NASAM Update as of the 18th Sep 2023
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Summary of Contents
What’s In This Edition
From The Chairman
We have an article from Steve that was written for the local newsletter to inform the residents of what was being planned for the Museum over the next few years. The museum is aware of the issue of car parking on those event days that are very busy with motorised traffic to the Museum. Car parking is a problem, and this has overflowed into the local village on a number of occasions. The purchase of land previously reported in the blog is intended to alleviate this problem when the plans come to full fruition, Steve explains …. →
From Around The Museum
First dibs in this edition go to Cliff and the photo of a low-level visitor to the Museum during a mid-week lunch break.
The Chinook is followed by the Valetta and the Trojan as Barry continues with his September week one update from the Paint Team as they work on the Valetta getting the fiddly bits done. Likewise, the Trojan is getting attention from the team as work continues to finish off this airframe. Week two of the paint team update has a cricket theme complete with the weather.
Upcoming Special Events
The next special event in the Museum Calendar (in brief) is:
- Rolls Royce and Bently Owners meeting on Sunday, the 24th of September 2023. The Museum will be open from 1000 thru to 1600
- The poster details are at the foot of this blog.
After the Rolls Royce and Bentley Owners have been to the Museum, the next set of events will be four Scout Days, including the Scout Weekend, when the Museum will be closed to the public (this weekend only). These dates are as follows:
- Saturday 23rd September – also open to the public
- Saturday 30th September – closed to the public
- Sunday 1st October – closed to the public
- Saturday 28th October – also open to the public
Pete S
Chairman’s Update
Plans for the museum
“During mid 2022, the museum was informed by executors that we had been selected as a recipient of a legacy from the estate of the late Peter Hinsley.
Car parking at the museum has long been a problem. Primarily day to day, as cars need to travel the length of the museum through visitors on foot exploring the aircraft outside and themed buildings in the grounds. On very busy days such as East Coast Pirates visits to the museum in May and our own Family Fun Day, both the car park and the field we use (with kind permission from Emma Gilham) have become full, and we are aware that cars turned away can, and do, park in the village causing nuisance to residents.
In addition, the museum has one, single track, route in and out of the museum causing congestion. Visitors parking on the field must also navigate, on foot, the busy road in front of The Buck Inn pub.
To relieve this, the trustees of the museum contacted the owner of Flixton Hall to negotiate the purchase of a section of the woodland adjacent to the museum, plus a section of the field mentioned above from Emma Gilham. Both negotiations were successful with assistance from Nicholas Rudge of Durrants in Beccles, and John Haye of Sprake and Kingsley solicitors. The museum now owns both of these tracts of land.
The intention is to use the woodland, much of which has already been cleared due to Ash dieback disease, as the “normal” car park, and the section of field as an exit route plus overflow car park. This will entail creating a separate exit from the field directly onto the road.
This will roughly double the on-site parking and drastically reduce traffic flow past the Buck Inn, as this will be mostly one way, although Coaches and Lorries won’t be able to use the woodland route.
The intention is to retain a screen of trees between the woodland car park and the road, thus continuing the screening of the museum from the road. The overflow car park will only be used rarely on very busy days, much as it is now.
We also have plans to create two new buildings, which will allow visitors to access the shop and café directly from the car park without need to access the rest of the museum. It will also improve facilities within the museum. The space no longer needed for car parking on site will facilitate this expansion. Once again it is the intention that none of this will be visible from the road.
There will also be direct access to the Adair Walk nature trail from the car park.
All of this will require a large injection of money. The museum has funds to kick start this, plus there is the remainder of the legacy from Peter Hinsley. These funds will be used to seed a grant application to the National Lottery and other grant giving bodies.
There is also a requirement for planning permission, doubtless this will take time.
Thus, exciting times are ahead for the museum, which we hope that you approve of, as we are seeking to reduce our impact on the village. We do note, though, that changes will not be obvious immediately.
We will aim to keep you up to date as things hopefully progress.
If you’d like to know more, then please drop in sometime when we are open and ask.
