NASAM Update as of the 26th May 2024

In This Edition

Summary of Contents

Delayed Blog

This blog was delayed in being published out of our respect for the tragic loss of the RAF pilot, Squadron Leader Mark Long RAF, who was piloting the aircraft, Spitfire Mk IX MK356, which crashed near RAF Coningsby on Saturday past.

The Battle of Britain Flight has performed numerous flypasts at the museum over the years, and we are indebted to the Flight for visiting us on many occasions, such as the flypast two weeks ago, the pictures of which are in this edition.

We extend our sincere condolences to the family and friends of Squadron Leader Long, as well as to the members of the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and the Royal Air Force in general who have lost one of their own.

Rest in peace, Sir; your duty is done.

Museum News

And now, in this edition of the blog is an apology from me, that I missed the photos sent by Steve of the Hurricane flypast and the classic cars that he had sent through to be published. Unfortunately, they were sitting in the ‘cloud’, and I did not download them until after the publication of the previous blog. So here they are, in this edition.

Next up, we have photos from Gary of the North Norfolk Classic Vehicle Club taken on the 15th of May 2024, when the club visited us here as part of their drive-out day.

Continuing with the photo theme in this edition, we have two sets of photos of the Guild of Aviation Artists visiting the Museum. A few of the photos were taken by Joe, and the remaining are from the Guild’s Facebook page, which we are pleased to reproduce for our readers.

Last in this bumper collection of photos are a few from the Olney Classic Car Club’s visit on Wednesday last week. These photos were taken by Paul H, and Joe.

From the Teams “Inside and Outside – The Museum“, we have two updates from Barry and from Mark K in the Paint Team, this shows their continued work on the aircraft and the buildings around the Museum.

Also, in this section, we have more from Malcolm in the MMU and his work in sorting and sifting through the multitude of models that have built up over the years in the model store. This he combines with his continued building and repairing of models used in our exhibitions.

In our “Event Information” section, we have a link to the details of our Aviation Art and Model Day at the Museum, better described by Graham in the events pages on our website as the Minis and Mini Model Day; this is happening on the 16th of June.

Pete S

Museum News

General news from the Museum

Flypast and Visitors 12 May

Here are photos of the Hurricane Flypast on Sunday the 12th of May, 2024, plus a few snaps of classic cars that arrived on the day. There is also a shot of the dancers in the main hangar. Mike Kendall provided the music on the day.

Steve

(Photos) Flypast and Visitors 12 May

North Norfolk Classic Vehicle Club

We were pleased to welcome the North Norfolk Classic Vehicle Club to the Museum on Wednesday, the 15th of May 2024. Despite being a mid-week day, there was a reasonabvle turnout of some relatively modern classic cars.

Gary

(Photos) North Norfolk Classic Vehicles

Guild of Aviation Artists

Photos of the visit by the Guild of Aviation Artists to the Museum on Sunday, the 19th of May 2024, along with a few newer classic cars that arrived on the day. The museum also had some of its art on display around the Museum.

Joe

(Photos) Guild of Aviation Artists Visit

Guild of Aviation Artists Pt II

The Guild graciously gave me permission to use photos from its Facebook page on the blog. It looks like the Guild had a good day out, and they certainly had good weather for outdoor sketching and painting. As part of their day in Flixton, they took advantage of a pub lunch at the Buck Inn.

Some of our own artwork is shown in the photos.

Included below is a poster for the Guild’s annual art exhibition on the 5th to the 7th of July 2024 at Old Warden Park, Biggleswade.

Pete S

(Photos) Guild of Aviation Artists PtII

More Visitors 22nd May

These are cars from the Olney Classic Car Club in Buckinghamshire that visited the Museum on Wednesday, May 22nd, 2024. They were on their summer road trip and used us as a stop.

Tyler the Border Collie (unofficial mascot for Wed and Sunday museum volunteers) was looking on with interest.

Paul H

(Photos) Olney Classic Car Club

Inside and Outside – The Museum

Information from the various teams

Paint Team Updates

14/05/24 – An inspector calls!

Well folks, two very strange things happened this week upon arrival at El Museo. Numero uno, the weather was actually better/drier in Flixton than it was when leaving Ipswich (usually the reverse for yours truly). With wet weather forecast all day, various emails had been exchanged Monday night, seeking alternative employment opportunities for the Paint Team on Tuesday. As it turned out, a relatively full day of sanding became possible. And Numero dos, some ‘jobsworth’ had padlocked my A frame ladder to the lid of the Paint Trolley under the Sea Prince, rendering it unserviceable (see pic 23)!

With Ian ‘On the Buses’ in California and the Skipper (Cliff) taking a rain induced ‘duvet day’ we were already two men down. Productivity was further hampered by the lack of available A-frame ladders!

