Post on 30-Oct-2014
transcript
Top right: The band let loose in the museum
for the hangar dance. Centre right: The Mill
Auto convention housed in our hangar.
Bottom right: A Westland Lynx Mk9A visits
from Middle Wallop. Bottom left: A classic
car club visits the museum to appreciate a
very different type of engineering. Centre
Left: A close up of our Hind showing the
engineering that lies beneath the panels.
Top Left: A marriage proposal on the
helipad; She said YES!
News
Hangar Dance:
September saw one of our most renowned events return
to the museum in spectacular fashion. The annual
Hangar Dance once again drew in the crowds for an
evening of 40/50’s themed fun and frolics.
Everyone that attended can attest that there was a really
great atmosphere at the event; made even more fun
with the costumes worn by the guests and museum
volunteers!
Mill Auto Trading Festival:
The museum is constantly branching out to companies
and organisations that need venues. Mill Auto loved our
hangar and so did all of their customers. A number of
different companies attended and it is safe to say a good
deal of business took place.
One product on display, and a firm crowd favourite, was
the Ariel Atom made famous worldwide by the motoring
show Top Gear. If you would like to use our hanger for
an event please contact Lee Mills or Sharon Webber.
Tour guide Tutors
Saunders-Roe (Saro) Skeeter: AOP Mk. 12 XL811:
(Written by the museum tour guide team)
XL811 was assembled at Eastleigh, Hampshire, after
transfer from the Cowes IoW factory in 1958. As a two-
seat army observation helicopter it was the twenty-fourth
production aircraft and made its first flight on the 6th of
February 1959. XL811 First saw service with 651 Squadron
Advanced Helicopter Flight for pilot training. It later
served with 656 Squadron BAOR in Germany. It was
withdrawn from use and placed in storage in December
1967 and later purchased and delivered by road to
Weston in September 1992.
The AOP Mk. 12 was powered by a DH Gypsy Major
160kw engine and had a rotor diameter of 9.76m. The
length was 8.10m and the height was 2.29m. The max
speed was 167km/h, service ceiling 3900m and the range
was 340km.
In addition to XL811, the museum recently took delivery
of four Skeeter pods and five tail booms. All had served
with the AAC in Germany.
Restoration News
XM328: (Written by Chris Hallewell)
XM328 was built at Yeovil in 1959 as a pre-production
HAS.1 anti-submarine helicopter for the Royal Navy,
powered by a single Napier Gazelle engine. Between
1965 and 1968 forty-three Wessex HAS.1s, including
XM328, were upgraded to HAS.3 specification. This
included a new ARI 5955 search radar, with the aerial in
the characteristic dorsal dome, a Plessey Type 195
dipping sonar system, an uprated 1650 shp Napier
Gazelle engine. The HAS.3 had the ability to carry two
small homing torpedoes or four depth charges and
featured a full automatic flight control system, giving
altitude and heading control with barometric or radar
altimeter height hold.
From 1970 XM328 was stationed at Portland, Dorset, in a
training role, with 737 Naval Air Squadron and later from
the stern platforms of several County Class destroyers.
Towards the end of the 1970s most Wessex HAS.3
helicopters had been replaced by Westland Sea Kings but
a few, including XM328, remained in service until after
the Falklands conflict in 1982. One of these, XP142
(“Humphrey”), seriously damaged near San Carlos Water,
was replaced by XM328 on HMS Antrim for her second
three month deployment to the South Atlantic, in
November 1982.
Restoration News
In 1984 XM328 was transferred to RNAS Culdrose and
used for training, for the next twenty years, by the
School of Flight Deck Operations, before sale to The
Helicopter Museum in 2004.
In June 2007 XM238 was brought into the recently-
completed Museum Engineering Hangar where
refurbishment and conservation work began. By October
2010 the main gearbox, with most of the transmission
deck components, had been removed, overhauled and
repainted, where necessary, before reassembly. Much of
the cockpit and cabin equipment has been cleaned and
refurbished with the remaining instrument and control
panels overhauled and partly re-equipped. Corrosion
was found in several external and internal aluminium
skin panels and these were treated appropriately, or
replaced, before etch primer was applied followed by
finishing coats of paint. Painting of the exterior should be
near completion by the end of 2012.
