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Al Waterloo - ORDinarily Busy. ORDinarily Calm. 

6/26/2012

4 Comments

 
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I bet this has never happened to you. You are traveling in or out of Chicago and your flight has been delayed. You get to your gate and its mad chaos. There isn't enough Airport Starbucks to escape away from the herds of mindless travelers. Your cell phone is now dying and you are looking for an outlet to charge. You start to notice the extreme measure's that people are going to get a power outlet. Completely abandoning their luggage to turn the battery indicator from red to green on their cell phones. ITS NUTS!! If I were a betting man, I'd bet $0.00 that this has never happened to you. You see that this is a busy place in the terminal. How do you think it is in the control tower!?

O'hare tower every other day now is the busiest airport behind  ATL (Atlanta Airport). The tower is the epicenter, the brain, the band conductor and doctor behind all this madness. I have be come friends with the tower manager of O'Hare tower over the past few months. What an outstanding guy! He invited me and a few friends up for a tower four the other day. We rode an elevator up to the tower cab on the 17th floor of the tower. 

My mind was running a million miles a minute thinking how nuts, how busy, and how cool this would be. Walking up the stairs into the cab listening and looking for the mad chaos I had built up in my mind. I was jaw dropped! There were 15 people or so in the tower cab and they were smiling and all relaxed. The tower was the most peaceful, calm and relaxed place I have ever been. There was a little mumble of voices like you'd hear at a lounge having happy hour. They were clearing airplanes to take off and land from all over the world like it was no big deal. The windows were the cleanest windows I have ever seen! When you think about it, you'd want them to have clean windows. 

One of the tower controllers working the north side of the airport was pretty gnarly too. Some how he got wind that we work for his favorite Doughnut company. All of the sudden he turns looks at us and starts say this:

I LOVE IT! I cannot wait to go back. This time with doughnuts!
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4 Comments
Louis
6/26/2012 05:45:07 am

Awesome! I would probably stick around there for a full shift if they would let me (and I also like those donuts).

Reply
Todd McClamroch link
6/26/2012 09:33:03 am

Whenever I think of the control tower I still picture scenes from Airplane! so I am surprised to hear it was so calm up there. Where do I officially put my name on the list of people that should be called next time you get offered a control tower tour at O'Hare?

Reply
Al Waterloo
6/26/2012 09:23:29 pm

I was incredibly shocked when we went up there too. Both you would love it and are officially on the list for a tour!

Reply
Bruce Laird
6/27/2012 08:52:45 am

Long gone are the days when passengers AND visitors could go out on an observation deck to see the activity on the ramp. It was a step up from parking outside the fence at the end of the runway and watching the flights come and go.

I would be one of those travelers looking for a socket for my WIFE'S phone. Good thing I always carry a 3-way outlet adapter AND a 3-way extension cord. People are always willing to share when they see it.

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    Authors:
    Al Waterloo
    Travis Ammon

    Aviation geeks just bantering about every thing aviation.

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