NASAM Update as of the 30th Jul 2021

In This Edition Of The Online Flier

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Chairman’s Update

Family Fun Day Update

The museum had its first post lockdown event day on Sunday 25th July. The weather was kind, far kinder than the previous evening’s forecast suggested. Unfortunately, the bad weather was to the North and the scheduled Hurricane Flypast was not possible. The Pilot tried to reach us but was defeated by the low cloud over North Norfolk.

The rain almost stayed away completely though and over 600 people visited the museum. We were joined by the Vintage Military Radio Society, the East Anglian Military Vehicles club, The Royal Air Forces Association and the 40s Swing Dancers. There was a display of weaponry and a lot of families took up the opportunity to purchase an aircraft passbook to get a look inside four of the aircraft. Many of the children made and flew a stomp rocket, and tried their hands at old fashioned fairground stalls or the tombola (Family Fun Day 01 thru 18).

All in all a fun-filled welcome back to event days at the museum.

Steve Bell

Family Fun Day Photos (start of the day)

Keep Up To Date

Open days

With the easing of the COVID restrictions, we have been able to open up more areas of the Museum and we are now open to the general public three days per week, and for special event days such as the Family Fun Day just past and the RAFA and Veterans Day (see below). For the foreseeable future, these three days each week are:

Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays

from 1000 until 1600.

For more information on the COVID General Guidance at the Museum, please see the section below.

RAFA and Veterans Day 8th Aug 2021

This is a special events day at the Museum. The Royal Air Force Association and Veterans Day at the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum.

Come along and meet members of the local Royal Air Forces Association and other military Veterans. Enjoy talking to these veterans and take a look at the 1000’s of artefacts, 60 aircraft and cockpits as well as the themed rooms.

Also …. Subject to weather conditions on the day and their operational commitments, the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows and the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight propose to flypast the Museum on the day. As well as the Red Arrows overflight, the BBMF will have one of their Spitfire aircraft do a flyby over the Museum on Sunday. The Red Arrows have said that they will liaise with the BBMF and the timings will be announced on the day when the Red Arrows and the BBMF have their schedules arranged.

COVID General Guidance

The restrictions on the number of visitors having been lifted and we will welcome all arrivals to the Museum. Although no longer a legal requirement, we will continue to ask visitors for NHS Test and Trace details or to scan the QR code at the Museum Visitor Reception Point.

In order to be responsible we will try to retain the least number of guidance restrictions for our visitors as follows:

We will open as many buildings as we can safely staff with our Volunteers.
We will maintain the one-way system in buildings with limited space.
We ask that face coverings are worn when possible in the confined spaces.
We will advise what is open and what is closed when visitors arrive.

A number of facilities will be available on all the open days:

The NAAFI café is once again serving hot and cold drinks with some snacks inside a dedicated area within the main hangar. This area also shows off some of the artwork that the museum is privileged to have been donated.
The shop will be open with a range of items from “pocket money” items for the children and with aviation memorabilia, models, toys, snacks, ice creams and cold drinks.
Hands-on exhibits will be available if we have sufficient volunteers onsite to manage these.

To keep up to date with further information, please keep an eye on our Social Media or click on the button below to be notified of any upcoming changes in the latest blog.

Go to the form forEMAIL NOTIFICATIONS

The latest COVID restrictions in place at and around the museum can be found by clicking on the button.

NASAM COVID Guidance

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General Updates

Thanks to the usual suspects we have a little more information on work being undertaken by volunteer teams at the Museum to keep the place looking shipshape, plus some photos from mid-week and the latest from the MMU.

Wednesday at the Museum

In addition to the photos of the Family Fun Day above, we have a couple of photos from Ian taken on Wednesday this week, when in addition to numerous visitors we had a visit by four historic WWII era Jeeps (Jeeps 01 and 02).

