Quote Originally Posted by gbrasch View Post
Brings back memories of growing up in Chicago and going to Meigs.
I also grew up in Chicago and went to University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. I had a flight from Champaign-Urbana to Meigs in a piper warrior one Friday in 1979 with three friends. Ceilings were right at 1000 feet and I was barely legal to fly in VFR. After I dropped my friends off, I took off on RWY 36 and made a standard left turn. This was towards the big buildings that were poking up into the clouds! Tower told me the pattern was right turns over the water. Made sense but they didn't tell me until after I was headed towards the city.

I wasn't close to any buildings and was able to fly back South towards Champaign-Urbana. Just South of the city the clouds were broken and I was able to climb above them. Definitely a memorable experience for a fairly new PPL (I think I was 20 at the time with probably 60-80 hours).