NASAM Update as of the 23rd Dec 2023

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Summary of Contents

What’s In This Edition

From The Chairman

We have the seasonal input from Steve, who reflects on the past year and the changes that have happened.

From Around The Museum

First up from “Around the Museum” we have further input from Steve who takes us to rooms two and three and the changes that have been made there.

The Christmas lunch for the Volunteers and Trustees at the museum was this year held at the Dove Inn and Gary has provided an update. Also thanks to Sarah for the photos of the event.

We then have more from Barry and also from Mark in the Paint Team, who this week and last week carried on with work around the Museum getting ready for next year.

Finally, in the last blog of 2023, we have Malcolm and an update from the Model Maintenance Unit.

Open For Two Days In December

Just a reminder that although the Museum is now closed for the winter break and maintenance, we will be open for two days in late December. The two days we are open are:

Thursday the 28^th and Friday the 29^th December from 1000 until 1500.

We are then closed until the February half term, when the Museum will reopen on Saturday, the 17^th of February 2024.

From Saturday the 17^th of February 2024 we revert back to our normal opening times of:

Every Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, and Bank Holiday Mondays – From 1000 until 1600,

Pete S

Chairman’s Update

2023 and 2024

2023, what’s in it for me, 2024, let’s have more.

They say that each year brings new opportunities that are different from previous ones. That each year is different and unique. I think that at the museum we can certainly vouch for this.

Gary has “bedded in” as our manager and is bringing great benefit to the museum. The public days are far better organised than in the past, and the work days are more structured.

We used to have lots of individual teams working around the museum, performing various tasks, and performing them well. Now we have a team of volunteers who work together and are happy to do whatever needs doing. We are certainly proving that synergy is beneficial.

Around the museum much has changed, but much has stayed the same. There is more space around the exhibits, allowing items that used to be hidden to be easily seen. Sadly, this has meant that we have had to store several items; others that will realistically never be displayed again either have been or will be disposed of. This review has also meant that we have reaffirmed our decision not to accept new artefacts unless we can readily determine where and when they will be displayed. We simply can not take everything.

It’s not just us that are having this conversation, we regularly meet with other museums, both within the aviation sphere, and outside it. Every museum that we’ve spoken to has the same issue.

We have developed more hands on items, these are immensely popular, especially with our younger visitors, generally those up to 99 like them. On a similar note, we introduced cockpit tours this year. To date we have taken about 850 groups around, a total of about 2000 people. The volunteers enjoy giving these tours, the visitors have really taken to them.

We have entertained lots of youngsters on organised visits. These have come from School and Scout Groups. Around 800 youngsters have visited on this basis.

We have almost certainly welcomed more visitors this year than ever before. We can’t be certain on this as prior to the pandemic (remember that!) we didn’t count people. Since then we have accurate numbers and have welcomed around 21,500 visitors this year, around 20% more than last year.

In the middle of the year we purchased an additional (approximately) three acres of land to ease various problems we’ve long had around parking, storage and display space. We are now in the process of working with various consultants to obtain the necessary planning permission following which we can start to apply for grants in order to make full use of the purchases.

All in all it’s been a fantastic year at the museum. It simply remains for me to wish all of our visitors, volunteers and readers of this Blog a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Talking of the New Year, see you at the museum then.

Steve B

From Around The Museum

Room 3

At last, after months of cataloguing what was in various bits of rooms two and three, I managed to start moving things around over the last two weeks. The decoy display, which shows the important work done by the deception teams to save lives, has moved into a bigger and better display area in Room Three. The anti-aircraft displays have moved in next to them. The space in room two is being restored by the paint team and will then house the various “wreckology” items from room three, plus the displays on the local airfields.

After months of making no visible progress, it feels good to see something happening!

The photos below show the decoy display, the anti-aircraft display and the back of a decoy lighting display that was refurbished with new acetate for colours.

Steve

(Photos) Room 3 Update

Christmas Lunch

A mixture of 50 volunteers, trustees and their wives attended the Dove Inn on a bright and cheery Saturday 16th December.

People started arriving early in readiness to be seated for our meal which commenced at 1230. The staff at the Dove Inn had taken time and patience to set up the main room for us, which looked splendid in all its glory. We also learnt that Sonya and her partner Lee had arranged a “surprise” raffle for us on top of everything else that they had already done.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the meal with some opting for 2 courses while others opted for the full 3 courses. The Dove Inn provided crackers, coffee, and mints for afterwards.

Once the meal had finished, I called the room to order and gave a speech. After my speech, Ian Dunlop stood up and gave a short speech on behalf of the trustees. Once the speeches had finished and with help from Lee, I drew the raffle tickets.

I want to take this opportunity to say a very big thank you to “all” the staff at the Dove Inn who made our Christmas meal so rewarding, well done to each and everyone of them.

I would like to thank all the volunteers and all the trustees for the hard work that they have put in this last year. I would like to say a very big thank you to Steve for his help, support, and encouragement over the last year. Lastly, I would like to say a special thank you to my wife Sarah for her support and understanding.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Gary

(Photos) NASAM Christmas Lunch

Painters Update

12/12/23 – ‘Tis the season to be jolly…?

Mmm… possibly a questionable statement if you belong to the Metalwork Team, which we painters don’t, obviously. However, we became embroiled in a conversation over close of play tea about former service colleagues of John and Roger who had been accidentally sucked into various jet engine air intakes during aircraft maintenance and testing (nothing directly to do with John and Roger I should hasten to add), with the inevitable consequence of the odd loss of limb… eeeww! Well, at least that topic is out of the way before we sit down for the Christmas Meal on Saturday. Turkey leg anyone?

Earlier in the day, Mark and Ian were ‘back on pole’ in the BP Hangar where they set about giving the 6 flagpoles a first topcoat of white gloss (see pic 2312 06). Alongside, Barry broke out the Mouse (sander, not little furry thing) and wire wheel and got on with sanding back the Grasshopper glider fuselage. I say ‘fuselage’, but it merely comprises a pilot seat, stick and rudder pedals, perched on an ‘A’ frame, with fresh air all around (see pic 2312 07)! As one can’t sand fresh air, safe to say that it was job done by the end of the day.

In the arvo, Mark and Ian were able to give the flagpoles a second coat of white gloss as drying times were a bit faster this week, due to the higher outside temps and the provision of 2 portable heaters.

Elsewhere, Gwen continued to help Steve with the refresh of Room 3, while the Skipper (Cliff) went searching for untraced artefacts in Bomber Command.

Barry

19/12/23 and the “End-of-Year Quiz”

With Barry otherwise engaged, and with Gwen avoiding the cold and the wet weather, the three remaining members of the paint team took on familiar activities.

Cliff spent the morning checking the list of exhibits in Bomber Command, as captured in a rare action photo – (see pic 2312 08).

Whilst Ian and Mark applied a third and definitely final coat of paint to the flag poles – (see pic 2312 09).

With those jobs finished around lunchtime, the team did some last tidying up (of mince pies and chocolate) before heading home for a well-earned Christmas break.

Just leaving a little end-of-year quiz – (see pic 2312 10):

– what is the yellow thing? and
– where will it be in the museum after the team have fitted it?

No prizes, just Season’s Greetings from the Paint Team.

Mark

(Photos) Painters Update

[Answers to the quiz in 2024 – PS]

MMU Update

Over the past months, the emphasis at the MMU has been the continued sorting of the Museums large collection of models, as previously advised two batches of nearly 600 models have been sold, another batch of 370 is presently going through the three-month offer cycle and almost another 100 have been boxed up as part of batch 4.

With all these models floating about you would think that any request for a display would easily be fulfilled. Wrong! The refurbishment of the display covering Aerial Photography in room 3 produced a request for two WW1 types, a RE.8 and a BE.2C, neither of which an example could be found. ( I must confess to writing off a couple of RE-8’s over the past year purely as they were both well beyond any form of repair).

Authorisation was given to purchase an example of both which resulted in an interesting comparison between a 1967 vintage Airfix RE-8 ( anyone remember these bagged kits as I do when I first started building them?) and a 2017 Airfix BE-2C . I am being a coward and have started the easiest one first, the BE-2C although the finished model will be completed in a less flamboyant colour scheme. I consider the RE-8 more difficult due to the structure of the wing struts and the cruder nature of the mouldings. Anyhow these two should keep me quiet for the next couple of months.

Malcolm

(Photos) MMU Update

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