From KORD to over CYWG

[jagabom]

I have nothing to do with real flying. Used to fly 30 years ago. Anyways, the wife is flying from KORD to Japan. When I try to use an online route planner the route takes me right over CYWG which is Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and then over Alaska and on to Japan. They are going JAL.
CYWG is where we live. I was wondering if this might be the correct route of the flight. I often see 747's flying over from the south east to the north west. Not sure where they are going. The kids want to stand outside about 3 hours after the planned takeoff to see if they can see the plane fly by. They are flying a 744 of JAL's. Maybe someone knows the actual route. This is my 1st post so forgive me if it is in the wrong area. I just seen routes and thought I would try here.
Think this might work?

Jim
CYWG

[Left Coaster]

Hi there! Ironically, I did the exact thing you mentioned yesterday, except it was from ORD to HKG! Out of Chicago, overhead YWG and then over the Pas, Whitehorse, Nome AK, then into Russian Airspace at Yuree and down into Korea, Japan, Taipei, the HKG, total enroute: 16 30...Quite a busy route, at least until we hit mother Russia, hope you can find the flight tracking websites, they will sHow the flight until it's off radar or into foreign airspace.
Merry Christmas to you all in the Great White North, from us in the steamy tropics! Kinda miss the cooler air, but you can keep the -40C stuff you get there in the middle!
Cheers
LC
PS...three hours after dep will be too long...more like about 1+45 would do it...btw it was overcast when we went over, I spoke to my father in law just before we launched and he gave me the weather report! Good luck...

[Bullethead]

G'day Jim,

If you use Google Earth, there's a function where you can click on a place, say a departure point, and then click on a destination and a great circle, the shortest distance, will be drawn between the two.

The function button is in the top tool bar and looks like a ruler. If you click on KORD and then move over and click on RJAA, Tokyo, you'll find that the line is drawn pretty much right over Winnipeg. Long range air routes generally are very close to the great circle track.

Regards,
BH.

[northbynorthwest]

Hi Jim,

I am a Flight Dispatcher at Northwest in Minneapolis, and I did the flight planning for our flt NW 19 MSP-NRT, which would have been on pretty much the same routing as your wife out of ORD. We too routed over YWG, the Pas, Whitehorse, Fairbanks to Nome, then down between Russia and Alaska to join the R220 airway on the North Pacific route structure. We did not need to fly over Russia even though we often have to because of headwinds. I did not see any flights ORD-NRT routing over Russia either, so I presume JAL flew the same route as NW 19.

Merry Xmas.

[jagabom]

Thanks everyone. We'll give it a try.

Jim
CYWG