ORD Airport Watch

02/18/2025

Meet your 2025 ORD Airport Watch Board of Directors!

Laura Hayden - President
Gerri Nowoczynski - Vice President
Jackin Jain - Treasurer
Dave Blocher - Secretary
Jackson Skelly - Member at Large
Mike Neben - Member at Large
Jeff DeWolfe - Member at Large

We welcome Gerri, Mike, and Jeff to the board and the enthusiam and ideas they bring. 2025 will be a great year for OAW!

This year, we will focus on expanding connections at ORD to protect and advocate for spotter access, fully implement our new membership application and ID system, host membership-exclusive guest speaker events, expanding the members-only area of our website, and grow our presence and connections at other Chicagoland airports.

We would also like to recognize Dan McInerney who recently retired as president after transitioning the board to new leadership in 2024, as well as Bill Gaston, who retired from longtime secretary at the beginning of 2024 after more than ten years of hard work and dedication. Dan and Bill are fundamental to OAW's founding and growth; we would not be nearly as established in the Chicagoland aviation community as we are now if it weren't for these gentlemen's commitment and serivce. We thank them and trust that Laura and Dave will continue the growth trajectory they established!

01/05/2025

Happy New Year to our current and prospective OAW members!

FYI: IDs & Vests

Our thanks and best wishes to Carol Baran for her hard work over the years to process IDs for the the OAW group. We are updating our application process, so there will be a delay in processing your membership applications and requests for IDs until February.

Prospective members may continue to apply via our website: https://www.ordairportwatch.org/join-oaw

Renewals and vests can be requested through the member portal: https://www.ordairportwatch.org/member-portal

More information will be available soon.

Here are 5 easy steps to joining ORD Airport Watch

01/03/2025

📣 Attention OAW members!

Please check your email for an announcement about upcoming guest speakers. First up will be recently retired United 787-10 captain John Muscarello, on Tuesday, February 4. Please help him structure his time by submitting your questions for him at the link provided in the email.

More guest speakers will be coming, so watch our socials and your email for announcements as we get people scheduled. Also, if you know someone in the aviation industry who would enjoy speaking to our group, please email the board at [email protected]. 😃

12/31/2024

2024 was another great year for ORD Airport Watch! We finished off the year with our annual Rockford tour, where we visited the AAR hangars, Code 1 Aviation and its L-39's, RFD AARF, an old MD-87, and countless cargo jets. We had a special visitor, Samaritan's Purse's DC-8, BOTH days which made an already great tour even better. Special thanks to David Charles Lindbergh for his continued support for the tour.

Earlier this year, we held another successful ORD tour as well as multiple hill BBQ's. Law enforcement interactions continued to stay at an all-time low, and spotting location access remained consistent throughout 2024 and compared to 2023.

OAW hosted special guest Michael, an ORD ATC controller, who spoke about his job and ORD operations. OAW is excited to continue this partnership with into 2025 and to bring in even more speakers to our meetings!

OAW continues to operate smoothly as an organization; one of our biggest achievements this year was introducing a new memership application/renewal system which digitized this entire process and eliminated the need for paper forms and checks. Members can now easily order vests online, ensuring our visibility while out spotting and simplifying the process. With Carol Baran's retirement from Bensenville PD, one of our biggest tasks for 2025 will be adjusting to the administrative changes and our law enforcement connections.

In December, we held board elections which brought on three new board members; Jeff DeWolfe, Gerri Nowoczynski, and Michael Neben. Positions will be decided and announced in January. Dan McInerney retired as president after years of service on the board.

From all of us at ORD Airport Watch, thank you for an amazing 2024! We're so excited for the new year.

12/02/2024

Members, the meeting link has been sent out, but here it is just in case! If you did not receive the email, please send an email to [email protected] and let us know so we can look into it.

Email from ORD Airport Watch OPEN for Zoom link!       Zoom Link for December 4 Member Meeting   Hello OAW members, Here is the Zoom link for our meeting at 7:00PM on Wednesday, December 4: https://us

12/02/2024

Please note the change of date to Wednesday, December 4th. We hope to see you there! The Zoom link will be emailed to members shortly and posted on our website.

10/28/2024

The story of the American 767 we see each year on our airfield tour.

10/20/2024

What a great time today at our Fall BBQ! We had a fantastic turnout of OAW members, and we thank you all for coming out today. We really appreciate how engaged you all are!
Stay tuned for info about the RFD tour, which will be coming out in the next month or so as we make arrangements for that!

10/19/2024

Join us for our Fall BBQ this Sunday, October 20th, at 11:00AM at The Hill!

Email from ORD Airport Watch 11:00AM at The Hill       Fall BBQ Sunday, October 20   Hello OAW members, Please join us for our Fall BBQ at The Hill! We will be serving hot dogs, hamburgers, and brats.

10/16/2024

British Airways (A388, G-XLEX, LHR-DFW, FL380, 585mph) 10/16/24
Emirates (A388, A6-EVQ, DXB-IAH, FL380, 609mph) 10/16/24
Taken from just north of PWK

10/15/2024

Thanks to our members for making it a great tour on Saturday!!!

10/03/2024

MEMBERS:
Please check your emails for signup info regarding the October 12th ORD tour! Make sure you have a current OAW ID, as you will need the ID # to sign up.

Spots are limited (only 46), so members will be randomly chosen. If there are fewer than 46 registrations, slots will be alloted on a first-come-first-serve basis. Make sure to fill out the form no later than OCTOBER 7TH @ 8AM.

Didn't get the email? Contact us and we'll get you added to our mailing list.

10/03/2024

ATTENTION MEMBERS: Please check your email! The signup form for the ORD airside tour is now live and will be hitting your inboxes shortly. Be sure to check your promotions and spam folders if you don't see the email in the next few hours. You may also view the email here:

PLEASE READ ALL OF THIS EMAIL!       Sign Up for the ORD Airfield Tour   Hello OAW members, Our annual ORD airside spotting tour will be on Saturday, October 12th from 11:00AM - 3:00PM. We are limited

10/02/2024

ATTENTION MEMBERS! The original meeting link for tonight's member meeting is not working, so please use this new link instead: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82761583959?pwd=PGyzjbLpicpxE4DJwOhcpzQtaS9I6s.1

We have also sent this link out in an email to all of you. Hope to see you all there!

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10/02/2024

A fun opportunity to get out on the field and support a good cause!

10/01/2024

It's that time of the month! New air service for ORD and MDW.

09/29/2024

Please note the time change!

Agenda: ORD tour, fall BBQ, new membership application/renewal process

Zoom link is on our website!

09/09/2024

OAW members: Check your email for the August newsletter, and please let us know if you did not receive it (be sure to check your promotions and spam folders, too)! You can also read the newsletter at the link below.
https://conta.cc/3Xl9mJz