Day Trip! Visiting Chicago ARTCC

A beautiful spring day in the upper Midwest. It was time to hop in a Cirrus and take a flight from Des Moines to Aurora, Illinois to tour the Chicago Center (ZUA) facility. This was a set to be a fun day trip that would last a few hours and we'd return home that afternoon once the event was over.

Getting to Chicago was simple and hassle free. Morning fog was quickly burning off and giving way to some small pop-up cumulus clouds forming from the morning heat. After putting 1.6 hours on the Hobbs, we shut down the engine in Aurora.

From the airport, we got a car to drive 10 minutes to the ARTCC Facility in town. We pulled up, parked, and went through security to enter the grounds.

We were met by a tour guide who was going to be showing us around the entire facility for a couples of hours that afternoon. He started by taking us into a conference room where we went over a presentation about the history, statistics, and current state of this specific ARTCC facility. This presentation was 30 minutes and we were able to ask all sorts of questions that came up while he was going through his slides.

From the conference room, we then got to go see the fun stuff... we walked down the hall to floor where all of the Controllers were working live! After talking with a number of operational employees and controllers near the main door and learning about the floor itself and how it operates, we were then given the opportunity to sit in and listen in live with controllers working various sectors of the airspace. This was a blast. Getting to listen to these controllers talk live and explain what they are doing... gave a really interesting perspective from a pilot's point of view. Knowing the amount of work the controllers put in every single day to keep us safe in the skies was eye opening! What a fun 45 minutes of listening, learning, and watching the amazing controllers in action!

The 2 hour tour seemed to go by in what felt like 20 minutes. We got in the car, and drove back to the airport.

On departure, we got handed off to Chicago Center. Checking in with Chicago Center felt different this time. It was cool to know that the people on the other side of the headset were people we had just been talking and listening to only a half hour prior. And this time, having the knowledge of what work they are doing and knowing what they are dealing with at any given time, it provided for a new level of respect when talking to the controllers as we flew back to Iowa.

The return weather was just as nice, and made for a smooth and comfortable ride home. Yet another successful flight, and a really fun trip to be a part of.

Thank you to ALL of the Air Traffic Controllers out there who do the tireless and often thankless work of keeping pilots safe as we travel through the skies. It's a team effort to keep aviation safety at the forefront of all of our operations, and I personally am grateful for the wonderful efforts of Controllers all across this country.

Blue skies.