It was thought that the areas below the cabin floor,
where most of the flexible fuel tanks are housed, would
show severe corrosion due to the possible ingress of sea
water from dipping sonar operations. Only very small
areas of such corrosion were found.
Dear volunteers:
With the winter months upon us the environment in the
hangar is going through a great deal of change. This
poses a number of challenges for the museum, not least
the conservation of our aircraft. If you notice anything
strange concerning the museum collection please let a
member of staff know. Catching an issue early could help
us to avoid big problems.
New Volunteers
Please welcome the following volunteers to the
museum:
Mandy Lloyd – front of house
If you know anyone that has a particular skill set that we
could use point them in our direction.
Restoration News
Team Fairey’s visit to the Midland Air Museum:
(Written by Mike Lait)
On Thursday the 11th of October the team restoring the
Fairey Ultra-Light visited the Midland Air Museum at
Coventry. The museum houses the only other surviving
Ultra-Light in the world. The Coventry machine is more
complete than the one at our museum and the purpose
of the visit was to sketch, measure and photograph
missing parts so that realistic replicas can be made.
Much time was spent on the top of a step ladder
recording details of the rotor head assembly. As a bonus
the Coventry Air Museum donated their spare collective
pitch control lever which will now be cleaned up and
fitted to our Ultra-Light.
Photograph competition
Instead of the usual photograph competition, this week I
am going to show off Mike Costello’s travel pictures for us
all to enjoy. Mike visited a number of aviation museums
in America and has some fantastic pictures of some even
more fantastic aircraft. Cheers Mike!
Presidential Sea King.
R-4 Hoverfly.
US Navy Seahawk.
Archive News
Work in the archives has been busy as usual. Work is
divided between volunteers entering newly donated
items into the system and the preserving and organising
of the existing collection (a mighty task indeed). The
archive database system now holds 3688 items, with
plenty more to come.
Amongst the latest items to be entered into the
archives, the most numerous have been manuals for a
wide variety of helicopter models. We have an extremely
impressive air publication collection, with most shelves
full to the brim and looking like this!
With many new items constantly being donated, the
office had begun to become extremely cluttered with
items being stored here, there and everywhere.
Restoration guru Greg offered to construct some
shelving to make the office a lot safer and to protect
items in progress. Cheers Greg, smashing job!
Two minutes with Dick Cavil
This week Dick Cavil gives us his thoughts on the museum
and provides us with some information about his lifelong
love of all things aviation. Dick is a restoration and
conservation volunteer at the museum and has currently
been working on keeping our display aircraft up to scratch.
How long have you been at the museum?
Three and a half years
What did you do before joining the museum?
I have spent my whole life working in various aspects of
aviation. I joined the RAF after leaving school. I then
worked with Westland Helicopters at W-s-M. I then spent
4 years as a trainer in the Royal Saudi Air Force. Finally I
worked for BAC/BAE systems/Airbus at Filton until
retirement 5 years ago.
What has been your best experience at the museum?
Being able to have contact with aviation again and
volunteer with like minded people, also to converse with
visiting public on aviation matters.
What would you like to see happen at the museum in the
future?
I would like to see the expansion of the museum to allow
more space to display the exhibits and acquire the
adjacent land to enable development of the restoration
part of the museum with maybe even an education aspect
included.
Spotters section
Spotter information about the aircraft that have landed at
the museum in the last 2 months for all you spotters out
there:
September:
Date, Type, Registration, Flown From:
07.09.2012, Lynx Mk9A, XE375, Middle Wallop
10.09.2012, Lynx, ?, ?
13.09.2012, Squirrel, ZJ263, Middle Wallop
17.09.2012, Lynx Mk9A, ? Yeovilton
25.09.2012, Bell 206, MFMF, Chard
Announcements
Jump Jet for Helicopter Museum:
An experimental Harrier Jump-Jet used by Rolls-Royce in
the 1980s to test a modified engine for a potential
supersonic version, has become the first fixed-wing
aeroplane to join the vertical flight collection at The
Helicopter Museum in Weston-super-Mare.
Previously with the BAC Collection and Rolls-Royce
Heritage Trust at Kemble in Gloucestershire, the Harrier
has recently been moved by road and will temporarily be
stored until it can be re-assembled to go on permanent
display at the Weston attraction.
