NASAM Update as of the 8th Jun 2024
In This Edition
Summary of Contents
In this edition of the blog “Museum News” we start with a few words from our Chairman Steve, on the donations machine that helps keep the Museum finances functioning. Also as part of this we have a photo from Michael (Chippies Team) on the installation of that terminal.
With D-Day having been recently remembered, Brian took the opportunity to spruce up the grounds around the 446 Memorial on the old Flixton airfield. We have some pictures of that.
Lastly in this section we have link through to a Travel Bloggers view of the Museum. Paola Bertoni’s view of the Museum is well worth a read. The link through to the travel blog can be found in this section.
From the Teams “Inside and Outside – The Museum“, we have Barry’s updates for the last two weeks as the Paint Team continue making progress with the Sea Prince and other projects around the Museum.
In the “Events Information” we have details of the main event taking place in June at the Museum, which is the Aviation Art and Model Show.
Pete S
Museum News
General news from the Museum
Donations Terminal
We first had the contactless donation machine installed during the pandemic. Since then it has proved very popular with visitors as a way of cash free donating. It has also proved invaluable for the museum as we rely on donations to survive. We tried various locations for the machine but settled on just inside the hangar door. We have now installed it “properly” in its own housing with a screen above that cycles through various images to encourage visitors to donate using it.
Steve
Terminal Installation
Ash and I have just built a new mounting for the donation terminal in the entrance to the Hanger. Steve has supplied a screen, which we incorporated, on which a rotating series of messages appear, to help visitors make a donation.
Michael
446 Memorial D-Day
With the anniversary of D-Day, Ground Force have been tidying up the grounds around the memorial to 446 Bomb Group located on the old airfield at Flixton and sent in two pictures. The memorial pays respect to all the American airmen who perished in WWII who flew from the East Anglia airbases. It notes that 446 Bomb Group led the mighty 8TH Air Force on the first mission on that day, the 6th of June 1944.
Two photos of the site now are shown, along with a photo of the memorial that we have in our photo archives.
(Photos) 446 Memorial D-Day
Opening Days
Paola Everywhere
Here we have a link to a travel bloggers page and her take on the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum. This makes interesting reading as it is a view of our Museum seem through the eyes of a visitor to the site. This is a more detailed view than a “like” or a comment on our Social Media pages Paola has visited the site on at least two occasions and this is her second blog that she published. Click on the link as this is well worth a read, the blog can be found @ Paola Everywhere
Pete S
Inside and Outside – The Museum
Information from the various teams
Paint Team Updates
28/05/24 – Barry’s bad day!
Yes folks, Mr Grumpy was back this week. With the forecast suggesting rain all day, this did not engender the highest of spirits at reveille. Upon arrival at El Museo, while the sky looked very threatening the Sea Prince was surprisingly bone dry and workable. Hurrah! In fact, the rain held off until just before luncheon. Progress in the morning was however slow, due largely to the lack of Paint Team members. With the Skipper (Cliff) entertaining a Dutch Stirling raiding party, Mark having his South Korean satnav fixed and Ian still ‘on the buses’ in the US, it was down to your correspondent to fly the flag for the team on the Sea Prince.
A morning’s exciting prep on the port tailfin loomed ahead. It must have been exciting because an interested crowd soon gathered at the fence (see pic 01)! Evidently the presence of a noisy humanoid fooled the exclusively bovine audience into thinking they were about to be fed! Or, maybe they were just intrigued as to why it takes four different tools to prep just one panel. Rivets me lad, lots of rivets. I’m starting to really loathe rivets, the Sea Pain… er, Prince is covered in them! Any road, by lunchtime and after about 2 hours of sanding, wire wheeling and flap wheeling, about half of the port side of the SP tailfin had been prepped by Mr No Mates (see pic 02).
As the rain came down around 11:30 hrs, yours truly beat a hasty retreat to under the wing and spent half an hour prepping the (still dry) port undercarriage leg.
The dry spell in the morning also enabled Gwen to make a bit more progress with her marathon repaint of the Portakabins.
As luncheon was taken, we could hear the rain intensifying. Returning to the SP after lunch, everything was very wet (see pic 03), with rain now dripping down the underside of the wings, putting pay to any further leg prep.
Alternative employment was therefore sought for the afternoon.
Gwen returned to the CO2/Oxygen trolley in the Ken Wallis Hall and gave it a topcoat of yellow (see pic 04).
Further down the KWH, the Scout Car was apparently in need of some touching up, with some areas of the body easily giving up flaky paint (see pic 05). Barry therefore set about lightly sanding back the affected areas on the viewable (to visitors) sides of the vehicle. So far so good. Barry then pugged in his drill to do some light wire wheeling around some nuts and the drill and lights in the KWH immediately went kaput! After several resets of the plug socket RCD and Main Board trip switch, all to no avail, your correspondent gave up for the day and went home! And that’s all she wrote.
04/06/24 – Back in the game!
Yes folks, productivity on Sea Prince was boosted this week by Private (Wing) Walker who returned after three weeks ‘on the buses’ in the Wild West (of USA). The Wingman soon took up his customary position on the SP’s port wing, to pick up where he left off a few weeks ago. He celebrated his return with his first proper ‘brew’ for three weeks, fortunately remembering to remove his dust mask before seeking to consume said cuppa (see pic 06)!
Also back in the game was the Skipper (Cliff) following his hosting of some Dutch contributors to the Stirling Project last week. The Skip quickly got down and dirty to carry on with the prep of the lower reaches of the SP’s port fuselage (see pic 07).
At the rear, Barry got back on the port side of the tail of the SP, following last week’s early curtailment due to rain. By lunchtime most of the upper surface of the tail stabiliser had been prepped using Barry’s 4 stage process (patent pending). First pass was with the wire wheel, followed by the orbital sander on the flat rivet free surfaces (are there any? – Ed.). Stage three is to ‘tickle’ the still flaking areas (usually around rivet heads and panel joins) with the flap wheel, before finishing off with the detail sander in the remaining nooks and crannies (see pic 08).
Progress was slow due to what seemed to be the ever-increasing numbers of rivets in the Sea Prince’s (henceforth to be known as the Sea Pest) construction, especially on the tailfin.
Progress in the arvo was further slowed (temporarily) by another visit from the Chief Inspector of Ladders, who seemed to be stocktaking (again) but also seeking every opportunity to pull up ladder abusing miscreants. Apart from a light caution for using a ladder “the wrong way up” we managed to avoid the clutches of Inspector Daws.. this time round!
By close of play, most of the top of the port wing had been prepped, plus the port side of the fuselage and the port side of the tail (see pic 09).
Put off by the number of rivets on the Sea Pest, Mark ‘Carry On’ Kellerher decided to take a week’s vacation in Cumbria. Staying near Sellafield (that’s Windscale in old money – Ed.) I expect he’ll be positively ‘glowing’ about his trip next week.
And finally, not to be forgotten, Gwen continued with her paint-athon of all the Portakabins, hoping that Steve doesn’t arrange to have them all pulled down before paint has dried (today’s 12pm volunteer update refers)!
Barry
(Photos) Paint Team Update
Event Information
What next at the Museum
June Events
We have one main event planned in June, this is the “Aviation Art and Model Day“, or has Graham has it listed in our events pages “Minis and Mini Models Day at NASAM“, that because everything about the day is mini….. To use Graham’s words “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.”
For more details of the event taking place, click on the 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.
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Pete S
