15/05/2021 – Update from NASAM …

Update from the Chairman

Reopening from May 22nd

The museum will be open Saturdays and Sundays (and bank holiday Monday) from Saturday 22nd May. From then we are able to open most of the inside areas of the museum. The only areas that will continue to be closed will be the rooms behind the shop. Sadly these are too cramped to be able to operate a one-way system effectively. The NAAFI will be open for hot and cold drinks and snacks.

Following government regulations, the rule of six only applies inside, outside the rule becomes 30.

From 1st June we will be open Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.

Subject to the easing of restrictions continuing to schedule we believe that from June 21st we will be able to reopen the rest of the inside of the museum as well as being able to allow access to our hands-on exhibits and inside various aircraft.

We very much look forward to welcoming you back.

It started as a joke

A family arrived at the gate on foot with a child who didn’t look happy.

One of the volunteers asked if they had seen any of our dinosaurs on-site to cheer them up. The volunteer was surprised a short time later when the family returned with a photo of the child with a dinosaur.

The dinosaur had been found whilst mowing the grass and placed on top of a traffic cone, then the grass cutter had forgotten to remove it.

The story then spread to other families and became a regular greeting to families with small children. It has proved so popular that additional dinosaurs were obtained and now we have five or six around the site to be found. Children who spot at least three are eligible for a small prize.

Note that they don’t always hide in the same place each day so it’s no good remembering where they are in the photos below!  (Dinosaurs 01 thru 03). 

Getting ready to open inside

Over the last two weeks, we have been moving various exhibits around in the Ken Wallis Hall. As previously reported during the time we have been open outside only we have moved exhibits to the hangar doors (Small Arms 01) or outside on a daily basis. One microlight, in particular, has been very popular and we wanted to be able to easily get it out in future (currently it takes up most of the space in the NAAFI during the week).

To facilitate this we have moved the vehicles in the Ken Wallis hall from one side to the other. That will allow the Flylite Scout to be easily taken out of the roller door at the back of the hall and displayed outside.  The work was carried out by the volunteers including Ian S, who was looking particularly happy about the task (Making Room 01 thru 03).

Interested visitors I

On Sunday 9th May we had an impromptu visit from a sports car club based in Colchester. They brought seven cars (and one pick up) to the museum and enjoyed their visit with us, parking at the front of the museum for other visitors to see their cars (Colchester Sports Cars 01 and 02).

Interested visitors II

The local herd of cows were extremely interested in the goings-on recently. They were crowded along the fence between their meadow and the museum. Sadly we decided not to allow them to inspect the exhibits closer up (Interesting Visitor II).

Steve Bell

General Updates

Chippies Update

The latest update from the Wood Workshops and Team came in from Michael.

Dave H completed replacing the wheels on one trolley, which previously had inflatable tyres, with new ones with maintenance-free solid tyres.  This also meant replacing the axles. So while he was at it, he remounted the turntable for steering and improved the towing arm so it should be less likely to catch the unwary ankle. Finally, Michael F gave it a sand down and a lick of paint and it is ready to go back into service (Trolly Progress 01 thru 04).

Recently the museum received a model “Spitfire” (see NASAM Online Flier 05/03/2021 “Gift to The Museum” Click to Go ). After inspection by the team, we decided it needed a clean and some TLC. So taking advantage of the warmer, sunnier weather last week Michael F took it outside, gave it a wash down and a new coat of paint. Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been so good this week so we couldn’t get it outside again to finish the camouflage and it is too big to easily work on in the workshop. Hopefully next week we will be able to finish the job and Ash can work on the markings (Model Spitfire 01 thru 08).

When put back together the “Spitfire” could run on its wheels. It isn’t robust enough to take a lot of children pushing it about or climbing on it so we will build something to display it on, maybe a stand or just some chocks.

Ash has been working on some more picket fence which will go up next to the VRP, to go around a small flower bed.

Finally, Michael F and Ash have been renovating the children’s drawing table, giving it a new stand (Drawing Table). With a new coat of paint, it will be ready for when the Museum opens fully later this month.

Paint Team Out and About

Continuing with his updates, Barry sent the following about the work continuing with the Paint Team.

Tuesday 4^th May

A cold, wet and windy day meant that it was not possible to progress the strip back of the Meteor. Gwen and Mark deserve a gold medal for sticking it out and pressure washing the Canberras and various other outside exhibits. I think they only noticed it was raining when they downed tools for lunch!

Meanwhile, Ian and Barry re-mounted the refurbished Merlin crank next to the supercharger behind the ‘paper’ Spit and then went on to paint some of the Auster panels for John in the (heated) rear workshop.

Tuesday 11^th May

Much better weather enabled Mark and Barry to get back to more hard and slow yards on the Meteor strip back (Paint Team Meteor). On the other side of the museum, Gwen, Cliff and Ian donned the wet weather gear once again and started pressure washing the Valetta (Paint Team Valetta). I understand that a professional aircraft painter has now been found and he should commence a full re-paint this September. In the meantime, the plan is to give the Valetta a light makeover in the coming weeks; just refreshing the red detailing and some other markings.

Model Displays

An update from Brian who thought this might be of interest.

Apart from him looking after the Memorial Site, he is currently sorting all the aircraft models that we have in the museum. This will be a long task he reports, and it won’t happen overnight.

The displays will comprise aircraft used in the 1st and 2nd world wars, aircraft before and between wars and the cold war era. Hopefully, one cabinet to one country if possible.

Of course, display cabinets need to be constructed, treated and painted plus areas found to display the models. One such display has already been built and filled with German 2nd WW aircraft. The next job will be to label the models. This cabinet is in the far hangar (Luftwaffe Display 01 thru 05).

Model Teamwork

So from Brian who sorted the models, the display cabinet construction by the chippies and described by Michael in one of his updates, the model aircraft refurb completed by Malcolm, again described in one of his updates, and the photos from Steve .…   Teamwork by the Volunteers. 

Would you like to join in and help ?? 

Thanks again to the contributors.

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Would You Like To Help

The museum continues to incur expenses for insurance, maintenance and some essential running costs, and I make no apologies for keeping this section in the blog.  Normally being part-funded mostly by visitor and membership donations, in these restricted times, we have been forced to rely on some grants from local and national authorities to help us meet some, but not all, of those costs.   

If you feel able to help the museum, there are several ways you can do this.  Help by becoming a Museum Member, also by Volunteering to help at the museum, or by donating to assist in our running costs.  To become a Museum Member or to Volunteer Member, please click on the appropriate button below to see the details on our main website.

      

To donate, please click the donate button below to be taken to our donations page.

 

For all other details on the museum, please go to our main web page by clicking on the picture below.  Thank you for taking the time to read this.

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