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An All-Time High East Dundee Pilot Sets a Record Flying From Chicago to Japanese City

Posted on: Tuesday, 30 August 2005, 21:00 CDT

Some people train for months or even years to set a record, but others, like East Dundee pilot Tom Painter, set a record out of sheer luck.

Painter, who flies for American Airlines, set an air route record May 2 when he flew a Boeing 777, one of the larger commercial aircraft in production, from O'Hare International Airport to the industrial coastal city of Nagoya, Japan, in 12 hours and 9 minutes. The scheduled flight time was 13 hours exactly.

There was no previous record for the route.

"I wasn't really trying to set the record, but when we landed I thought that it was pretty fast and decided to submit it," Painter said.

Painter attributed his record-setting flight to a combination of not many flights traveling the route from Chicago to Nagoya and good wind conditions for flying.

Modern pilots use different currents at different altitudes to save on fuel and get to destinations quicker.

"We had great winds, so I applied those," he said. "There was a time in the '60s and '70s when gas was cheap and pilots could just fly in a straight line from one place to another as fast as possible. There were a lot of records set back then that will probably never be broken."

Besides his trips to Japan, Painter also flies to London regularly, but he's ruled out setting any records on that journey.

"There have been too many Concorde trips there," said Painter, referring to the supersonic passenger jet that was retired in 2003.

Today, airlines take fuel conservation much more seriously, and consider wind currents when planning flight routes.

"Routes today are longer, but they're also quicker because they take advantage of the winds," he said. "They'll have people sit down and look at the different flights to a place. If they can save a gallon of gas one way, that's the route you take."

Painter, who has flown for American Airlines for nearly 30 years, but began flying a few years before that in the Air Force, he admits flying isn't for everyone.

"Flying is something that either people are attracted to or not," he said. "It fascinates some people and others could care less about it."

For now, Painter remains content with his place in aeronautic history, however minor it may be.

"It's not quite like when Lindbergh set a record, but it's still in the same book," he said.

Source: Daily Herald; Arlington Heights, Ill.

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