planesquid

...from this rather unhelpful picture?


I'm undertaking a (probably futile) attempt to identify every flight I've ever been on, which is fun because it's not something I've ever kept meticulous records about. The pre-Internet era is particularly challenging as there were quite a few humdrum shorthaul flights paid for with cash over the counter at a travel agency, which I have very little memory of.

Anyway the above photograph just turned up - helpfully a much younger self wrote on the back "village near Gatwick", but no date. However this would have been any time between summer 1992 and summer 1996; going by the fields on the right this was probably mid/late summer? The flight would have been from Berlin-Tegel (TXL), and most likely the airline was BA or Lufthansa (I can't recall any other airlines flying that route directly at that time). I presume that's the aircraft registration on the wing; last two letters look like "DP", and the one in the foreground is probably "L".

Sorry no prizes, but anyone have any ideas? Is it possible to look up old aircraft registration numbers and/or timetables?

KT550

Not many countries show the registration on top of the wing; BA and LH never have.
In fact, German aircraft have only recently started displaying the registration on the underside.

Maybe it is Austrian Airlines MD-80 OE-LDP, which was active from 1981 to 1999.

Doesn't fit with a direct flight from Berlin to London, but maybe you recall flying Austrian?

This photo shows the registration and some red paint on the wing tip.

planesquid

Oh cool, thanks - that makes total sense, I did in fact fly to Vienna from London in 1987 or 1988 (school exchange trip thing), which was on Austrian and evidently from LGW. It could have been a charter, and explains why I had a camera with me (in the early 90s I was an impoverished student and didn't usually carry one). Next task is to nail down the dates of that trip (worst case I can reconstruct it from family/public records as it coincided with a recordable event).

planesquid

I actually have the boarding pass stub for this one:


Location: Tokyo-Haneda (HND)
Date: September 25th, 1993
Flight number: ANA675
Destination: Hiroshima (HIJ)

But anyone good at identifying planes from the tail end? The "00" looks Boeing-ish. White mark towards the top of the tail is a small tear in the photo.

Random anecdote: this was two days before the new terminal (now Terminal 1) was opened, and it was somewhat chaotic (bus driver dropped us off at the wrong plane for a start).

KT550

If you flew to Gatwick, it would have been a charter.
They used the name Austrian Air Charter; flight number would have had OB prefix.

jrl767

judging from the tail cone it’s a 767 (NH had both the -200 and -300); pretty sure their livery had the model number in that location

the registration (JA followed by four digits) would have been aft of the rear door

pic from x-planes.org

planesquid

Thanks. A 767 is certainly feasible, digging around a bit I see ANA has used them on that flight over the years. At the time I wasn't particularly interested in planes so rarely "wasted" film on them. Anyway it's an interesting research/detective exercise, and is causing all kinds of interesting memories to pop up.

planesquid

Next up: this twin-engined mini-jet, here at Redmond, Oregon in 2011:


Another view earlier the same day at SFO:



Looks similar to the aircraft on the left (which has an identifiable registration number), but on closer examination has fewer passenger windows.

gfunkdave

According to planespotters.net, ship number 7034 is a CRJ-200, reg N407SW.

planesquid

Oh, hah, I didn't even notice that number, had no idea there was such a thing (FWIW putting in "ship number aircraft" into Google brings up this very subforum as the first result).

Thanks, another blank filled in .

I'll be visiting my parents' house in a couple of weeks for the first time in quite a few years, I'm fairly sure they have some holiday albums of 1980s trips which will include tickets and/or plane photographs.

planesquid

Unidentifed Air Canada plane at YVR bound for NRT in May 2014:


Some internet sleuthing indicates it is probably a 767-300ER - am I correct?

KT550

Yes, it's a 767-300

The fleet number on the nose gear door - 684 - equates to C-FCAG
https://www.planespotters.net/airfra...-canada/rmkm73

KT550

The A330 photo in you flickr will be fleet no. 931, so C-GFAF

https://www.planespotters.net/airfra...-canada/eg9pl3

planesquid

I had no idea such a thing existed, thanks! If you ever need say a pre-1957 Japanese National Railways EMU identified, please let me know, I'm a dab hand at that...

For random personal reasons, I'm engaged in a project to identify every flight I've flown on, which is proving an interesting experience, especially as my capacity to identify planes was historically more-or-less limited to narrow-body/wide-body/wide-body with two decks/tiny funny plane possibly with propellors.