Chicago FLY Route northbound?

Hi - I'll be flying VFR from DC to Chicago in a few weeks and was thinking about flying the Chicago FLY route along the lakeshore. The planning chart shows a directional arrow that points south near Gary, while another one points north at Waukegan. I'm assuming this means that the route can be flown either northbound or southbound, but I wanted to confirm that the "intersection" at the Northbrook VOR wasn't some kind of directional change point. I'd be flying northbound from Gary, up the lakeshore, and then to the Northbrook VOR, and on into Chicago Exec. Any info is appreciated.

Cheers,
Jeff

I've used that as my usual route to Oshkosh every year from Michigan for a few years now. It flows both directions so I always make sure to have Landing Lights on, etc...

The little bar at the "intersection" is just to notify of an altitude change. South to north it goes from 2500' and below to 3500' and below. If you want Flight Following going through there, it's 128.2 which I believe is Midway Approach. Sometimes they've been too busy to answer me.

Personally, I tend to stay maybe a little farther off the lakeshore as opposed to being right on the shoreline incase there is someone passing me North to South.


Oh! And make sure to have your camera out and available

I fly through there all the time. At 2500' you're under the class Bravo shelves all the way as long as you stay just offshore. Normal VFR rules. Just keep your head on a swivel. Not that there's tons of traffic, but I'll see another aircraft somewhere along there about 1 in three times. Pay attention to the TFRs. They are frequent at the White Sox park on the south side and at Wrigley on the north side and will push you out into the lake maybe a bit more uncomfortably than you'd like. More often than not anymore however I just shoot over the top of the Bravo at 10500' or 11500' depending on direction of flight. If you talk to O'Hare approach they'll point out where to look for big jets under you, and you should. I recently had a close encounter with a 747 up there. The low route along the lake is an awesome sight though, especially at night.

Call up palwaukee twr when south east of the field. I used to fly up to NW university and go west straight to field. The temple on the lakeshore is a common reporting point. Should be no reason to fly up to Northbrook VOR.

As mentioned, a lot of traffic on the lakeshore during weekends.

Larry

lr172 said:

Call up palwaukee twr when south east of the field.

Click to expand...

Or Chicago Exec.....

I learned to fly at Waukegan (and old NAS Glenview). A lot of people fly the lakeshore at 2500, so I prefer 2700. I suggest not turning westbound till past the Bahai Temple as the floor of the Class B is 1900 just inland, up until about Glencoe (temple shown on TAC chart).