ORD-Spot2
Dortmund Holzwickede Spotting Guide
December 10, 2018
Ostend Bruges Intl. Airport Spotting Guide
December 23, 2018Chicago O’hare Intl Airport Spotting Guide
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- last modified on October 15, 2019
Chicago O’hare International Airport (ORD/KORD) is one of the busiest airports in the US and even worldwide and the biggest one in Chicago. It’s located 25km northwest of the citys downtown and was opened back in 1955. Originally the airport was opened as a companyairfield for Douglas during WW2, when they were building C54 aircraft here for the American forces. In 1945 the airfield became non-military and was named “Orchard Place”, which was the basic for the IATA-code, which is still used today -> ORD. But already 4 years later, the name was changed to “Chicago O’hare” to honor the navypilot Edward O’hare. During the 1950s Chicago’s other airport, Midway, were already too small for its grewing traffic, that’s why some traffic was hand over to O’hare and this airport was developed to the city’s main airport for the future. So back in 1955 the first scheduled flights started at ORD; first just the international flights and from 1962 on also the domestic ones and with this addition, Chicago O’hare became the world’s busiest airport in this time. With the time, more and more terminal(extension)s were opened and new runways were built at ORD and because of this, the airport handled almost 80 million passengers in 2017 all in all.
ORD offers a lot of cargo traffic and this one is quite various. You can see more common carriers like FedEx or UPS, but also some rarer ones like Western Global Airlines, Skylease Cargo or AeroUnion. The types are (depending of the airline) varying between B747s, DC10s, MD11s, A300s and B777s.
The passenger traffic is also quite mixed as the cargo traffic. It consists mainly of American Airlines and United Airlines flights (with all their daughtercarriers), but apart form those ones, you’ll have a few more American carriers like Frontier, Spirit, Jet Blue or Delta and also smaller ones like Cape Air. On the other hand you’ll see some International airlines, too, mostly European ones like Lufthansa or British Airways, but also some more uncommon ones like Air Italy or Euroatlantic (opf. LOT). Apart from the European ones, you’ll also see some Latinamerican ones like Aeromexico or Copa, but also the ones from northern territories such as Air Canada. And last but not least, the Asians like Hainan, ANA or Korean Air Lines. All in all you can say, that the traffic is already quite varied for US airports and the best thing here is, you have many flights a day so a lot of new registrations, if you collect them!
Guide was written by Severin Hackenberger and Colin Brown (Spot 9-10). Last Update April 2019
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| Airline Variety | |
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| Weather | |
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| Airport Information | |
| Runways | |
| 04L/22R | 2461m x 46m Asphalt |
| 04R/22L | 2286m x 46m Asphalt |
| 09L/27R | 2286m x 46m Concrete |
| 09C/27C | Under Construction |
| 09R/27L | 2428m x 46m Asphalt |
| 10R/28L | 2286m x 46m Concrete |
| 10C/28C | 3292m x 46m Concrete |
| 10L/28R | 3962m x 46m Asphalt |
| Terminals | |
| Terminal 1 | Most Star Alliance members (for example: ANA, Lufthansa, United) |
| Terminal 2 | Air Canada and Delta (with its daughter airlines) |
| Terminal 3 | One World members (for example: American, Iberia, Finnair, British Airways, JAL) as well as some domestic and more or less low-cost-carier: Alaska Airlines, Virgin America, Spirit Airlines, JetBlue |
| Terminal 5 | Most international longhaul, except the ones named above (for example: KLM and Aer Lingus). Also some international Star Alliance members (for example: Austrian and Swiss), eventhough they are normally seperated |
| Spotting Information | |
| Ladder | Not needed at the spots below and not recommended! |
| Car/Public Transport | Car is recommended as public transport is quite poor here. |
| Restrooms | In every publicly accessable building like restaurants or hotels and inside of the terminal building. |
| Drinks/Food | There are plenty of restaurants, shops and food courts nearby the airport, offering supply of food and drinks. Check the particular MISC box at each spot for detailed info. |
| Hotels | There are some hotels close to the airport as well as in in the further airport’s area and the downtown, of course. Some of the first mentioned offer a view onto the approaching aircraft, for further info just leave a comment unterneath this post and we’re happy to give you info about that. |
| Season | The time from October till March is quite recommendable, because the sun will stay on the southern side all time, so you don’t have to change spots and the light is also okay/good at noon. If you wanna spot some early arrivals, the summer will be better of course, but then you’ll have faster heat haze. |
| Security | Spotting in the United States is not always tolerated. There have been several reports from fellow spotters that police checks were performed. Spotting at some places is not tolerated, that’s why you should AVOID SPOTTING AROUND THE SOUTHERN CARGO AREAS! Please be also aware of following facts: The police is quite harsh of endangering the streets safety. If you are standing beside a street and you are visible to drivers, police may ask you to leave as you may distract drivers from keeping their attention onto the road traffic. Some police officers may react rude to our hobby as they suspect terrorism by photography of airplanes. Always stay polite and stay in car when a police officer stops for a check. Do not leave your car unless you are told to do so! The spots underneath are believed to be safe but check the MISC box for further info.
