NASAM Update as of the 25th May 2023

[joli-toc]

General Updates

In, From The Teams

First up in this edition from the teams are a couple of articles from Pam. The first of these shows just how valuable the Museum has been, and is, in the education field with visits by various local schools. The second is the remembrance of one of our founder members Ivan Last and the scattering of his ashes at the Museum. Ivan’s passing was reported in the blog back in August last year and can be found by clicking on the link here Tribute to Ivan Last or on the link at the end of Pam’s article. Brian J provided a few photos of the presentation of the bench along with Ivan’s family.

Secondly, I must send out an apology to John S, who sent me photos of two past events at the Museum. Unfortunately, my email provider, a well know telephone company, decided to file them away in a spam folder. Having discovered them after I had published the previous blog, I have included them in this blog posting, and they can be seen below. These photos are from the Eastern Region Citroen Car Club Visit on Sunday, the 23rd of April 2023 and the East Coast Pirates Day on Sunday, the 14th of May 2023.

Speaking of the East Coast Pirates Cars, we had a piece of video sent to us that was taken on the day. The video which shows some of the cars both in the Museum car park and in the overflow car park was taken by Salvatore Grasso, who kindly gave permission to use in our blog …. If the video does not run for you, it can be found on YouTube @ East Coast Pirates. Turn up the volume and take a look at some American metal…

Next, Peter W continues on from the various articles written by the chippies about cabinet refurbishments in the Boulton Paul hangar. These refurbishments allow Peter to put together an exhibit telling the story of the RAF Flying Instructor. The exhibit is now almost complete, just being short of some photographs.

The Painters’ update from Barry is the last update in this edition, with the Hunter getting the grey treatment and the Mystere getting some bling … Barry’s words, not mine … 😀

Hot Rods At The Museum

Saturday, the 3rd of June 2023 will see a group of Hot Rods arrive at the Museum as the “Lucky Bastards Club” arrive with 15 to 20 Hot Rods. Details about timing are not yet known.

Pete S

From The Teams

Education

We have been busy with school visits this Spring, we had Pulham Market Infant School, Beccles School, Sancroft St. Benets Harleston and Loddon Primary recently with more visits to come. All were a great success.

I was amused by one 10-year-old from the Harleston School who when asked what she would take in her suitcase as an evacuee said ‘I couldn’t go without my ‘phone’!

Many thanks to all the volunteers who help out on these school visits: the Link Trainer ‘boys’, Tony Laceby and his ‘crew’, Ian Shepherd (always in his tin hat) and Bob Collis.

Laid to rest

Sunday 21st May some of Ivan Last’s family came to the museum and we dedicated a bench to him and his wife Margaret. I said a few words and found it very emotional. Ivan was at the museum last year for Family Fun Day but sadly died 4 days later. He was one of our founder members. The family scattered Ivan’s ashes down the Adair Walk, and David Hardisty is making a cross to mark the spot.

The Museum Tribute to Ivan Last

Pam

(Photos) Ivan’s Bench

The photos of the presentation provided by Brian J

Previous Event Days

The photos below are from previous event days at the museum.

(Photos) Eastern Region Citroen Car Club

We had a great show of Citroen cars on Sunday the 23rd April. The weather forecast wasn’t good but the sun did shine on nicely buffed cars. One DS had different coloured body panels of available Citroen colours, but not black. Interesting. Also, a superb Avant in maroon and an obligatory 2CV with boot artwork.

John S

(Photos) East Coast Pirates

Sunday’s East Coast Pirates event on the 14th May 2023 was huge; here are some of the early-day photos.

John S

(Video) East Coast Pirates Day

From Salvatore Grasso

RAF Instructor Training

RAF Flying Instructor Exhibit – much ado about nothing?

The NASAM blog has already reported on how we managed to extricate the civil aviation exhibit from the main hangar over the winter and transplant it into the BP long cabinet at a cost of almost nothing.

Now it was time for a revamp of the former training aircraft exhibit in the Link Room. Thoughts on this started way back last summer when our Chairman suggested I might like (?) to create a new exhibit in that space explaining how RAF instructors were trained, and then how pilots went on to the various operational training establishments.

Obvious first question – what exhibits do we have to use?

“Probably not much really, it will have to be mostly models and photographs” Ho hum, that nothing theme again …..

Just to make it more fun, the exhibit sits under the unsealed eaves of the Link Room hangar wall, from where it receives a liberal dose of the dreaded Flixton black grime. As Michael F mentioned in the last chippies blog, it is also directly underneath the roof structure that drips condensation.

The first step was to dig out my copy of ‘CFS – Birthplace of Air Power’ by JWR Taylor. This provided the narrative for a twelve-panel text display, albeit without the history of Operational Conversion Units. This flagged up CFS’ invention of Pilot’s Notes in response to the arrival of Hurricanes at RAF squadrons with very little training material to help pilots convert from Gauntlets or Gladiators. Trip to Archive – and yes – we have multiple copies of Pilot’s Notes for the Hurricane. It was no longer a display with no exhibits at all.

