The Helicopter Museum: Newsletter Vol. 5

7/28/2019 The Helicopter Museum: Newsletter Vol. 5

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Top right: One of our many photographs

from the archive. Centre right: The air

activities badge taken by scouts at The

Museum. Bottom right: An R22

manoeuvring around the helipad. Bottom

left: One of several Merlin visits over the 2month period. Centre Left: Work continues

on the Ultra-Light project; see inside for

more info. Top Left: An Army squirrel lands

at the museum, little did we know that it

was piloted by a Lt Colonel and a Major!


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Chairman of the Trustees - Elfan Ap Rees

With Consultants and Architects commissioned to

develop our exciting new Heritage Lottery Fund bid to

further expand the Museum; these are busy times for

myself, the management and the Trustees. The need to

replace our original temporary buildings with something

more fitting for the only UK Helicopter Museum, along

with new hangarage has long been an objective of the

Trustees but only now can we move it forward.

As well as a new "front" to the museum to house the

shop, cafe, office and larger display and meeting areas,

the proposals include more car parking spaces, enlarging

the archives (by relocating the film theatre/ class room),

building a new storage facility and constructing a new

hangar on part of the 10-acre site we hope to take over

in the not too distant future. The latter also includes

restoring the original control tower and pilots block.

However it is important that everyone feels involved andconsulted. For that reason basic plans and ideas are

available, along with questionnaires for everyone to fill

in. Available in the shop and the cafe the latter will be an

important part of making sure we meet everyone's

needs...get involved please.

Elfan Ap Rees

Chairman Trustees

Summer Time (Fingers Crossed)

Dear Volunteers and Staff, please note that we are now

beginning to exit the winter period (although you could

not tell with the weather as it is). Whilst I can personally

not wait to crack out the shorts and sunglasses there are

a number of consequences that come with the better

conditions. As we begin to enter the spring/summer

period, which brings considerably more visitors through

our doors, there are a number of things as a team we

need to be aware of. These are:

1. Increased visitor numbers means increased trade

in the cafe. It has always been our policy that

visitors get served first so please be patient with

cafe volunteers and staff. It might be the case

that occasionally we will be asked to have our

lunch half an hour late but that is not exactly a

chore in the grand scheme of things! Also,

offering to lend Cheryl and Simon a hand during

busy periods would not go amiss.

2. Increased visitor numbers also means that

greater health and safety precautions need to be

taken. I am specifically thinking of the chaps that

do a sterling job working on the aircraft outside

of the restoration area. The scissor lift should not

be used on busy days and all work on aircraft

should be cornered off, no matter how

apparently harmless the work may seem.

3. Increased visitor numbers also means that all of

us are on show to the general public. We should

not just aim to prevent complaints but actively

seek positive feedback. A simple good morning

or good afternoon to visitors can set a great tone

for a visit to our museum. If someone looks lost

or you overhear them querying something, I

would urge you to engage with them. Remember

you know a lot about the museum collection andcan significantly enhance someones experience

at our attraction.

Do you follow the museum blog?

Keep up to date with the very latest news at the

Museum. Follow restoration and conservation projects

and be the first to hear about new events!

To follow the museum blog click on the blog icon on the

top right hand side of our home page at

www.helicoptermuseum.co.ukThis will take you to the

collections blog where you can enter your email address

to be automatically contacted when the blog is updated.

Ivan

It is with deepest regret that I must inform you all that

one of our most universally popular volunteers sadly

passed away in late March. Ivan Iskandar had

volunteered for seven years at The Museum before we

sadly received the news of his passing. The staff and

volunteers at the Museum are understandably very

shocked and saddened by this news.

Whilst I personally only knew Ivan for a year, I think it is

only appropriate to reminisce about his extraordinary

character and keep his memory alive. My personal

recollections of Ivan were of an extremely hard working

man whose dedication knew no bounds. I think everyone

can attest that Ivan was a man of few complaints, come

rain or shine he came to the museum and gave his all for

the cause no matter how he felt. There was also certainly

a humorous side to Ivan, who was undeniably at his best

when he was dressed in a tropical shirt and chuckling

with his friends at The Museum.

Ivan you will be sorely missed,

From all your friends at The Helicopter Museum
http://www.helicoptermuseum.co.uk/http://www.helicoptermuseum.co.uk/http://www.helicoptermuseum.co.uk/


3/8

Comparisons by Robert Heath

The Helicopter Museum is constantly thinking of new

ways of trying to improve the museum collection. This

can take a number of forms from working on the actual

exhibits to improving how they are displayed. One of the

most effective ways of improving our museum is by

comparing ourselves with similar attractions to gauge

our strengths and weaknesses (and possibly stealingtheir better ideas). This method is even more poignant

given that proposals for expansion have been

announced. With that in mind Robert Heath recently

visited the Midland Air Museum: below are his thoughts

on areas in which we could improve by comparison.