The aircraft uses a much-modified airframe with the
nose and tail of one Harrier (XV798) and the wing of
another (XW264), married to a specially-built centre
section. This houses a vectored-thrust Rolls-Royce
Pegasus engine modified with plenum chamber burning
(PCB). A form of reheat, whereby fuel is mixed with
unburnt oxygen in the engine exhaust to provide a
ramjet effect, PCB can double the engine thrust but also
results in much higher exhaust temperatures.
Spotters section – Continued
August:
Date, Type, Registration, Flown From:
05.10.2012, Merlin, ?, RAF Benson
14.10.2012, Bell 206, MFMF, Chard
18.10.2012, Merlin, ?, RAF Benson
22.10.2012, A109, G-EVIP, Liskeard
24.10.2012, Merlin, ?, RAF Benson
26.10.2012, Lynx, ?, Middle Wallop
Visitor Feedback
Just a few comments from the museum visitor book:
“Loved the Huey, fantastic time”
“Lovely atmosphere, kids loved it!”
“Great flight + fantastic day”
“Truly amazing + memorable experience”
“Excellent value day out, interesting, kids
loved it!”
“Well preserved aircraft, very pleasant
staff”
Upcoming events
November:
November 4th – Open Cockpit day and flights.
December:
December 9th - Christmas fun day – Santa’s flight school
and flights.
Any additional offers of help from volunteers for the
above events would be warmly received. Please contact
Lee Mills if you can lend a hand.
Interesting visitors
The following groups have all enjoyed tours around our
museum in the past couple of months.
Mill Auto
Ashcombe Cubs
St Stephens Men
Crossroads Carers
If you would like to visit the museum with a group, we
can offer a guided tour to give you specialist information
about our unique collection.
Hire The Museum!
Do you have a Birthday or anniversary coming up? Have you thought about Hiring your village hall for a party?
The Helicopter Museum is available for public hire and is not as expensive as you might think. We already have several
‘private’ events booked in for 2012 with groups ranging from 50-500 people. If you are interested in aviation, the
museum can provide a unique backdrop for your special day. Please contact Lee Mills or Sharon Webber for details.
Other Ways You Can Help?
There are many ways in which you can volunteer to help The Helicopter Museum. Many of us have our own set duties
in our own little section of the museum; but there are many times throughout the year when all volunteers including
outside supporters can branch out and get involved in a number of ways, raising funds being one of the main ones. If
volunteers would like to play their part and help the museum raise funds and secure its future, please have a chat with
either Lee or Sharon.
The museum is always desperate for volunteers to help out at its events and you can play your part in many ways.
When was the last time you took some museum leaflets to your local pub, club or school?
Have you ever pinned up a museum event flyer on your local village notice board?
Could you give up an hour or so to help prepare for an event?
Have you given unwanted items to a charity shop recently, could they have been given to the museum to sell on
its bric-a-brac stalls?
Please don't just leave it for other people to do, play your part and support the museum you volunteer at.
Your Museum Needs You!
How to contact us? Tel: 01934-635227,
Email: helimuseum@btconnect.com
Website: www.helicoptermuseum.co.uk
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Whilst it is easy to forget, The Helicopter Museum is indeed a charity. Aircraft do not preserve themselves and a big part
of what the museum does is conservation and restoration based. The acquisition, preservation and restoration of
aircraft, some of which are the only existing examples left in the world, takes place on a daily basis at the museum so
that our aircraft can be enjoyed for generations to come. If you would like to help us in our task by contributing to the
restoration budget, then please fill in the form below and send it off to us.
Your Donation
I would like to support the Helicopter Museum in their efforts to conserve and restore aircraft and educate the public
about vertical flight history and technology with a gift of:
£10 £20 £30 £50 £100 Other £
Name:
Phone Number:
Email Address:
Home Address:
Postcode:
I enclose a cheque made payable to The Helicopter Museum
Help us further by using gift aid
Thanks to the gift aid scheme we can reclaim money on your donation from the government. For every pound you give
us, we can claim an extra 25p. For example, a donation of £15 becomes £18.75 with gift aid at no extra cost to you.
I am a UK taxpayer and would like The Helicopter Museum to treat all future donations from today as gift aid donations.
I understand that in the relevant tax year I must pay an amount of income tax and/or capital gains tax at least equal to
the tax that the charity reclaims on my donation.
Signature:
Please return this form in an envelope to:
The Helicopter Museum, Locking Moor Road, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, BS24 8PP