Chicago to Omaha

This flight is from Chicago O'Hare to Eppley Airfield, in Omaha, Nebraska. A few years after we moved to Colorado, we drove out to Omaha, to attend the wedding of two friends who had both been coworkers of mine in San Diego, many years before. We wanted to fly ourselves there, but the weather was awful, and forecast to get even worst, so we braved the nearly 12 hour drive instead. After experiencing the truly nasty weather from the highway perspective, I was tempted to say I'd rather have flown, because even with a huge detour for the weather, we'd have gotten there in half the time. Here are some things to do in Omaha.

Following ground control's instructions to taxi out for takeoff on runway 22L at O'Hare would've been a challenging task, except that the simulator made it easy, by drawing the cleared taxi route on the ground with a big yellow line.

Departing O'Hare, with most of the airport sprawling out in the background. Such a large expanse of runways, taxiways, and other airport infrastructure!

The enroute portion of the flight was uneventful, with nothing much to look at, except miles and miles of farm fields, spread out between Chicago and Omaha. So here we are, descending into the Omaha area, flying a vector to intercept the ILS approach to runway 32R.

Turning to intercept the localizer for the ILS 32R approach. I tried using the extra little light blue pointer on the primary flight display, tuned to the Omaha VOR, to see if it would give me some horizontal situation awareness during the approach, and I think it was quite helpful. At this moment, it shows that the VOR is 1 mile ahead of me and to the right, so I'm basically turning right around it.

On final approach to runway 32R at Eppley Airfield, with the Missouri River just ahead, between me and the airport.

Parked on the ramp at Signature Flight Services, which has a small facility on the other side of the runways, from the passenger terminal buildings.

Here's the Omaha airport taxiway diagram. I love that it overlays my current position on the chart, to help me find my way around unfamiliar airports.

Zooming way out in spot view, the Omaha airport fills the image, with my position in the center. You can correlate this picture with the taxiway diagram, to figure out my location, but it's made more difficult by the fact that the small rectangular building that houses the Signature FBO is also blocking your view of me. It's sort of an interesting perspective, though.