10 months

Posts: 2,513

More commonly scheduled takeoff times are referred to "wheels up" times. "Gear up" is easily confused with gear up landings.