Yeah...don't pull or turn anything red. It will most likely turn out bad.

Don't show up hungover and keep away from the gate lice. It's a mad house....... Enjoy

Ord is one of the easiest big airports to get around. Just make sure to listen to what atc says rather than focusing on writing down instructions like most noobies do. Remember your captains will know ord very well they just want you to read back instructions, even if you have no idea what you just repeated!

Sometimes ATC goes on a string of instructions for what seems like forever (it's actually quite impressive) you don't have to really say it all back unless there's a runway crossing involved then I do, but otherwise a simple reply with your call sign and flight number will suffice.

Show up early...allow for every contingency ( traffic etc etc..)

While you're early, take a look at airport diagrams...

-Have an idea of where your gate is in relation to taxi ways
- get a general idea of frequencies
- have an idea of what kind of taxi instructions you can expect

I once jumpseated on AA (MIA-LAX) and the FO ( who was an TWA furlough with plenty of experience but just of IOE) completely screwed up everything from pushback clearance to taxi instructions.. He obviously hadn't bothered to review anything about the airport before pushback( frequencies, operations, ramp procedures) When FO goes to Lav, Captain turns to both us jumpseaters, shakes his head and chastises the FO for a complete lack of preparedness...

Basically spend some time, even the night before, getting the lay of the land..You will find that sooner or later you'll know what they are gonna say before they say it.

Be ready to write everything down..... Make sure you have a pen in hand when you call for taxi...Last thing ya want to do is be fumbling for a pen while ATC is rattling off instructions....

Most important thing is be prepared...Don't go in expecting the IOE instructor to walk you through it all.... he/she is there to teach you the general operations of the plane and company.. NOT necessarily how to understand taxi instruction or how to decipher SID's...

And as long as you appear to have put some time in preparing, you'll get a lot more leeway when you screw something up..(which ya will!!)

We've all been there.... As time goes along the cockpit will get smaller, and things you get tunnel vision on now
will become second nature within a few trips.

You will also quickly learn that things are generally done slightly different online than in the sim....

I think KingAirFun really nailed it.

Kfahmi, look at our company 10-7 pages for ORD. This will tell you what gates we park at, and also what's expected for Inbound/Outbound operations as far as setting up the radios and that sort of thing. There are also expected (aka "Standard") taxi routes in the Jepps that are pretty accurate.

I haven't been to ORD in awhile, but feel free to send me a PM and I'll help you out however I can.

My first approach at ORD was a VFR go-around because the runway was not clear - be ready to do what you were trained to do: aviate, then navigate, then communicate. Enjoy!

Congrats on making it out onto the line. I hope IOE is going well for you.

If anything, on ground freq in ORD, if you can't muster a readback, just mumble roger. Often times it just too busy to readback and they just want you to follow the plane in front of you.

You'll discover that it's usually the same taxi route to each runway, the captains know how to get there.

If you call for taxi on metering, roger and switch over to ground right away, usually ground is already snapping taxi instructions out to you.

At least you did it in the sim, I pulled it in the airplane, and clunk it comes right out and it sounds like a john deere lawnmower inside the flight deck. Makes it hard to hear the radios or talk to the other guy over the intercom.

Call in sick!

Everything that everyone has posted is spot on. So read them through once or twice.

Here's my .02 worth as I'm based there to help get a sense of what it takes to get off the gate and on your way: But before that---we all make mistakes online. First off, don't be afraid to fess up either to the other guy or ATC...Its how we learn and keeps from making what may be a minutiae situation anything worse.

ORD will spit out a taxi clearance with the best of the auctioneers. So I always write this stuff down--every time. I can't tell you how many times taxiways or runway clearances got changed (5 runway changes are my best to date). Therefore when your trying to run checklists and new performance numbers, your not trying to remember what the last change was and how to get there.

Push-backs:For the AA ramp (131.87-if that's what you will be using) I like to put it in COM 2. That way when they switch you to metering (on COM 1---121.67, then ground 121.75)--its just a push of a button. Many times early in the morning when there is little traffic, these guys are spitting out your taxi clearance by the time your flipping the switch--IMO

Make sure "if" your aircraft has the ability, put the altitude rings in your Nav display--you need to be at 3000' by 5 miles and 4000' by 8 miles. Also, and this is a nice "gotcha" if your not paying attention---you need to maintain 250 kts until otherwise directed.

Congrats and welcome to the line.............................................. ..........