Saturday 15 October 2011

Naval aviator - Lynx landing

I couldn't resist sharing this footage of a naval aviator landing a Lynx on a ship in rough seas.

http://bit.ly/n8QLNH

9 year old fundraiser supports North West Air Ambulance

On October 22nd and 23rd nine year old Kevin Dutton will be helping the North West Air Ambulance at a fundraising event taking place in Blackpool. Other visitors will include a UH-1H and OH-6A helicopter.

I wrote about Kevin a while back as he has his own website - 'Huey Fan Club UK'. Kevin recently posted some photos from his visit to The Helicopter Museum which can be seen here:
http://hueyfanclubuk.weebly.com/helicopter-museum.html

G-AVNE update - replacing the nose section

Fortunately, the sun has been shining today and provided the perfect environment for taking G-AVNE's nose section (with sand filters) outside for a good clean.

The good news is that it is structurally sound, there is evidence of corrosion (unsurprisingly) but after being cleaned we are confident that some anti-corrosive treatment should keep trouble at bay.

Once it has been treated, it can be refitted to the aircraft along with the tail section that was removed for similar treatment.

It is really satisfying to reach these milestones, however they are a stark reminder that the next part of the project looms - the floor in the cabin needs to be taken up which is a huge task alone, but the nerve-wracking part will be finding out what is underneath..........

Thursday 13 October 2011

Behind the Scenes - a busy week to come

Next week will be busy for us as we embark upon two very different training events.

On Wednesday the collections team will be learning how to fully utilise our collections management database which should provide the opportunity for some interesting debates about how we organise our artefacts. The truth is, building a database of what you have is a huge undertaking and it presents so many challenges. Recently we have been debating 'object vs concept' in various guises and it all relates to us having to anticipate how researchers are likely to want to access our information. Some fascinating, and heated, discussions have been had!

Thursday will see us take a more 'hand-on approach as a number of us will be spending the day with a conservator, learning about different ways to care for metals. This could prove invaluable to members of our aircraft preservation team - even those who may think they already know it all!!