How to find a photo of a milestone flight
To find a photo of a milestone flight, such as a first solo, a first command or a last flight before retirement, take its date, aircraft registration and airports from your logbook, and search the registration on JetPhotos, Planespotters.net and Airliners.net for a photo taken at either airport that day. Flown and Found can check every flight in your logbook at once, milestones included, and keeps looking as new photos are posted.
© Lentokonefani · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsThe flights you remember
Most flights blur together. A few never do: the first time you flew alone, your first day on a new type, the first time you took the left seat, a flight with family on board, the last time you flew an aircraft before it left the fleet, and one day, the last flight of a career.
On any of those days there may have been somebody at the fence with a long lens, who photographed your aircraft as it went past and posted it online. You would never know unless you went looking.
What are the chances?
Honestly, modest. Across the logbooks on Flown and Found, about 2% of flights have a photo taken on the day. Some days have far better odds than others:
- Long-haul flights do best, at about 5%. Large aircraft at large airports draw the spotters.
- Busy airports in daylight, especially those with a viewing area, do well.
- Light aircraft, small airfields and night flights do least well.
Even where your day was not caught, the aircraft almost certainly was, on some other day. That can still be worth having.
How to look for one
- Find the line in your logbook. You need the date, the registration, and the departure and arrival airports.
- Search the registration on each site, typed exactly as painted, hyphen included. Where to find aircraft photos online shows how.
- Look for your date and your airport. Go by the date each photo was taken, not when it was posted.
- If it is recent, look again later. Half of spotter photos go online within about a month of being taken, and some take years.
- If you find it, contact the photographer. A print needs their permission, and it is worth telling them what the photo means to you.
Let Flown and Found watch for it
You do not have to remember which flights to check. Upload your logbook to Flown and Found and it searches every flight in it on five spotter sites, including JetPhotos, Planespotters.net and Airliners.net. It keeps only photos taken at your airport on your day, says how sure it is that each one shows your flight, and looks again for two years as new photos are posted. Your milestones are covered along with everything else, including the ones you had forgotten were milestones.
See which of your flights were photographed. It is free to join, and your logbook is private to you.
Questions
Can I get a print of a photo I find?
Ask the photographer. The photo is theirs, and permission is needed to print or post it. Planespotters.net has a Contact Photographer link beside each photo; on other sites, the photographer's profile is the place to start.
My first solo was in a light aircraft at a small airfield. Is it worth looking?
It is worth a look, but the odds are lower: light aircraft at small airfields are photographed far less often than airliners. The aircraft itself may well have been photographed on another day, which can still make a good keepsake.
How far back do the photo sites go?
A long way. Airliners.net alone has been collecting photos since 1995. If you flew it, it is worth searching, however long ago.
Is Flown and Found free?
It is free to join and to upload your logbook, with no card needed.
Written . All guides