Spotterguide.net is NOT liable for any inconvenience and misbehaviour towards the police of fellow spotters. |
| Runway Usage | |
| General Info | Runway Usage here is quite unsystematic and it takes a long time to find some “rules” used here, but the information we provide below were collected during ~10 days of spotting and observing the traffic.
There is kinda rule for domestic (including most Canadian and some Mexican flights as well) arrivals between ~7:00 and ~21:00 up to an aircraft of a B737, which fits for ~90% of these kinda arrivals. Works of course only, if there are coming roundabout the same loads of aircraft from the directions, so they are spread consistently… 27/28 Arrival Usage: 09/10 Arrival Usage: |
| 04L/22R | Almost only departures and most of them domestic ones from here – mostly departures of narrowbodies (ERJ135 up to B737 is normal here). |
| 04R/22L | Rarely used and mostly during strong northern winds only. |
| 09L/27R | Often used during peaktimes. However, almost all Air Canada and JetBlue flights are landing here as well as a lot of Delta and American flights – mostly narrowbodies. You might also see some cargo arrivals here, if the aircraft are being parked in the northern cargo area (Korean Air Lines Cargo or Cargolux for example). |
| 09R/27L | Normally this is the onliest runway used during the night and it’s the main runway for arrivals over the day as well, as ATC tries to get all arriving traffic onto this runway in calm times, that they can use 28C/10C for departures as well. Mostly used by Delta, United, Spirit, Alaska, Frontier and some international airlines with smaller aircraft like Copa, Internjet or Volaris. |
| 10R/28L | Very rarely used nowadays, that’s why we also can’t provide any selfproofed/selftested spots with own example shots. |
| 10C/28C | Normally all heavies (international and domestic) as well as almost all freighters are landing here. Apart from this a lot of smaller Americans and Uniteds up to a B737 and most small prop-aircraft like CapeAir or similar Cessnas arrive here. During calmhours this runway is kinda closed for arrivals, which are apportioned to 09R/27L then – if possible. You’ll might also see some freighters taking off from here, if possible between all those arrivals. |
| 10L/28R | Mostly used for departures, but its Usage is very rare. |
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Spot #1 – Shopping Center parking |
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| WHERE | This spot is no exact position, rather the area in the parking area(s) around here as your exact spot might vary due to the disturbing lightpoles or similar. However, you should have the best view from the parkin, which is located west of the “Target” supermarket and south of the “Residence Inn” hotel next to “Chestnut Street”. The parking can be reached best from “Lunt Avenue”. |
| WHAT | Arrivals onto runway 27R. |
| TIME | On early summer mornings or late evenings, which are mostly bettet for spotting here due to the lightposition. This spot is unuseable from October till April. |
| MISC. | No ladder needed and recommended as you should keep a low profile here, because you’re in public and on a kind of commercially owned territory. All facilities you might need during spotting can be found in the nearby supermarkets and hotels. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | XXX as we didn’t test it yet ourselves |
Unfortunately we can’t provide any example pictures from this spot, but pictures taken from here look like THIS.
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Spot #2 – Parking garage |
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| WHERE | This spot is located along the northern side on one of the upper floors of the Rosemont parking garage, which is located above and next to the “Parl Pl”. It can be entered easily via staircases, which are located at the parking garage’s northwestern and southwestern end – these staircases are easily to find from the “Parkway Bank Park Entertainment district”, a kind of collection of restaurants, snack stores and a cinema.
