NASAM Update as at the 13th May 2025

In This Edition

Summary of Contents

In this edition of the Blog, under “Museum News“; we have firstly some photos taken by Joe of the Norfolk Internal Combustion Engine Society visit, which coincided with a visit by the MG Owners’ Club and their classic array of cars. Visitors enjoyed the mix of machinery out on the ground.

Next up in the Museum News, we have a tale of Tiger Moths, and more from Joe, who sent in his picture of a flypast by a pair of Tiger Moths. This was only the start of an interesting flypast.

Up next, we have a report from Steve on the educational visit by a group of Beavers working towards their “Aviation Skills” Badges. Also, in his report, Steve mentions that in the afternoon, the Beavers had a chance to see the flypast by one of the RAF BBMF Hurricane aircraft. Steve provided the pictures, and Harry, a young 13-year-old visitor, shared his video with the Museum.

From the Teams “Inside and Outside – The Museum“, we have a two-week input from the Paint Team and Barry, who, having returned to the Museum, took over the pen (actually the keyboard) from Mark.

And finally, under the “Events Information“, we have a showing of the next three events at the Museum for your diaries. This includes another flypast by the RAF BBMF aircraft on Saturday, the 24th of May 2025. This is, as usual, subject to weather and operational commitments on the day.

Pete S

Museum News

General News from or about the Museum

MG and NICE Day @ Flixton

Sunday, the 27th of April 2025, saw a double header of visitors to the Museum.

We were thrilled to welcome back NICE (that’s the Norfolk Internal Combustion Engine Society) to NASAM in 2025 – and if you caught their displays in previous years, you’ll know just how exciting this was.

After a number of years of exhibiting at NASAM, NICE returned with another brilliant showcase. This year, they brought along their incredible machines and a group of passionate and incredibly knowledgeable owners, who were more than happy to chat and share the stories behind the machines.

Their display at Flixton last year was already a crowd favourite, and 2025 took things up another notch. A stunning lineup of classic and modern MG cars added an extra dose of charm and nostalgia to the day.

Whether you’re a long-time enthusiast or just curious about vintage engines and vehicles, this year’s NICE display was an unmissable part of the NASAM experience and we hope that they will both return again in 2026.

(Photos) MG and NICE Day

A Tale of Tiger Moths

During the day, on Sunday, the 27th April 2025, a pair of Tiger Moths provided a flypast over the Museum. Joe captured this flypast, and the photo was sent to the blog. Although Joe had trouble with the light and the position of the aircraft, he managed to capture the essence of the flypast.

However, that was not the end of the story, as we had a mention on our Facebook page from Finest Hour Experiences. Lo and behold, when we looked at their Facebook post, we found that they posted a picture of the flypast at the Museum. This picture must have been taken around that same time as Joe’s picture of the event. Having spoken to Finest Hour Experiences, they were happy for us to publish the pic in our blog, along with the details of the aircraft etc.

The aircraft was Tiger Moth G-AOIS / R5172 over the museum, flown by Lewis Hurley; the camera ship was Tiger Moth G-OOSY, flown by Chris Thompson.

Photo courtesy of the Finest Hour Experiences. Finest Hour Experiences

(Photos) Tiger Moths over the Museum

Beaver Day

On Saturday, the 10th of May 2025, the museum held one of its regular scout activities days. This time we only had one group participating. The Beavers (aged six to eight) learned about the different roles we have for aircraft, the parts, how they work and what it was like on a US bomber base during the Second World War.

They also built flying models from polystyrene plates, rockets from sheets of A4 paper and learned how to fly a simulator.

They were working towards their stage one aviation skills badge. By the end of the day, all the Beavers had qualified for the badge.

The RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight very kindly provided a flypast by a Hurricane mid-afternoon, which attracted a strong crowd to see the iconic aircraft perform three passes over the museum (see below for photos and a video).

Steve B

(Photos) Beaver Day

(Photos) RAF BBMF Hurricane Flypast

(Video) Hurricane Flypast

Well done Harry, for sharing this with the Museum (turn up the volume)

Inside and Outside At The Museum

News from the Various Team

Paint Team Update

29/04/25 – Ant and Dec visit Flixton!

Hot on the heels of J R R Tolkien’s visit last week, this week saw Ant and Dec swing by the museum. More precisely, Ant and Dec-al!

Yes folks, it was decals week. With the weather warming up and overnight temps expected to be in double figures, conditions were finally good enough for the adhesive to go off properly overnight on any decals we might apply. The main focus for the day was therefore decal-ing up the Sea Prince, that had been bereft of any markings (see pic of port side) since completion of the repaint in October last year.