In parallel I started sketching how the cabinet might look, protecting the contents and giving the visitor the best view. This meant trying to avoid the reflections from bright overhead lights and clear roof panels. A simple mock-up viewed by volunteers who were, shall we say, short, medium and tall (thanks guys) showed that the best compromise angle for the front panel was 54°.

The next bit has been well covered by Michael F, but I include one photo of the chippies’ secret weapon in the face of obstinate woodwork. We non-chippies stood well back in awe while Ash demonstrated what the skilled application of a Multi-Tool could achieve.

So, the time came to try the next innovation – MagnetoglazePro secondary glazing. The idea is that if the entire perimeter of the acrylic panel is drawn down onto the face of the cabinet, the black grime can be defeated. We also get a nice tidy white frame. We picked a medium size from the three available and crossed our fingers. In the event, the pull-down effect seems just about right, with four inset M6 hold-down screws in the corners to prevent accidental or deliberate lifting of the panels.

Given the Link Room wall also has a reputation for black mould, the wall exhibit panels needed to be removable and washable. The solution is 5mm Foamex panels fixed with Velcro from our friends at EPS. The first one to be installed featuring Robert Smith-Barry, the hero of the story, is in place.

Malcolm G has done sterling work cleaning and renovating the previous training aircraft models where possible, and several new builds. Given the model requirement kept changing as the text developed, Malcolm’s seemingly endless patience proved most fortunate! The contents of each bay were mocked up first at home in the warm.

What remains is to find the missing twenty photos in sufficient resolution to print at the required size, at an affordable price and not getting caught up with copyright. Based on progress to date, that is still some way off. In the meantime passing visitors can now at least understand the exhibit. RAF Central Flying School’s story deserves telling; and where better than in our training room.

Peter W

(Photos) RAF Flying Instructor Exhibit

Painters Update

23/05/23 – Schoolboy Errors!

So, this week the Paint Team, who often feel like the Sanding Team, actually did some painting! With the Hunter prep completed last week, the boys broke open the Grey Primer with glee. With the weather set fair, it looked like almost ideal painting conditions. I say ‘almost’ as although the weather was a comfortable and dry 17 degrees, there was a strong back note of sileage in the air that persisted up the nostrils for the entire day. Phaw! Anyways, the first schoolboy error of the day was not to have checked last week that we had a stock of roller sleeves available. Fortunately, the ever-resourceful Gwen came to the boys’ rescue, supplying sleeves from her personal stash!

The boys then got underway, with Barry starting at the top of the tail and working his way down and forward as the day progressed. With plenty of aircraft for everyone, Mark took up station on the port wing, having firstly gone round the aircraft dobbing in some Rust Converter on the few spots showing signs of rust (mainly steel screwheads). Out on the starboard wing, Ian committed schoolboy error number two by effectively painting himself into a corner (see pic)! Having extricated Ian from his predicament, the boys cracked on and by lunchtime, the Hunter had started to turn ‘grey’ (see pic). Mark also left his trademark restoration signature (ok, smiley face) on the nose.

Progress was interrupted throughout the day by John S. trudging backwards and forwards past us muttering about various wheezes he’d dreamt up to (unsuccessfully) extricate the two flagpoles from the ground behind the 446^th memorial. By the close of play, the flagpoles were still in situ with the prospect of the painters now having to sand and re-paint the poles ‘in the upright position’ as it were.

After luncheon, the boys continued to motor across the Hunter with the grey primer and by the end of the day most of the upper surfaces were now a lighter shade of grey (see pic). Next week should be undersides, plus some re-work where any paint has lifted.

Elsewhere, our Top Titivator (Gwen) carried on with her renovation of the ‘bling’ on the Mystere. By packing up time, the starboard side was complete with all the roundels, stripes and fin flash looking fresh and sharp (see pic). Top job!

Barry

(Photos) Paint Team Update

_________________

The Repeat Info

The repeat information is still here I’m afraid, and I make no apologies for keeping his section in our blog. We are a charitable organisation relying on monies from the public to keep us going. Any help we receive is gratefully accepted and enables the museum to continue in our mission “To conserve, preserve and promote the history of aviation in East Anglia, whilst providing a fun, family-friendly and interactive museum, promoting education and remembrance of the events of the past“.

Are you thinking of helping ??

We obtain most of our finances by donations and by membership fees. We save money by having a dedicated group of volunteers that keep the museum and the exhibits both manned and maintained. We hope therefore a few people may consider helping in the ways below.

There are three easy ways to help: Help by becoming a Museum Member, also by Volunteering to help at the museum, or by Donating to assist in our running costs. Please click on the appropriate button below to access the appropriate information:

Click to see how to becomeMUSEUM MEMBER Click to see how to becomeMUSEUM VOLUNTEER Click to make aDONATION

Keep Up To Date

To keep up to date with further information, please keep an eye on our Social Media (see the Social Media buttons at the foot of this blog) or click on the button below to be notified by email of any upcoming changes by seeing the latest blog.