Yesterday, I dropped off a family member in O'Hare Airport for a flight from Chicago to Orlando. For this (ORD to MCO) flight, United Airlines operated an A321neo (Reg ID N14515), a relatively new Airbus (just about 8 months old; delivered in July 2024; United's fleet currently has 32 A321neos in service). The flight was scheduled to leave in the afternoon on an unusually bright and sunny day in Chicago, with temperatures in the 70s (btw, today, just the day after, I woke up to see a couple of inches of fresh white snow covering the grounds, and much colder temperatures). Anyway, the spring is surely not too far around here, with tiny buds already emerging at the tips of stems of the trees and plants, that have been without leaves and flowers for the last 6 months. And, of course, the (ubiquitous) squirrels seem to have reappeared in the backyards and the parks...🙂..., along with their younger ones, from wherever they lived and hibernated in winter...

United Flight UAL2042, scheduled to depart at 2:16pm, left 8 mins early at 2:08pm, and was scheduled to arrive at 6:07pm, but arrived 27 mins early at 5:40pm (Orlando is one hour behind Chicago time), after a total travel time of 2 hrs. 32 mins. The Route was "DENNT DARCY DREGS DUMGE SCOTO SWAPP Q79 THRSR ZJAYX GRNCH5", with a cruise altitude 35,000 ft, and an actual flight distance of 1,046 miles (southbound from Chicago; see EFB Map). Before I headed out to the airport for an early drop-off, I set up my MSFS2024 Xbox...🙂...with the iniBuilds A321neo, prepped to mimic the flight... 

The familiar O'Hare felt a bit different with the addition of the newly built (multi-story) Parking Garage, near the International Terminal 5, now in service (though not fully completed yet). As far back as I can recall, for decades, there was just a ground-level parking lot there, on which now stands this large structure. As I entered the Garage, looking for a parking space, I could not help noticing the "smart" (detection) technology in operation (the invisible parking and motion sensors, parking guidance systems and signs etc.). I am familiar with Parking Garage LED displays e.g., showing the number of remaining spaces in a garage as one enters, but, here, it was a bit different and much more precise. On the 3rd level, when I came to a junction with <PARK> arrows pointing both to my left and right, the sign also indicated how many spaces are available on each direction (e.g., 5 if I go left and 2 if I go right). I turned right, and lo and behold, there were indeed 2 parking spaces (with an EV Charging station in front of one space). Though, I do not drive an EV, I decided to park there, seeing no (posted) restrictions of any kind.

So, parking was easy...no guesswork at all, and no circling up and down the floors of the garage looking for a space (nor looking for another car pulling out of a space so you can usurp it before someone else...🙂...). It all felt really convenient, but in the back of my mind some privacy concerns emerged...someone in this modern (and smart technology) structure knows where I parked, when I parked and when I left, what car I drove, plus, maybe my license plate, or any other type of personal data...Oh well...no (modern) convenience comes free of any risks...I thought...

While travelling in the airport shuttle back to the Terminal 5 parking lot, I snapped a picture of the (iconic and black) Hilton Hotel of O'Hare (which you might invariably spot in any authentic scenery rendition of KORD; see Gaya Simulation's Hilton in my shot #3; and the RW picture I took yesterday, in my shot #4). I've stayed in that Hotel a couple of times. It's an on-site hotel in the sense that it can be directly reached from the Terminals by an underground walkway (without ever stepping outside of the terminal exit doors).

Then, returning home, before the (RW) flight actually lifted off, I got a chance to monitor some live data of the (RW) flight on flightradar24...🙂... After takeoff, the (RW) A321neo took 20 mins to reach the cruise altitude of 35,000 ft. I too flew at FL350, and my (virtual) A321neo took also ~20 mins to reach the same cruise altitude; see one (cockpit) image below where I've just reached 35,000 ft as indicated on the altitude tape of the PFD screen (along with superposed MSFS displays with local time and UTC time, for my own cross-reference). I've manually entered the (RW) Waypoints and Airways into the MCDU, "DENNT DARCY DREGS DUMGE SCOTO SWAPP Q79 THRSR ZJAYX GRNCH5", staying true to the Route, except, at this pilot's discretion...🙂..., I've opted to replace the "MCO" GRNCH FIVE (RNAV) Procedure with an easier for this aviator (and more precise?) ILS RWY 35R Approach (suggested by SimBrief) for Orlando Airport. This meant I had to first fly south past the airport, make a loop over the big Lake Toho (actually there are two Lake Tohos there, the one you see in a couple of my images below is the "East Lake Tohopekaliga" just south of Orlando airport), and then fly northward to capture the ILS signals of Runway 35R. 

As I tracked (live) the RW flight of the UAL A321neo, my own (virtual) A321neo (in this forced ANZ livery of MSFS24...🙂...) was also flying along the same route, and I too landed 2 hrs. 30 mins later, just about when the RW flight landed in Orlando airport. The RW FlightAware flight distance was 1,046 actual miles, whereas my MCDU had projected a flight distance of 909 nautical miles (or coincidentally also 1,046 miles). My MCDU projected flight time was 2 hrs. 33 mins (vs. 2 hrs. 32 mins for the RW flight). Not bad for my (simple-minded) simulation...

After my touchdown on Runway 35R, soon enough, my phone started ringing. Yes, the RW flight had landed, and someone was calling me from that A321neo...🙂... as it taxied to the gate...Of course, I already knew of the arrival a few mins before the call, based on not only the RW (FlightAware) information but also my own flight in my make-believe (virtual) world...🙂...

It was a nice flight...and the iniBuilds A321neo is a nice airplane to fly...

Hope you enjoy this collection of images from my trip today...! 

Thanks for viewing...!

Edited March 21, 20251 yr by P_7878

Fine set, thanks for sharing !

cheers 😉

Forgot:

Is this the Fenix A321 or maybe the inibuilds ?

And i like to fly the A321`s aswell !

cheers 😉

20 hours ago, pmplayer said:

Forgot:

Is this the Fenix A321 or maybe the inibuilds ?

And i like to fly the A321`s aswell !

cheers 😉

NP, pmplayer.

This is the iniBuilds A321neo in MSFS2024.

The MSFS2024 Marketplace is just barely open, though at least open after so many months...🙂...I do not yet see any big-ticket 3rd-party airliners though a few GA aircraft are trickling in. I am eagerly waiting for that PMDG 777 in FS2024...and maybe also the iniBuilds A350 ...🙂...we'll see...

Indeed, the A321 is such a nice a/c to fly...and it has evolved well from the base variant...with -neo/LR/XLR etc.

Thanks for the inquiry...!