Once you have entered the parking garage, just go up to the top floor, where the angle is better, but the wind is harder, or to the floor one before the top floor, where the angle is a bit worser, but the spot is more windprotected here. |
| WHAT | Arrivals onto runway 27L. |
| TIME | From October till March all day, in summers from late morning till late afternoon. |
| MISC. | No ladder needed and recommended as you should keep a low profile as there are a lot of security cameras in this garage. Restrooms and food/drinks can be found in the nearby (and above mentioned) entertainment district or inside the nearby mall and hotels. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 150-400mm
MD88 or B738 = 230mm / A319 = 270mm / Beech = ~350mm |
Both overview shots were taken from the top floor. For a detailed shot of the marked area on the shot below, please scroll down to the second overview shot:
Detailed view:
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Spot #3 – Loews Hotel |
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| WHERE | Parking garage spotting: This spot is located on the top floor of the parking garage of the “Loews Chicago O’hare”. It can be entered from inside the hotel the best; therefore just enter the hotel on its ground floor, walk straight down into southern direction, so you pass the lobby on your right, then pass the snack store on your left. Once the walls lead (you) to the right, turn right as well and now you’ll find an elevator on your right, which serves the parking garage. Take the elevator to the top floor and search your favourite position there. You need NO VALID ROOMKEY to use the eelvator (by OCT 2018).You can park your car inside the nearby parking areas or easily by the roadside as it’s normally not possible to enter this garage on your own with your car. But there are many many possibilities to park your car at in the neighborhood.Hotelroom spotting: You can also take pictures out of hotelrooms theirselves as we did with the Air India B77W below. Therefore you need to book a room and ask at the lobby if it’s possible to get one on the upper floors facing southern direction. Spotting is not possible form the corridor’s edges or staircases a s it’s at other hotels. The glasses are mostly a bit dirty and tinted, so spotting isn’t that easy from inside. |
| WHAT | Arrivals onto runway 28C. |
| TIME | On early mornings or late evenings in summer only or on cloudy days. Not useable from September to April with light. |
| MISC. | Restrooms and food can be found on the ground level of the hotel, which has to be crossed to get to the parking garage spot. Apart from those, there are a lot of restaurants in the area around the hotel. No ladder needed and recommended as you should keep a low profile. Stay away from the security cams on the garage!
Why to prefer this spot to spot #4? |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 250-450mm |
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Spot #4 – Company parking garage |
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| WHERE | This spot is located on the top floor (so the second floor here) of the parking garage, which is located next to a company building and can be reached best from “Foster Avenue”. The second floor can be reached the best with the help of the stairs, which can be found at the garage’s north- and southeastern end. Once arrived on the top floor, search your favourite position on it, which might vary cause of the disturbing lightpoles.
You can park your car inside the nearby parking areas or easily by the roadside as it’s normally not possible to enter this garage on your own with your car. But there are many many possibilities to park your car at in the neighborhood. |
| WHAT | Arrivals on runway 28C. |
| TIME | On early mornings or late evenings in summer only or on cloudy days. Not useable from September to April with light. |
| MISC. | There are quite a few restaurants and hotels in the area around the spot.No ladder needed and recommended as you should keep a low profile. Stay away from the security cams on the garage!
Why to prefer this spot to spot #3? |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 200-400mm
B77W = 220mm |
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Spot #5 – Scott Street |
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| WHERE | This spot is located west of the “WallyPark Airport Parking” area at the northern end of “Scott street”. You can park your car by its roadside or in the nearby parking area.
This spot was one of the most famous spots at ORD until the Arrivals onto runway 28R became very rare as the runway was kind of “transformed” to a departure runway. Since this point, the spot nearly “died” away, but we decided to list it anyway, because it might be good for 28C Arrivals and who knows, maybe we’ll see a reactivation of 28R Arrivals one day… |
| WHAT | Arrivals onto runway 28R, which became very rare. Arrivals onto runway 28C might be good as well form here, but nobody tested those ones yet. |
| TIME | Runway 10L/28R: From October till March all day, in summers from late morning till late afternoon.
