It is a very annoying process. I sent my applications the first day schools would accept visting apps and still did not receive certain dates. The med. students at the home program get first choice which usually eliminates at least one month for rotators. Furthermore, I had one of my applications in two days before the opening date (for accepting out-of-state students) and was still beat out by other vistors! Crazy process and difficult to predict.

I went through this process last year and scheduling aways is by far the most annoying part. Starting your rotation in late October is fine. There are some disadvantages which are as follows:

-You will not be able to get a very useful letter of recommendation from this institution. ERAS will have been opened for quite a while and you want letters submitted to ERAS as early as possible and ideally by the end of September.
-You will be receiving interview invites by email while you are on this rotation. Have a cell phone that you can retrieve email and check frequently. Obviously be discreet and don't announce to everyone there "Yay!..I got an interview from so and so."

There are also advantages to doing an away rotation late:

-You are fresh in that institutions head when it comes time to interview
-You will be pretty well versed in ortho (as much as a med student can be) and you have more potential to shine.

Don't stress too much about this, there are plenty of people I met on the trail that do away rotations into November and some even December. Again, don't rely on getting an LOR from them though. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice.