NASAM Update as of the 28th Feb 2024

In This Edition

Summary of Contents

In this edition of the blog “Museum News” has a short piece from the first weekend of opening in 2024. Steve, the Chairman, reports on the first two days of the 2024 season. Days which saw two differing days of weather and, consequently, two different days of attendance.

From the Teams “Inside and Outside – The Museum“, we have another couple of updates from Barry, with a busman’s holiday to Duxford and continuing work inside the Museum.

Also, in the “Inside and Outside – The Museum“, we have an update from Malcolm on the Museum models.

Sneek Peek

In this edition, we have a sneek peek of a cockpit tour of our Sea Hawk WV838. Graham has set about doing some video shots of the cockpit these have been combined with some still photos that he obtained. We are producing a short video on this cockpit for our YouTube channel (and to be published here in our blog).

Events

In “Museum News”, you will see that the East Coast Pirates have postponed their visit in May. However, we have more visits being planned, and these will be reported on in subsequent blogs.

The full listing of events for March can be found near the bottom of this blog under “Event News“. Clicking on the short posters will take you to our main website and the specific events listed on our events page. This will give you a fuller description of the event.

Pete S

Museum News

General news from the Museum

First Two Days of the Season

The first-weekend opening turned out to be a very mixed bag. Saturday was cloudy but dry, the Sunday was very wet.

Saturday saw over 150 visitors at the museum welcomed by a dozen volunteers. Unfortunately, Sunday saw far fewer and several volunteers were unable to make it because of flooding along various roads.

Nonetheless, the visitors enjoyed themselves, with several taking advantage of the new single aircraft access tokens. A few families also tried the Anderson Shelter for size and listened to our air raid soundtrack hearing what it was like to be in a Shelter during a raid.

With half term upon us we hope to welcome several more visitors this week, we just need the weather to play ball.

Steve

(Photos) First Two Days

Advance Notice – Event Postponement

Please note that the East Coast Pirates‘ visit to the Museum on Sunday, the 12th of May, 2024, has been postponed.

We are hoping that the visit of Great Yarmouth’s largest car club can be re-organised for a later date.

Stay in touch for more details as soon as they are known.

Opening Days

Pete S

Inside and Outside – The Museum

Information from the various teams

Paint Team Updates

Special Update 08/02/24 – Busman’s Holiday!

Earlier in Feb, the boys took a busman’s holiday to IWM Duxford for the day, partly timed to catch the special ‘Spies in the Sky’ Photo Reconnaissance exhibition. In the ‘Conservation in Action’ hangar the boys were initially a bit disappointed as they didn’t get to see the infamous Laser paint stripper in action. However, Mark and Ian marvelled at the new carbon neutral heating system (warm hangars, if only…Ed.) where the Shackleton was being subjected to a full nut and bolt resto (see pic 2402 22).

They were also enthused by the amount of space the IWM volunteers have for carrying out restorations, where pieces of related aircraft could be laid out logically on the floor, in this case, bits of a He162, I believe (see pic 2402 23).

There was also time to ruminate over what one’s Meteor could look like if it had been kept indoors, not outdoors, for the past 30 odd years (see pic 2402 24) and to check out the Jaguar that might be coming our way in 2025. Good luck getting that down off the ceiling! Thankfully, it currently looks to be in pretty good nick and not requiring any paint (see pic 2402 25).

(Photos) Paint Team Special Update

20/02/24 – Harry (Paint) Potter and the Accidental Handprint!

Yes folks, this week’s blog headline reads a bit like a new novel from JK Rowling. But first, a quick update from ROC. Having finally run out of white cabinets to paint, Gwen set about giving one of the display units a fresh lick of mahogany wood stain (see pic 2402 26).

Up in the Metal Workshop, the boys resumed the fettling of the Chipmunk fuselage. Barry finished off the port side cleaning with CIF (that’s CIF, not Cliff) before Mark went over the port side with T-Cut, followed by Ian with the electric buffer. By mid-morning, the port fuselage was looking clean and shiny (see pic 2402 27). Mark, Ian and Gwen then primed the engine bulkhead (see pic 2402 28). After that, they primed the new panel just front of the cockpit (as fabricated by Roger). The grey primer was taking a fair while to dry so the team toddled off for some lunch in the (warm) office.

When the team returned after lunch Gwen found a reasonably fresh-looking handprint on the not yet completely dry grey primer (see pic 2402 29). Allegations were immediately made and all hands in the Paint Team were duly checked for incriminating evidence (i.e. grey fingerprints). Inspector Clouseau was about to be let loose on the case when culprit ‘fessed up. John S. stepped forward and his hand span was duly checked for a good fit – result (see pic 2402 30)! It transpired that the proximate cause of the damage was (according to John) an errant buffer unit extension reel that had been left on the floor. John caught it with his foot and therefore he had to steady himself against the nearest available piece of (wet) Chipmunk fuselage. So, in other words, it was all the Paint Team’s fault! Anyways, the damage was soon repaired, and a bit later Mark and Ian put a coat of Matt Black anti -glare over the grey primed area (see pic 2402 31), with mixed results… to be continued.

For the rest of the afternoon, the boys turned their attention to cleaning up the Chipmunk’s canopy. After some CIF, degreaser, T-Cut and buffing the canopy came up pretty well (see pic 2402 32) and is largely ready to be refitted back onto the fuselage.

Barry

(Photos) Paint Team Update

MMU Update

Due to ‘circumstances beyond my control’, progress with the BE-2C and RE-8 has slowed down, but as can be seen in the photos, I have managed to get the upper wing in place on the BE-2C. With the help of the small template provided with the kit to enable the wing struts to be glued at the correct angle, the attachment of the upper wing was far less stressful than anticipated. The next stage is to add the undercarriage.

The RE-8, being a very old moulding, gives no assistance with the upper wing process at all, so I anticipate fun and games when I get a couple of spare hours to tackle it. Hopefully, my patience will hold out.

Malcolm

(Photos) MMU update

Sneek Peek – Sea Hawk WV838

The video below is just a sneek peek of a cockpit tour of our Sea Hawk WV838. Having had a special request from one of our readers to produce something on the cockpit that we have on-site. We, therefore, set about thinking about what we could do to satisfy the request.

As mentioned above, Graham set about doing some video shots of the cockpit, and we will combine them with some still photos of the aircraft from back in the 90s that he obtained. Combining the video and stills together we are producing a short video for our YouTube channel (and to be published here in our blog). The request is on behalf of a gentleman who remembers the aircraft when he walked past it in Chippenham. It took Graham a while to realise that the gentleman saw the aircraft when it was on a scrap heap before being restored to the condition you will now see in our main hangar.

In addition to taking the videos, as a result of the investigation on why it was in Chippenham, Graham is now working on updating the history of the aircraft with the new info that has been unearthed as part of this exercise. Graham will update the information boards in the hangar, and we will publish the updated history in the blog later when it is ready.

We are hoping to have the video out in a few days time. Stay tuned to the blog for more information. If you would like to get an email when a new blog is published, click on the button below and complete the form. I will do the rest ….

Pete S

(Video) Sneek Peek – Sea Hawk WV838

Event Information

March Events

The current list of March events at the Museum is shown below. For more details of the event taking place, click on the appropriate poster below.

Pete S

The Repeat Info

Here we are in 2024 and 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.