Runway 10C/28C: From October till March unuseable, but in summers on early mornings and late evenings. |
| MISC. | No ladder needed and recommended. The needed facilities aren’t that close here, so you have to walk ~3 mins to the nearest cafe/restaurant, where you find restrooms, food and drinks. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | XXX as we didn’t test it yet |
Spot itsself looks like THIS and an example shot, taken from this spot, like THIS.
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Spot #6 – Neighborhood |
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| WHERE | This spot is no exact location, rather the are around here in the neighborhood. We tested some different positions along the walksides here and the best one (in our opinion) was inside the “Scott Street” just after a streetkink and on the opposite side of a basketball field under two trees – this one is shown on the overview shot and marked on the map exactly. However, during midday you’ll have sun glare right there, during the period you can take your pictures, so you might move some meters up along “Scott Street” and spot from the spot after the junction with “Wilson Avenue” or from the walkside of this street (both marked as the ends of a blue line on the map). But the angle is a bit worser from the two mentioned alternatives. |
| WHAT | Arrivals on runway 28C. |
| TIME | From October till March all day, in summers from late morning till late afternoon. |
| MISC. | Nothing really nearby, nearest facilities are along Lawrence Ave. No ladder needed and recommended as you should keep a low profile. Most neighbors here are cool, just greet them and smile, but some might be suspect and ask you what you’re taking pictures off.
Why you should prefer this spot to #7? |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 70-350mm
B744 = 140mm / A320 = 270mm / B738 = 240mm |
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Spot #7 – Schiller Park Metra station |
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| WHERE | This spot is no exact location, rather the are at the southern end of the parking area infront of the metra station “Schiller Park”.The spot can only be reached from “Ruby street”, which is running west of the metra station.
You can choose your favourite position in this area here between all those lightpoles, but be AWARE of the LITTLE PONT next to the parking and the REGULAR USED RAILWAY ROAD east of the parking and the pont. |
| WHAT | Arrivals on runway 28C. |
| TIME | From October till March all day, in summers from late morning till late afternoon. |
| MISC. | Nearest facilities are along Lawrence Ave. No ladder needed and recommended as you should keep a low profile. Most pedestrians here are cool, just greet and smile, but some might be suspect and ask you what you’re taking pictures of.
Why to prefer this spot to spot #6? You’ll have less/no heat haze here and much more time to take pictures, but the angle is a bit worser. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 100-300mm
B77W = 135mm / A306 = 180mm / A319 = 250mm / ERJ145 = 290mm |
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Spot #8 – Gateway road |
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| WHERE | This spot is no exact position, rather the are along/near the “Gateway road”. Your exact position depends on some disturbing lightpoles and/or buildings. You can park your by the roadside as the street is quite calm, because it’s a dead end road, or in one of the nearby parking areas. The spot(area) cna be reached best from “North York road”, which runs east of “Gateway road”. |
| WHAT | Arrivals onto runway 10C. |
| TIME | From October till March all day, in summers from late morning till late afternoon. |
| MISC. | No facilities nearby such as restaurants or similar and no ladder needed and recommended as you should keep a low profile in this (partly) private area here. Anyway, it is possible, that a companyowner or worker is coming to you and asking for your actions; stay friendly then and just explain him/her, that this is a peaceful hobby and you are just doing it for fun. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | XXX as we didn’t test the spot yet, but should be ~50-250mm |
Spot itsself looks like THIS and an example shot, taken from this spot, like THIS.
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Spot #9 – McDonald’s parking |
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| WHERE | Another good spot is inside the McDonald’s parking, which is located on the corner of “Mannheim Rd” and “W Higgins Rd”. Just search your favourite position in the large parking area, some of which is for McDonald’s that has a stay restriction, but we’ve never seen it enforced and there are plenty of spaces which isn’t technically McDonald’s, there’s a grassy area facing the action and a few picnic tables for McDonald’s customers. |
| WHAT | Arrivals onto runway 27R. |
| TIME | From October till March all day, in summers from late morning till late afternoon, although the light is very harsh then during the time it is on this site. |
| MISC. | All things you need right there: shadow, food, drinks and restrooms.