Wednesdays Photos

Chippies Update

The latest update from Michael and the Chippies Workshop is that Dave H, Ash and Michael F have continued constructing the new electricity and broom cupboards. Tuesday we spent preparing parts for the interior of the broom cupboard: the rear wall and a shelf for cleaning materials. Last week we had used temporary fixings to safely secure the front panel to the building girders. So Dave made two bespoke brackets that we would use for permanent fixings.

Thursday was really productive. We installed the rear wall and shelf and fixed up the two brackets to permanently secure the front. Next came constructing the floor in front of the old electricity cupboard which allowed us to complete the last job of the week: putting up the front panel of the new electricity cupboard. However, due to some cable runs, we first retired to the workshop for tea and rejigged the panel to allow it to fit. Our alterations were dead on and the panel went straight in and is now securely fastened to the building frame (Hangar Entrance Cupboard 13 thru 18).

Chippies Photos

Painters Update

Barry again provided a Paint Team for July

The Meteor has brought us to our knees (quite literally!)

July has been the third month of sanding and grinding on the Meteor. Some sort of milestone was achieved mid-July when all the upper surfaces were completed. In the last couple of weeks, Mark (in the red) and Ian (in the green) have turned their attention to the undersides of the wings, fuselage and undercarriage. This has meant a couple of Tuesdays spent on our knees, or even lying down and pushing upwards with an orbital sander onto a wing; a good workout for anyone seeking to shed a few pounds, I can tell you!

The undersides are now pretty much complete and next week the team will turn their attention to filling various holes and dents in the fuselage, wings and engine cowls; prior to applying some paint (at last!). In the last couple of weeks, Colin (in the hat) joined the team and as you can see in the pic, he has been covering over some of the larger holes and dents with thin aluminium sheets (Meteor Refurb 16 thru 18).

Elsewhere, Gwen and Cliff (in the beige cap) have been steadily working their way towards the front of the Valetta, refreshing the red stripe and re-sealing the window surrounds (Valetta Refresh 09).

Due to inclement weather on 5^th July, Barry and Mark granted themselves a ‘day off’ from the Meteor and painted the fuselage of the Auster (Auster 01) and put a first coat on the wings (Auster 02). Meanwhile, Ian deserves a big pat on the back for persevering with the Meteor through the rain that day, somehow finding the odd dry spot underneath to prep.

Painters Update Photos

Model Maintenance Unit

Malcolm reported that not much has moved forward within the MMU this month due to the fine weather diverting him away from model refurbishment. His projects now are three ongoing themes for the remainder of the year are the Berlin Airlift, Nimrod R1 model exhibit and Cold War East Anglia display.

Two aircraft being prepared for the Berlin Airlift display are RAF York C1 and Dakota. The York has already been returned to the museum model store, restored as an example in the markings of No 51 Squadron 1948. The photo below shows the halfway point of the restoration (Model York 01), after having some time spent removing a thick layer of dust and dirt ( previously been displayed hanging from the ceiling as part of another exhibit). Since then It has had a full repaint and decals applied.

The Dakota is a new build, I was intending to build a restoration from three existing models but unfortunately could not find enough parts from the three to end up with a complete aeroplane. Luckily I had an unbuilt Dak model which has been in my own “stash” for some time so decided that it would be donated for the exhibition. The model has been given its silver coat (Model Dakota 01), the next stage is to add undercarriage and windows. Decals are held for an example of 46 Squadron RAF. The expected completion date will be early September.

MMU Photos

Once again I am indebted to the contributors for their input to this edition and to the dedication that they put into their Volunteer work.

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Would You Like To Help

We are now seeing visitor numbers increase slightly on the limited opening days (aided by being open three days per week), however, because of the restricted numbers due to Government guidelines, the donations are still well below the levels of previous years. The museum continues to incur expenses for insurance, maintenance and essential running costs, I make no apologies therefore for keeping this section in the blog, therefore, hoping a few people will consider helping in the ways below.

If you think you can 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.