Forum Meet at East Fortune

Yes, I know all about the photography policy. This only applies to the use of cameras on tripods (I assume because if you’re not using a tripod, you are unlikely to get an image good enough for publication). My understanding is that this policy is aimed at preventing individuals profiting from the use of images of objects in the musuem’s collections. Whilst you are correct that it is difficult to prevent such images being published, having signed the form if you do publish the images without permission, legal action can be taken against you.

Bearing in mind that the aircraft are all fairly distinctive, and many of them are the sole survivors of type, combined with the fact that as a national museum the staff have contacts throughout the UK and overseas, I would have thought that the chances of an unauthorised published photo being spotted are actually quite high.

All

Something else you should all be aware of at East Fortune is photography rules, the staff will require anyone who wants to take images to sign a waiver saying that they reserve the right to restrict publication. I,ve been twice in the last couple of years and was quite taken aback by their attitude. On the first occasion I had my tri-pod set up and was in full flow, when I was asked to go to the reception area and sign the form, it restricted me from using the images in any publication without permission.

On the second occasion last May, it was the same, quite an unbeleivable attitude considering I paid an entry fee to a public establishment.

How they were actually going to stop me using the images was beyond me.

Another get-together at a later date sounds a great idea, although may I suggest that sometime next year might be better. At the present, Concorde is hoped to go on display in August, but it will be early next year before anyone will be able to get inside her. If we’re going to have a meet after Concorde is available, it would be better to have to whole shooting match, rather than just a look at the outside.

Also still up for a visit. As Buddy says we can have another get-together later in the year, say around the time Concorde is unveiled?

K

I’m still up for going as well. Could always organise to go another time, when they’re a bit more organised!

I’m sure it’s quite a challenge trying to re-arrange everything for Concorde so I can understand their concerns. Plus, they couldn’t really shut for half of the year either, especially with the Easter holidays coming up.

Im still up for the trip down to EF. I would go just for the walk round the base on its own. Hopfully we will have time to rake about the woods behind the storage hangar. Reported to be bits of aircraft around there somewhere. Might be interesting. I also have a site plan of the area and an extended site plan for the rest of the airfield not on the main plan.

Doesnt sound very user friendly at the moment but I suspect we have caught them at a bad time again.

Keith,

Thanks for this. I look forward to meeting you. I’m assuming we won’t have access to the meeting room, since it’s in the main hangar where Concorde is going and which is off-limits at present. It may be possible to use another building, so do please bring along your projector and slides, but I can’t guarantee that it will ultimately be possible.

What does surprise me a little is that the museum, which re-opens to the public tomorrow, is expecting visitors to only visit the museum in escorted groups. That’s fine for some group visit to an abandoned mine or something like that, but an aviation museum which is charging an entry fee shouldn’t be treating the public like that. Hopefully, I’ve got the wrong end of the stick and the situation won’t be as bad as I fear, but I have my worries.

I’ll still come down. If anyone wants a conducted tour of the Vulcan I can do one, even if we have to stay outside the barrier rope! If they will let us set up something in the meetings room I can bring down an LCD projector and laptop and do a Tornado briefing, or just bring down a load of photo’s I’ve transferred to computer for a slide show.

I had hoped that under new management things might have got more “customer friendly” at EF. If we don’t get a good reception I’ll reclaim all the things I donated 2 years ago including my bone dome from the “new acquisitions” cabinet!!!!!!!!!!!

So lets go for it!

KeithMac

Cheers, Alastari. I’ll assume everyone’s still happy to go ahead. I just thought I should at least warn you that we might not see aircraft that we would be expecting.

Thanks for that, Daz. I’m currently trying to arrange a suitable date for me to go for ‘induction’ so that we won’t have to be escorted around the whole site. I’ve just recently acquired an original Air Ministry Works site plan for East Fortune, so I’ll bring that with me. Even if we can’t see much of the aircraft, we’ll at least be able to identify every hut on site!

Sod it , me too , if I’m not in hospital I can mooch a lift through with Uncle Keith ( who has blagged our spare bedroom )

Hell, I’ll still go!