Midland Air Museum Vs The Helicopter Museum:

1. Use the display area walls to better effect, e.g.

we have numerous rotor blades languishing

around. I suggest we paint them up and erect

them vertically, or at an angle against hangar

walls as a backcloth. THM has a lot of wall space

and a lot of rotors. A bit of imagination would

add interest, colour and flavour. THM has a

yard full of retired/surplus aircraft. Why not slice

some down the centre-line, paint them up for

display and mount them on the hangar wall, or

slice off cockpit/nose sections and mount them

on the wall (strip them all down for lightness,etc.). This should be achievable by the in-house

volunteer team.

2. Photographs. Each helicopter has a descriptive

panel. It would be even more interesting to

expand the panels to include photographs of the

aircraft in question in action in the role it was

designed for. This will increase the interest for all

visitors, but in particular the younger people and

the mothers, who generally will be visiting

simply because father wants to see everything

3. Movement. Obtain from Proper Job/Halfords

some cyclists flashing white and flashing red

helmet lights to place on, or in, various aircraft

to simulate aircraft in operation. The lights are

LED and batteries will last for 80 hours (figure

quoted on my LED light). It should not be difficult

to position them to be inconvenient for visitors

to reach, but convenient for staff. They will add

background life and movement, which is largelylacking at present.

Thanks Robert. Remember folks, next time you visit a

museum jot down your thoughts and send them to me.

Upcoming Events

April:

14th Open Cockpit Day + Flights

20th & 21stBehind the Scenes Spotters

Weekend

May:

4th The Helicopter Museum Story: 24th

Anniversary Lecture and Tour

12th Open Cockpit Day + Flights

18th & 19th World War Two Weekend including

Living History Encampment and Flight Simulator

Convention

26th Helicopter Experience Flights

Dear volunteers:

Dear volunteers, please note that there will be no

restoration taking part on the dates of Saturday the 18th

of May and Saturday the 27th

of July. This is due to

Museum fundraising events taking place on these days.

However, you are all encouraged to lend a hand in any

way you can. I know that the management team wouldreally appreciate as many volunteers for events as they

can possibly get. Join inits more fun than you might

think.

If you are interested please contact Lee Mills for further

arrangements.

New Volunteers:

Please make the following volunteers welcome and sayhello:

Al Humphries Restoration

Keith Harvey Restoration

Interesting visitors:

Just a few of the interesting groups that have visited in

the past two months:

West Penard C of E School

Beavis Holidays

Milton Park School

Probus Pensioners

Norton Radstock Vehicles

Weston Mini Muckers


4/8

Restoration News

Fairey Ultra-Light by Mike Lait

The Fairey team have been busy making a replacement

rotor head as the original went missing years ago and is

unfortunately presumed dead (i.e. scrapped). The

central part of the replacement has been fabricated

from steel to ensure that it is strong enough to carry the

surprisingly heavy rotor blades. A trial assembly hasconfirmed that the rotor blades are a good fit. Next, we

intend to add filler and shape it to make the part look

exactly like the original and then paint it the correct

colour.

It will be fitted to the helicopter on top of the large

spherical ball joint which we could have machined from

a solid lump of aluminium. One of the team however,

has found an aluminium frying pan of exactly the right

size and shape so we are using this in the hope of saving

a lot of time, work and money. Oh, what the volunteerswives have to put up with!

Meanwhile, Fairey team member John Derrick has found

a manufacturer of transparencies (ie windows) who

appear to be able to do a good job at a reasonable price.The manufacturer has produced quality work for a

number of BAPC (British Air Preservation Council)

members and The Helicopter Museum is applying for

funding.

Tour Guide Tutors

Bell 47 - by Chris May

To the soldiers in Korea 60 years ago, the H13 Sioux was

the Angel of Mercy coming to carry the wounded to life-

saving medical facilities. In the late 50s it was N975B, the

civilian helicopter from the TV series, Whirlybirds. Then

recreating the Korean War was the TV series M*A*S*H

with the dourly wisecracking surgeon Hawkeye.

The Bell 47 has provided life-saving and productive

activities since 1946. It was the first helicopter approved

for civilian use. It was also the first helicopter to be used

to transmit television signals for people viewing at home.

Our Examples

Specification

Capacity: 1 passenger or 2 Litters

Length: 31 ft 7 in (9.63 m)

Rotor diameter: 37 ft 2 in (11.32 m)

Height: 9 ft 3 in (2.83 m)

Disc area: 1,085 sq ft (100.8 m2)

Empty weight: 1,893 lb (858 kg)

Useful load: 1,057 lb (482 kg)

Max. Takeoff weight: 2,950 lb (1,340 kg)

Power plant: 1 x lycoming TVO-435-FIA flat. Six-

cylinder, reciprocating engine, 280 hp (210 kw)

Performance

Maximum speed: 91 Knots (105 mph, 169 km/h) Cruise speed: 73 Knots (84 mph, 135 km/h)

Range: 214 nmi (245 mi, 395 km)

Rate of climb: 860 ft/min (4.37 m/s)

An Agusta-Bell, 47G-3B1,

XT190 built at Yeovil 1965

for the Army Air Corps.