The day therefore kicked off with Dec (aka Mark) firing up the vinyl cutter in the Paper Store and running off the first couple of small decals in our black ‘cast’ vinyl (= stretchy vinyl designed to go over rivets etc.). The vinyl was then ‘weeded’ in Gary’s office to leave the bits (i.e. letters/numbers) that we actually wanted to apply. After that, the weeded vinyl was then placed onto the transparent low-tack transfer tape, ready for application (see pic).

Back over on the Prince, Ant (aka Barry) prepped the surfaces that were about to receive decals with a Tack cloth. By lunchtime, the decals on the tailfin (‘70’ and ‘CU’) had been applied to both sides (see pic).

Elsewhere, the Skipper (Cliff) was doing skipper-ry type stuff and Gwen spent the day ‘touching in’ flaky paint on the Whirlybird in the front paddock (see pic).

After lunch, the pace picked up as the boys gained in confidence and worked their way up to some bigger decals on the Prince.

Next to be applied was the registration (WF128), followed by the 5 foot long ‘ROYAL NAVY’ decal on the rear fuselage (see pic). Ant (aka Barry) was joined by Private Walker (Ian W.) who provided a very helpful second pair of hands to manhandle the larger decals into place.

With time starting to run out, Dec (aka Mark) toddled off to the Paper Store and knocked out the next set of decals, being the squadron codes to go up near the cockpit. The ‘FIRE PANEL’ decals for the engine cowlings were also cut (Ivor please note!) and will be fitted next week. As the final whistle approached, there was just enough time for Mark and Ian W. to offer up the ‘570’ into position against the front of the fuselage (see pic).

By tea time the decals on the rear of the Prince were complete (see pic of starboard side), save for the 3 foot fuselage roundels amidships. As these are too big for our cutter, they are being produced for us by EPS. Hopefully, they will arrive just in time for application next week. Identical 3 foot roundels will also be applied to the upper and lower surfaces of the wings.

(Photos) Paint Team 29/04/25

06/05/25 – When is a FIRE PANEL not a FIRE PANEL?

When it’s a “FIRE PAN” obviously. More on this decal debacle later.

With Carry On Kelleher (Mark) quite literally ‘Up Pompei’ this week, it was left to Barry and Ian W. to continue with ‘decaling’ up the Sea Prince.

First job of the day was to apply the ‘570’ squadron codes just below the cockpit (see pic). Having first applied the transfer tape in the office, this went on the aircraft pretty well, save for a tiny amount of creasing at the bottom of both zeros.

After that, it was back into the warmth of the office to ‘weed’ the small ‘FIRE PANEL’ decals to go on the engine cowlings. Being small, these proved to be quite fiddly to ‘weed’ and Ian W. got tripped up on the last one, which unfortunately went down the ‘PAN’ (see pic)! This prompted Barry to ask what ‘EL’ he was doing!!

While Barry disappeared off to the Manager’s meeting, Ian set about fitting the just weeded decals to the Prince (see pic). Undaunted by his earlier ‘accident’ Ian W. applied all the decals he had to hand. Hopefully not too many visitors will ‘PAN’ his work on the port engine (see pic), until such time that Mr Carry On can run us off another set of decals.

Elsewhere, Gwen continued with her extensive ‘touching in’ of the flaky red paint on the Whirlwind.

After luncheon, Barry scooted down to EPS in Halesworth to pick up the ‘oversized’ (i.e. too big for us to produce in house) 6 x 3 foot roundels for the Prince’s wings and fuselage.

Battling against the elements, Barry and Ian W. then decided to ‘test’ the application of the much bigger roundels by laying the first blue outer on the top of the Prince’s starboard wing (that few people will see!). Despite the sub optimal temperature and blustery wind, this turned out to be a good first lay (see pic). A little bit of heat from the Heat Gun helped iron out any air pockets and the (strechy) cast vinyl settled nicely. Gaining in confidence, the boys quickly knocked off the blue ‘outer’ on the port wing before close of play.

Next week, the boys will be back in town aligning the white and red ‘inners’ before turning to the more visible mid-fuselage roundels.

Barry

(Photos) Paint Team 06/05/25

Event information

What’s next at the Museum

Upcoming Events in May

Below are posters for the upcoming events in May 2025. More information (if known) on these events can be found by clicking on the poster.

Pete S

The Repeat Information

Funding

Here we are in 2025, and although we now charge for admission to the Museum, we still appreciate any additional help we can get from the general public, readers of the blog and visitors to the Museum. So the repeated information below is still here, just in case you would like to help.

We are a charitable organisation, relying now on admission charges, grants and donations from the people that visit. Any and all help is greatly appreciated 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”.

Would you like to help??

One of the ways we save money is by having a dedicated group of Volunteers that keep the Museum and the exhibits both manned and maintained. We hope, therefore, that a few people would consider helping in the three ways below:

Help by becoming a Museum Member, also Volunteering to help at the Museum, or by making a Donation to help with 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

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