British Island Airways 1-11 at Luton 1985

[Wee Clink]

I am not sure if this is the best forum for this question so Mods please move if appropriate....

I appreciate this is a bit of a long shot but for nostalgic reasons I am trying to identify the registration of first aircraft I flew on.
It was a British Island Airways BAC 1-11 from Luton to Edinburgh and back on 21st May 1985.
The flight was a special charter organised by Royal Mail Special Services to celebrate something to do with their Datapost operation at Luton, and I went with my father who had been invited as a local councillor.
The flight would have left Luton in the morning and returned that evening - the return was memorable as it was a bit foggy at Luton that evening and the pilot had to execute a low level go-around as we weren't lined up with the runway on the first attempt - very exciting for a first flying experience !
As part of the trip I think were supposed to catch up with the evening Datapost flight (maybe the Shorts 360 G-RMSS ?) from Edinburgh to Luton, but I think that got delayed as it apparently took off from Edinburgh without a fuel cap in place and had to return.

Thanks in advance to anyone who might be able to help !

[Hipper]

I guess you have used Google to search? I found this:


HOME OF THE BAC 1-11 ON THE WEB


Enter site, go to 'COUNTRY GUIDE TO OPERATORS', then 'UNITED KINGDOM' and scroll down about two fifths of the page to find 'British Island Airways, Ltd. - (KD, IV & UK/BIA)'


That lists all the BAC 1-11s they used. That should narrow it down. There are also photos of some of these aircraft dotted around - here for example:


British Island Airways Aviation Photos - Planespotters.net Just Aviation

[Wee Clink]

Hipper

Thanks for the link - a very interesting and informative site.
I had already spent some time of Google and narrowed down the possible aircraft, using airliners.net and G-INFO, to four 400 series and three 500 series 1-11's that BIA MkII were operating on that date - although if it was G-AXMG the paint must still have been wet as it was only registered to BIA on 15th May.

bral

Thanks for the information. I hadn't realised that there was another 360 in the Datapost scheme so it could have been either aircraft I guess.
To add a bit more doubt as to the accuracy of my memory, I just found the tie we were all given when we got off the aircraft at Luton, and this has one of the Datapost EMB110's embroidered on it, so although I am fairly sure it was a Shorts 360, it could have been an Embraer 110.

[WHBM]

I make it the following in service on that date.

3 x Srs 400 : 121/G-AXOX; 162/G-AXBB; 166/G-CBIA
2 x Srs 500 : 211/G-AXLN; 237/G-AYWB


AXMG is not shown in my data as in BIA service until 22 May 85, while AXMU had gone off to Air UK on 14 May 85.

[Wee Clink]

BIA 1-11

Still on a mission to identify the first aircraft I flew on, I went to see my parents today and asked my father if he had and recollections of the Datapost trip to Edinburgh. He couldn't recall anything apart from the stuff I already knew, but he did say that he had kept a load of newspaper clippings from his year as Mayor and there might be something in there.......
So hardly daring to hope I started to wade through them and within five minutes couldn't believe my luck when I came up with the following clipping



Unfortunately the newspaper photographer (or his editor) had successfully managed to either exclude in the original photo (or cropped during editing) the two bits of the aircraft that would have given me the identity through the registration or the name on the nose, but at least with two over wing exits visible I now know it was definitely a 500 series 1-11 and therefore one of two aircraft BIA were operating at the time........G-AXLN or G-AYWB.

The text in the clipping said the trip was to celebrate the 150th Datapost flight between Edinburgh and Luton but I think this was a mistake as some other papers in the pile mentioned it was the 1,500th flight which seems to be more worthy of a milestone to celebrate. It seems that the whole of the British Island Airways logo was painted out on the port side and a large Datapost logo applied - would this have been a decal, or painted on ?

I must have looked at the photo about a dozen times before I finally spotted it though - just visible behind a set of bagpipes was the edge of the nose gear door......and just visible on the edge of the door what looks like the letter B

So thank to those that responded with information to help me try and identify the aircraft, and also to those who maybe checked through their records but to no avail.

My next mission will be to try and persuade one of the 1:200 diecast model manufacturers to release G-AYWB in this scheme.......

[rog747]

well the photo narrows it down to a 500 series 1-11 for sure as you noted

as for the regn sorry - i can see a B too lol

ex court line a/c ?

XLN was ex BMA one of ours

[WHBM]

AYWB :


Aircraft no 237, built Hurn in Dec-70. To Lacsa Costa Rica as TI-LRF in May-71, on to Cayman Airways as VR-CAB in Nov-79 until Dec-82. Stored until BIA took it as G-AYWB in Feb-84 until 1990, when short-lived London European had it as G-DJOS, at end of 1990 transferred to Ryanair as EI-CCU until autumn 94, when stored again until May-95 when to Nationwide in South Africa as ZS-NUG. Dumped at Jo'burg Lanseria in 2001 with the engines off, and was apparently still there like this at the end of 2013. Here's the same side as your original photo.


Photos: BAC 111-531FS One-Eleven Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

[DaveReidUK]

And a photo of it with BIA, showing WB on the NW door:

Photos: BAC 111-531FS One-Eleven Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net