"United Flight 566, you are cleared to Rome..."

Although I had a two-hour delay in Chicago that was partially influenced by weather and also influenced by what the pilot said was "necessary" maintenance checks on the fuel system of the old Boeing 737 we were flying, there was one cool bit from the flight -- you can hear the air traffic control communications the entire flight on the in-flight channel 9.

It was really cool to hear the speed at which the ORD tower was giving instructions to the different planes taking off from the world's second busiest airport.

Once in the air, the tower eventually handed the plane over to various different air traffic control centers along the way -- Chicago, Indianapolis, Memphis and finally Atlanta.

It was pretty cool because you could hear updates on turbulence in the area -- "light chop" meant not so bad.