NASAM Update as of the 12th Aug 2021

In This Edition Of The Online Flier

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Chairman’s update

Photographers Visit

On Friday 30th July a group of seven photographers came to the museum to learn more about the use of their cameras from Lucy Kayne. The group roamed around the site taking photos of all and sundry for around four hours (Photographers 01 and 02).

All felt that they had learned more about their cameras by the end of the day.

More photos on Lucy Kayne Facebook page (dated 30th July 2021):

LUCY KAYNEFacebook Page

(Photos) Photographers at Work

Visitors on the Day

Tuesday 10th Aug 2021, we had one of our frequent visitors from further south in the County. It did several circuits of the museum.

(Photos) Apache Time

BBMF Flypast on ROC Day

We received a letter from the RAF Events team to say that we have been allocated a flypast by the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) for ROC day on Sunday the 19th of September. The exact wording was Flypast Spitfire/Hurricane. Whether that means Spitfire or Hurricane or Spitfire and Hurricane I’m not sure. I suspect the former.

Flypast on the day will be subject to both weather conditions here and at RAF Coningsby and to BBMF operation commitments on the day.

The ROC day itself, scheduled for Sunday the 19th of September will see the museum open from 1000 until 1600. With free entry and free parking, it will be a great day out for all the family. More details about the day will be published in future blogs.

To keep up to date see the item below…

Steve Bell

Keep Up To Date

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General Updates

More items this edition from around the museum, photos from various visits to the museum, photos from the RAFA Day on the 8th Aug 2021, and something from the archives section for the first time in a while.

RAFA Day at the Museum

Brian sent in some photos from the RAFA Day. He mentioned that Norman (RAFA Day Norman 01), who visits on occasions, was one of the Veterans who was speaking to the public, and Norman recounts how he baled out at 23 thousand feet over Germany from a burning Lancaster. Captured by a local policeman and handed over to the Gestapo and held prisoner. This was late April 1944. Captivity and D-Day were not too far away, and his imprisonment was not too long.

Brian also took a few photos of the Red Arrows, who despite the poor sky and very overcast day, managed to make the museum on a flypast on their way to a display at Folkstone (RAFA Day Red Arrows 01 thru 04). Unfortunately, the Spitfire which was due to come later in the afternoon could not make it due to bad weather near their base.

In addition to the photos taken by Brian, his daughter Leah, (a museum member) also supplied a short piece of video of the Red Arrows flyby in “Big Battle” formation, accompanied by Red10 alongside, (without the smoke). The video shows clearly the very overcast and threatening skies. The video is below the photos.

(Photos) RAFA Day

(Video) Red Arrows Flyby

Rotary Club Visit

Cliff reported that “we had a visit from a Rotary Club on Sunday (1st Aug 2021), not the Rotarians or enthusiasts of WW1 Monosoupape engines in Sopwith Pup etc, but the German car manufacturer NSU and their Wankel engined NSU Ro80″. Cliff also sent a few pictures of the day (NSU Ro80 01 thru 03).

(Photos) Wankels @ Flixton

Paint Team Update

Barry sent in his updates for the two weeks since the last Online Flier update.

“2/8/21 – Stop Press! Painters actually painting!

Yes, folks after 2 months of sanding, grinding and filling, Mark, Ian and Barry started to apply some paint to the Meteor. OK, so in the first instance this was just red oxide primer and rust converter but hey, it’s a start! Colin continued to cover over the larger holes in the engine cowls with aluminium sheet. At the end of the day, the ‘Meatbox’ was pressure washed, ready to receive some grey primer the following week.

Meanwhile over on the Valetta, under threatening skies, Cliff and Gwen reached the nose at continued with the laborious task of re-sealing the (cockpit) windows.

9/8/21 – The Meteor turns a lighter shade of grey…

Sounds like a Procal Harum song title to me (ok, not quite), but yes, the transformation has begun. The ‘rat look’ Meteor is now giving way to a consistent pale grey all over. Mark, Ian and Barry managed to prime most of the top side of the aircraft today, except for the part that Colin was sitting on. The team mused that if Colin didn’t finish his repair panels next week he might find himself becoming a lighter shade of grey too! (Meteor Refurb 19 thru 22)

On the Valetta, Gwen painted the port spinner and props, which now look fantastic and help draw one’s eye away from the more dilapidated parts (aka the white bits). ‘Busy’ Cliff (evidently lagging behind on the starboard side, ho ho) has just reached the cockpit window sealing stage.” (Valetta Refresh 10 thru 13)

(Photos) Paint Team Update

Chippies Update

Michael reported on Tue 3rd Aug that it was a “Quiet week in Chippie Land last week. Dave H was on his own, so the hangar cupboards only had a small amount of attention. He fitted a couple more panels in the front and put in a reinforcing panel in the sidewall. This allowed Brian the Electrician to start moving the sockets and main hangar light switches onto the side panel.

This week saw a return to strength and Dave, Ash and Michael F fitted the top panels above the doors. In the photo Brian and Ash are working harmoniously alongside each other, Ash filling the screw heads and panel joints to create a nice finish (Hangar Entrance Cupboard 19).”

Then on Thursday the 5th Aug, “We installed the door to the electrical cupboard and fitted the push button lock to make the cupboard secure. The partition between the cupboards isn’t in place as the electricians hadn’t finished their wiring. We sanded the outside ready for undercoated next week (Hangar Entrance Cupboard 20).

In the meantime, an important repair job came in. One of the children’s planes received some damage over the weekend. These planes are outside during the summer and, despite several layers of paint, get wet in our glorious weather. We found sections had wet rot and dry rot, the latter probably caused during storage over winter. So we’ve cut out as much rotted wood as we could find, patched it with hardwood for water resistance and trimmed section where we needed (Children Plane 01). Work in progress but should be back in action soon.”

From this week, “As the electricians hadn’t finished in the electrical cupboard, the chippies started work on two new display cases. These are for the cold War model display that will go later this year behind the stage opposite the ejector seats. As there is a lot of wood to cut and screw together, all the Chippie crew – Ash, Dave H, Michael F, Morris and Tony – turned to in a team build which assembled the frames of the two cases by mid-afternoon, with the ply back of one in place and the second ready at going home time (Display Cases 01 thru 05).

While the crew were cutting the wood, Dave H planed, sanded and undercoated the children’s play plane we started repairing last week (Children Plane 02).

(Photos) Chippies Update

Model Maintenance Unit

Berlin Airlift Models … Malcolm reported that:

“The weather has been in my favour to allow the completion of the Dakota ahead of schedule. It will make its “delivery flight” to the museum on Tuesday this week.

It is marked up as 46 Sqn example, home base Oakington but based in Germany for use in the Airlift during 1948 (Model Dakota 02 and 03).

Technicals: Airfix 1/72, Revell Enamel Silver, rest Humbrol, Xtradecal decals”

Malcolm also forwarded photos of the completed York (Model York 02), which we missed off from a previous update. The York and the Dakota are shown together prior to taking their place on the Berlin Airlift display (Model York and Dakota 01 and 02). The York carries 51 Sqn markings from 1948.

(ED – Malcolm also has said that so far from when he started in October last year he has completed 112 restorations and scrapped or reduced to spares 285 models which were not fit for restoration, quite a prodigious number of painstaking tasks.)

(Photos) Berlin Airlift Dakota and York

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.