The trustees of N&SAM“
Steve B
Around The Museum
Mid Week Visitor
During a lunch break at Flixton we had an RAF Chinook do a flypast, came in from the west over the hangar then looped round over the field to come directly over us as we sat outside the hangar. Only had my point-and-shoot handy otherwise could have got a closer pic. He was low!! He then headed off over towards the airfield.
Cliff
(Photos) Mid Week Visitor
Painters Update
05/09/23 – How many painters does it take to paint a propeller tip?
Well, er… in the case of the Valetta, three! One to foot the ladder, one to shimmy up the ladder set against the engine cowl (to paint the back) and one up the scaff’ tower (to paint the front). Yes, most of the morning was given over to climbing up and down to paint the eight propeller tips in three coats of buttercup yellow. After that, Mark gave the starboard spinner a second coat of post office red (see pic 2309 10), while Ian applied some ‘clear coat’ to the port spinner (see pic 2309 11). After lunch, the spinners were finished off and Barry painted the two antennae on either side of the nose, also in buttercup yellow (see pic 2309 12 & 12a ).
During the day, there were a few conversations with John S. and Roger about the plan of attack for the red cheat line down the middle of the Valetta’s fuselage. With John and Roger still making good the fuselage windows, the boys decided that next week’s focus will be the cheat lines towards the tail section of the Valetta, subject to favourable weather conditions of course.
On Sunday 3rd, your correspondent popped over to Grundisburgh Village Hall, near Woodbridge, to watch the ‘Sorpe Dam’ film that Gary put an email around about a couple of weeks ago. I would say that it’s definitely worth a watch to anyone interested in The Dambusters and the less well-known and ultimately unsuccessful raid on the Sorpe. The film is not on general release (yet) and the rights are owned by the International Bomber Command Centre. ‘Johnnie’ Johnson is the narrator and the run time is about 50 minutes.
Over on the T28, the Skipper (Cliff) and Gwen continued with the painstaking job of masking off all the markings on the Trojan before applying a coat of dark sea grey to the fuselage (see pic 2309 13). With the grey on, they then had to peel off all the masking tape that they had applied earlier in the day. By no means a small task (see pic 2309 14)!
12/09/23 – Rain Stops Play!
And boy, did it rain from lunchtime onwards! Prior to that in the morning Mark, Ian and Barry contemplated what Valetta painting might be possible under the very threatening looking skies. After a bit of chin stroking and teeth sucking, the boys set about tackling the first part of the red cheat line on the Valetta. Some complicated masking up then took place as the cheat line that starts off at the full height of the fuselage windows and then tapers right down to a ‘point’ at the back of the tail. After a quick ‘key’ with a Mouse (sander, not the little furry thing) Mark and Ian broke out the paint rollers while Barry concentrated on the ‘fiddly bits’ with a small brush. The general air of (less than positive) positivity was not helped by the Post Office Red not going on very well, combined with a tendency to ‘curtain’ at the slightest opportunity. By lunchtime, two coats had been applied to the port side back third of the fuselage/tail. With some spit now in the air, Barry then disappeared underneath to quickly paint the Valetta’s radio aerial, while Mark and Ian set up the scaff’ tower next to the port wing so that John S. could repair the port side fuselage windows.
Next door, progress on the T28 was short lived due to a (delayed) damp start and the deluge that then followed around 12:30 pm. 30 minutes later, the driveway was starting to disappear under water (see pic 2309 15) as the monsoon-like levels of precipitation continued to fall out of the sky.
After a brief pitch inspection at 1pm, play was abandoned for the day. Mark did however brave the conditions, and the possibility of trench foot, to pull off all the masking tape from a ‘very wet Valett’ before we all went our separate ways. Although progress was limited today, the first completed section of the red cheat line looked pretty sharp (see pic 2309 16), save for a little ‘bleeding’ here and there.
Barry
(Photos) Painters Update
Upcoming Events Posters
Details of the next special event are shown in the posters below
Pete S
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.
Go to the form forEMAIL NOTIFICATIONS
Pete S