A Bell 47-H, G-AZYB, built

at Fort Worth Texas in

1956, notably owned at

one time by the Belgian

Antarctic Survey

Expedition


5/8

Archive News

Donations

The past few months has seen many interesting items

being donated to The Museum, amongst these, some of

the finest examples are a number of original Queens

Flight items.

This tie, sweater and plaque were all donated by WO

(retired) Baldry who served with the Queens Flight from

1982-83 before being promoted, and subsequently

moved off the Flight.

Project Patent

One of the newest projects to have been started by

members of the archive team in the last few months has

been Project Patent. For those who do not know, the

archive houses thousands (and I mean thousands) of

patents relating to vertical flight. The project has been

started with the aim of cataloguing them all and entering

them on the archive database system MODES.

The first step of the project was to devise a template for

the database so that specialist patent information could

be entered and later searched by users. This was

dutifully created by the resident IT guru Tony.

The project has since moved onto the next (and longest)

stage. Mike Costello has begun entering the individual

patents on entry forms and subsequently entering them

onto the database system. The job is made all the more

difficult by the various technical engineering jargon that

Mike has had to deal with during the process.

Whilst this is certainly a long term project, by the time

the project has been completed we should posses a fully

preserved and searchable patent library.

Two Minutes With...

Restoration Manager - Rod Holloway

How long have you been at the museum?

I have been at the museum since February 1988, so I

guess thats 25 years[N.B.I dont want to flaunt my

youth too much Rod but just to let you know, I was born

in April 1989! You have been volunteering here longer

than I have been alive!!] Ed-John

What did you do before joining the museum?

I joined the RAF at the age of 15, as a Boy Entrant and

was trained as an Air Radar Mechanic.

I then spent 24 years in the RAF maintaining Lightning,

Hunter, Kestrel and Harrier aircraft, before going on toservice Bloodhound, Milan and Rapier weapons system as

well as various ground and air radars and computer

systems. I spent the last 11 years at RAF Locking writing

training courses for the E3D AWACS Aircraft system and

then became the very first Air Technician for the E3D.

After leaving the RAF, I worked for a Swiss company in

New York for 3 years. Then I returned to the UK and

worked for a company called Deutsch Ltd helping

engineers design electrical and fibre optic systems for a

range of projects for, Airbus, BAE Systems, Westland

Helicopters and MoD. The last five years before I retired I

worked for Cabletec in Weston.

What has been your best experience at the museum?

The years I have spent marshalling at Helidays! Those

times will remain with me forever. But also all of my time

has been very satisfying!

What would you like to see happen at the museum in

thefuture?

I would like to see the expansion of the museum go

ahead very soon before I am too old to be a part of it! We

need to be able to make more space for the aircraft on

display and develop more interactive displays to improve

the education of visitors. As Aircraft Restoration Manager,

I would also like to have the chance to improve workshop

facilities to include a better machine shop and some

heating for the winter.


6/8

Spotters SectionMarch

Date, Type, Registration, Flown From:

10.03.2013, AS355F, G-OHMS, Denham

12.03.2013, Chinook, ZH904, ???

12.03.2013, Chinook, ZA675, ???

13.03.2013, Squirrel, ZJ246, Middle Wallop

30.03.2013, R22, G-OASK, Bristol

Visitor Feedback

Just a few comments taken from our visitor book, we

always encourage constructive comments from our

customers:

Great DisplaysWe love it here

Really great to see up close

A lovely family experienceBrilliant, plenty to doA great museum, thanks!Had a great time again, thanks tovolunteer Ray for his chat

Spotters Section

Spotter information about the aircraft that have landed

at the museum in the last 2 months for all you spotters

out there. As you can see from the front cover there are

quite a few!

February

Date, Type, Registration, Flown From:

01.02.2013, Merlin, ???, Benson

04.02.2013, Merlin, ZJ127, Benson

12.02.2013, Squirrel, ZJ254, ???

14.02.2013, Squirrel, AAJ18, ???

15.02.2013, Chinook, ???, ???

16.02.2013, Chinook, ZA674, Salisbury Plain

Photograph Competition

Mystery Volunteer...Revealed!!

The loveable rogue pictured in the last issue was none

other than Geoff Worner. I can safely say that there was a

myriad of different guesses but nobody was correct!

New Mystery Volunteer

It would seem that the whole mystery volunteer

competition seemed rather popular so I am offering up a

new photo for your guesses. The year is 1966 and this

young bruiser is pictured in Singapore, who is it???


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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 at 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 volunteers 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 ontheir 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:[email protected]

Website:www.helicoptermuseum.co.uk
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.helicoptermuseum.co.uk/http://www.helicoptermuseum.co.uk/http://www.helicoptermuseum.co.uk/http://www.helicoptermuseum.co.uk/mailto:[email protected]


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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 therestoration 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

Documents

The Helicopter Museum: Newsletter Vol. 5