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De Havilland Aircraft Museum
Topic Started: Jul 9 2015, 11:33 PM (1,277 Views)
ColinM
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Hi James

Yes, Mark said at the Birmingham show he will be there. He is working silly hours this week but has got Sunday off.

Colin
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roadhousedisco
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Yes, apparently it's my turn to keep the country running this week (again)!
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ColinM
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See you tomorrow folks.

Colin
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roadhousedisco
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Looking forward to it. I'd better charge my camera batteries. Can you remind me to pick up some flyers for the museum for a friend at work.

Mark.
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ColinM
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Wilco

Colin
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peebeep
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Have a great day out, I'd like to be there but duty calls elsewhere.

peebeep
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ColinM
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I'm sure Mark will take a couple of photos...

Colin

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ColinM
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An excellent day out spent with Mark and James. Mark will be along soon with some photos. The driver for the visit for me was to get some information on a rare (one of only five built) PR32 that crashed in 1945 whilst conducting air tests. This aircraft, NS586, crashed at Westonzoyland and I have offered to build a 1/48 model for the Upottery Heritage Centre. Mark this morning lent me large volume on the Mosquito written by a chap called Ian Thirsk. There was a lot of activity amongst the restorers first thing so towards the end of the day when things were quieter I asked them if they had any information on PR32s. One of them went off to find the man who was leading the restoration of the airframes, and came back with, Ian Thirsk. Ian then gave us a quick tour of the restorations behind the ropes and offered some very helpful details of the PR32 type and has since sent me a photograph of a sister of the aircraft that crashed. I asked Ian what his day job was, turns out he is Head of Collections, RAF Museum, last big project was the Do17...

A most interesting end to the day.

Colin
Edited by ColinM, Aug 2 2015, 10:21 PM.
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roadhousedisco
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Hi all,

Well, what a day :wow: I've been visiting a lot of museums this year, and this was an exceptional visit. The museum is situated an actual five minute drive from junction 22 of the M25 and was really straight forward to get to. Like all small museums, it looks like it could do with a bit of an investment, but this is more than made up for with it's exhibits and information and helpfulness of it's staff. There really are some gems in this country, and this is one of them. It is situated at the home of de Havilland at Salisbury Hall. I did not realise how much of an impact the company had on British, and worldwide aviation, from the Tiger Moth, via the famous Mosquito, Venom, Vampire and Vixen, all the way to the infamous Comet.

We were able to get inside a couple of planes, and James commented on how the civil airliner had an ash tray on every arm rest! Unthinkable today! Other highlights include a cockpit and front fuselage of a Horsa Glider. It must have been quite scary to be in one of these flying over France, with 20 or so other soldiers, getting ready for war. IUnfortunately bot the Venom and Vampire were covered up, so we were not able to see these.

And on to the main event.......Mosquito's

They have a hanger with three ( :wow: ) Mosquito's in it. One bomber variant, one a fighter, and the original prototype. The prototype is currently being rebuilt in time for it's 75th anniversary in November. It might sound silly, but it was an honour to actually touch one of these aeroplanes.

As Colin has already stated, he is building a Mossie for someone, and was hoping to get some information while here. I lent him a book I was given which contained a sister craft of the one he is modelling. After James had gone, the research moved on at quite a pace when we was introduced to the author of the book Ian Thirsk. An absolutely wonderful piece of good luck, fortune and coincidence. Ian was a fountain of knowledge about the Mossie and gave Colin and I a personal tour of all three, taking us behind the barriers and behind the scenes. It was the most amazing experience of my AMSIG life.

Anyway, I'm currently going through some photo's and will post them tomorrow on here, but in the mean time, there are some on my Flickr link below.

Many thanks to Colin and James for making an excellent day. I'm looking forward to the next museum venture.

Mark.
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peebeep
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Wish I could have been there, I've visited before so I know what a treasure this place is. One of the IPMS Rivenhall members is a volunteer at the museum, I think this could be a club activity at some point.

Out of interest how is the FB VI progressing? Last time I was there some years ago the wings fuselage and tailplanes were all separated. We watched a restorer painting aluminium dope over red primer on a tailplane and he explained that the dope was for UV protection.

peebeep
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