It is possible, that some people may come to you and ask for your actions; stay friendly then and just explain him/her, that this is a peaceful hobby and you are just doing it for fun. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 100-400mm covers all you can spot from here |
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Spot #10 – Gate Gourmet Recruiting Office |
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| WHERE | The location is on the car park next to Gate Gourmet Regional Recruiting Office. Take Mannheim Rd and turn left/right at the traffic lights on to Montrose Ave (first right after Lawrence Ave if coming from the north), take the second left in to the car park, and go to the far left corner and park. The angle for arrivals at locations 6 and 7 is better but from here you have a much better, undisturbed sight and you are closer to the action too. |
| WHAT | Arrivals on 27L cross slightly at an angle from right to left. 9R departures can also be taken here though most will be a little high. You will also see distant views of arrivals/departures on 27C-9C, a serious lens of 600-800mm might capture some of these but we haven’t trued that. |
| TIME | From October till March all day, in summers from late morning till late afternoon. |
| MISC. | As this is a private car park you may be asked to leave but we’ve never seen it happen and this area of the car park is usually pretty empty, I have seen the police drive by but they have never stopped, The location is also approved by ORD watch. No facilities at the location. Closest restrooms and restaurants are along Lawrence Ave. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 50mm up to 300mm lens should cover everything |
14 Comments
So ideally what are some good spots to use in September (I don’t want backlit photos, since I plan on uploading them to jetphotos). I plan on spotting for most of the day.
I’m going to Chicago labor day weekend. Will the sun positing allow me to take photos all day facing north? I noticed it says spot 3 and 4 aren’t good for spotting in September. So does anyone have any spots to recommend and can whomever specify the specific time period instead of saying late morning.
With regards
Spots 3 and 4 are facing south and only good in the high summer.
https://www.spotterguide.net/useful-tips/
Her you will find some more infos about the sun postion and various tools you can use.
-Julian
What is the best location for the newly opened Runway 27C? I noticed that a lot of the interesting widebodies are landing there now instead of 28C. When I last was at ORD in 2019, I spotted from Schiller Park train station but just about everything I wanted used 28C, but it seems like 50/50 for the international heavies whether they go to 27C or 28C. I kind of need something that would be in between both runways since I do have a 150-600 lens.
Another good spot is in the Allstate Arena parking lot. The aircraft on approach to 27R go right over it. They also fly pretty low so you dont need a lot of zoom for this spot.
Hi Aidan,
did you go there yet and maybe also took photos from there already? Then please send them over to support@spotterguide.net.
Thanks,
Sev
I do not have photos right now as all my photos from that spot are on my old camera that broke but I will gladly send photos when I go plane spotting there next.
Couldn’t access number 8 from York rd.
Vehicle parked there on intersection telling incoming cars it’s private property, into Gateway rd.
Ended up on the top of the parking garage by Aloft hotel. Great spot. Thanks for doing this.
Pretty weird as this is an industrial area and the spot can be approached from the other roads. Maybe ongoing constructions nearby?
Another good spot is McDonald’s on the corner of Mannheim Rd and W Higgins Rd, good for photography for 27R arrivals for a large part of the day, 100-400 mm lens should be sufficient, October-April is best as in the summer months the sunlight is strong and harsh.
Mostly used for arrival’s from Northern destinations such as Canada, Boston, New York, Detroit and some West Coast from Seattle and San Francisco, international arrivals don’t normally use this runway.
Large parking area, some of which is for McDonald’s that has a stay restriction, I’ve never seen it enforced and there are plenty of spaces which isn’t technically McDonald’s, there’s a grassy area facing the action and a few picnic tables for McDonald’s customers.
Hi Colin!
Just added the spot as #9. What do you say? Everything in the description or is there anything what has to be added?
Maybe you could share your shots from there with us, so we could add some example pictures as well.
Would be very useful! Thanks anyway already,
Severin
Does this hobby focus on arrivals only? Growing up we would watch planes at the corner of Devon and Elmhurst road.
Hi Bill!
Normally we try to cover all movements, but weren’t able to do so in ORD yet due to a lack of information/fotage. We would love to add another spot, however we need a short description and some material. Can you provide any pictures taken at the mentioned street corner? If so, please feel free to send them over via mail to support@spotterguide.net.
Thanks,
Severin