LAX August 1980

[deke]

Following Mom's passing, nearly two years ago now, finally got round to her house clearance ready for sale. I was hoping the loft might turn up some old spotting registers and it didn't disappoint!

More of that another time as I get stuck into the old Ian Allan books from the 70s.

Tucked amongst a bag of souvenirs from a month long road trip in California in 1980 was a loose slip of paper written on each side with registration logs.

Photo on link below

link

By then, at 22 years old, I had long since given up the spotting game, and that only revived some six years ago.

However, the story of this slip of paper is that I was stuck in LAX without a flight booked back to UK, and was on the standby list for the Laker Skytrain with no certainty of getting on.

So with hours to kill I went back into spotter mode and wrote down anything I could see, and maybe instinctively knew the log might one day prove of interest to my future self.

So fully 41 years later, the log comes alive again, and without a few undecipherables I'm still trying to work out, I have added the below list to my logs, and how much different it looks too!

29/30 August 1980 (trying to work out exact date)

JA8141 Boeing 747 – 246B, Japan Airlines
XA-SOI Douglas DC-9-10, Aeromexico
B-1880 Boeing 747SP, China Airlines
N68NA Douglas DC-10-10, National
N4713U Boeing 747 – 122, United Airlines
N1832U Douglas DC-10-10, United Airlines
PP-VJH Boeing 707 – 320C, Varig
N7646 Boeing 727 – 222, United Airlines
N104AA Douglas DC-10-10, American Airlines
N411SA Nord 262A-44, Swift Aire
N11005 Lockheed L-1011 Tristar 1, TWA
N334GW Short 330-100, Golden West Airlines
N2819W Boeing 727 – 247, Western Airlines
G-BGXE Douglas DC-10-30, Laker Airways
N509PA Lockheed L-1011 Tristar 3, Pan American World Airways
N1802U Douglas DC-10-10, United Airlines
LN-RNA Boeing 747 – 283B, SAS
C-FTNA Lockheed L-1011 Tristar 1, Air Canada
N4748 Boeing 727 – 235, National Airlines
N113WA Douglas DC-10-30CF, World Airways
G-BGXI Douglas DC-10-30, Laker Airways
N799TW Boeing 707 – 131B, TWA
G-BGXG Douglas DC-10-30, Laker Airways
D-ABYJ Boeing 747 – 230B, Lufthansa
ZK-NZR Douglas DC-10-30, ANZ
N751PA Boeing 747 – 230B, Pan Am
N66NA Douglas DC-10-10, National Airlines
G-BDXD Boeing 747 – 236B, British Airways
N330GW Short 330-100, Golden West Airlines
HL7442 Boeing 747 – 230B, Korean Air Lines
N301A Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante, Imperial Airlines
N754PA Boeing 747 – 121, Pan American World Airways
ZK-NZN Douglas DC-10-30, ANZ
N63118 DHC-6 Twin Otter, Golden West Airlines
N93109 Boeing 747 – 131, TWA
N68049 Douglas DC-10-10CF, Continental Airlines
N54353 Boeing 727 – 231, TWA
N901WA Douglas DC-10-10, Western Airlines
N63119 DHC-6 Twin Otter, Golden West Airlines
N7060Y Boeing 727 – 22, United Airlines
C-GAAE Boeing 727 – 233, Air Canada
N9359 Douglas DC-9-15RC, Hughes AirWest
N8022BN Douglas DC-8-62H, Braniff International Airways
N421SA Fokker F27-600 Friendship, Swift Aire
N902WA Douglas DC-10-10, Western Airlines

[graham]

Wow, what a great find Deke! They were sat there just waiting for you. I had a vaguely similar thing a few years ago, I went to see my Mum, she said, "I have something for you", went into the dining room and came back with an armful of my old logs from the 70s which had lain undisturbed in a Brown & Polson Cornflour cardboard box for well over 40 years. The box had been covered with spare blankets so she assumed the box was full of them and as such, had never investigated the contents. She decided to have a clear out and there they were. Lots of old CAMs which back then, I only underlined with no date so when I upgraded to Planebase about three years ago, I had to guess the dates and locations for thousands of entries.