Just as Mark was contemplating the picking the ladder padlock and Barry went of in search of his angle grinder for a less subtle solution, the ‘Chief Inspector of Ladders’ turned up (see pic 24). Inspector Morse… sorry Dawse was keen to explain his reasoning for taking said ladder ‘off the line.’ Apparently, the rear legs were missing their plastic foot caps and therefore the ladder had (allegedly) failed its MOT. Despite some remonstrations from the boys, the ‘Chief Inspector of Ladders’ stuck to his guns and said ladder was duly removed to the Chippie’s Shop for some remedial repairs or possible retirement.

Alternative ladders were quickly sourced via (ironically) the Chippies and via Chrissie in Bric a Brac (big hugs). The rain held off until lunchtime allowing Mark and Barry to make decent progress down the side of the fuselage of the Sea Prince in the morning. It also enabled Gwen to carry on with her repaint of all the Portakabins.

After lunch, the rain became more persistent forcing the boys to move under cover in order to find some dry bits of Sea Prince to sand. Fortunately, the rain remained relatively light and Mark was able to carry on under the inner starboard wing (see pic 25), while Barry did likewise on the port side (see pic 26).

By close of play, Gwen had also managed to knock off another couple of portakabins (see pic 27).

Finally, last week’s open blog question about the correct colour code for (reinstating) RAF/RN Dayglo Orange on the Sea Prince looks like it has been resolved. The answer would appear to be RAL 2005 Luminous Orange or BS 381C International Orange 592, unless anyone knows better. Note – in the 70s the RAF/RN subsequently moved from paint to ScotchCal Fluatape ‘vinyl’ for dayglo colour schemes.

Barry

21/05/24 – Bake Off Part II

Although Ian and Barry were both away on holiday, it was business as usual for the remaining members of the Paint Team.

Gwen continued painting portakabins – see photo 1 – making it as far as the bric-a-brac cabin this week. Rumour has it that Gwen will be very pleased when the last cabin has been painted.

After Cliff and Mark had done a quick recce of the cladding job that the chippies will need help with, it was on with sanding the Sea Prince – an aircraft that is starting to feel somewhat bigger than it looks! See photo 2.

Lunch provided a welcome break, with Mark sharing a few slices of his version of Gwen’s delicious Guinness cake – see blog for 6th May. Made with Cider instead of Guinness, and a touch overcooked, it still seemed to go down well enough. See photo 3 for Gwen looking quietly satisfied that her original cake is still the best. But the Great Paint Team Bake Off isn’t over yet!

The afternoon continued with more work on cabins and Sea Prince with the forecast rain holding off nicely.

By close of play most of the port side of the Prince had been sanded, and the top of the fuselage is ready for Tony and Ivor to replace old waterproofing that is beginning to fail – photo 4.

Mark K

(Photos) Paint Team Updates

MMU Update

At present, we have three projects on the go.

The stored models reduction program is continuing, batch 4 is about 3/4 way through and I’m confident that the 3 month decommissioning will be able to be started before the end of June for the models to be released early October. This will be another c400 models leaving the museum (I am keeping some by the way). There are still several boxes to be sorted so there will be a batch 5, I’m hoping that should be the last batch, depends on what is still to be found!.

1/72 VX580, the Valetta model is coming along very slowly at the moment, I’m still working through the initial stages of building/painting up the cockpit and other sundry items (see Photo 01) The instructions are guiding me to complete several of the different components before bringing it all together towards the end of the build. This is the first time I have built a Valom kit (Czech manufacturer); the fact that the parts on the sprues are not numbered does slow things down a bit. It’s a ‘take your time’ model’ but having seen an example of a completed model which a friend has built it should come out as a very decent representation. I have obtained a copy of the new Viking/Valetta/Varsity guidebook (see Photo 02), which has been very helpful. It has a photo of 580 from November 1956 when it was out in the Middle East which is what I will attempt to copy. If the Valetta comes out good, I may think of seeing if I can find a Varsity model to complement it.

I have mentioned in my previous blog that I am restoring a 1/32 P-51D Mustang. This is also slowly progressing, at the stage of painting the D-Day black/white stripes around the fuselage and lower wing(see photo 03).

That’s all for now, will update once have got a bit further with the Valetta build.

Malcolm

(Photos) MMU update

Event Information

What next at the Museum

June Events

Currently, we have only one real event day lined up for June, and this is the Aviation Art and Model Day on Sunday, June 16th, 2024. Better described by Graham as the Minis and Mini Model Day in his list of events on our main website, the Museum is pleased to be able to hold a miniature day – where all of our exhibitors are mini! The bigger Minis are the collection of well-restored and loved examples of Sir Alec Issigonis’ best known creation courtesy of the Bury Mini Club – and the smaller Minis are the wonderful 1:72 scale models that make up the recreation of the 2005 flight line at the Duxford-based Flying Legends air show. The 16th of June is the date you need to put into your diaries.

More information on that event can be obtained by clicking on the poster below.

We do have a few more events in July, including a two-day event at the end of the month. More information on that will be in later editions of the blog.

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.