A Time for Reflection

Thanks for taking time out on Sunday TwinOtter to chat about some of the exciting projects NAM have got coming up, hope they all come to fruition and I’m impressed with the thought and effort you’ve all put in to cater for allcomers to the Museum. I was delighted to see so many people there on Sunday despite the cold and damp and so many from the younger generations too, enjoyed the morning!

No problem – I’m still waiting to get the full feedback about the various style of display panels etc but the general overall feedback was very encouraging.

The Notts Aviation Guide looked good this afternoon and we are starting to firm up release dates with the Council!

[QUOTE=bookman;1691236][QUOTE=WJ244;1689607]It does seem to me that we have a generation or two currently aged between 12 and 30-35 ish where an awful lot of people have little interest in anything other than drinking or possibly going to the gym to get a great looking body to attract the opposite sex. Anything remotely technical or historic seems to be instantly labelled as boring. Many of these people seem to have little knowledge about anything and little or no respect for anyone or anything.

Very well said that man !! 🙂

To be fair, don’t you think this has always been the case. I suspect that anything “remotely technical or historic” has always been a minority interest compared to watching sport and drinking, hasn’t it? As for peoples’ lack of knowledge and respect, well that’s another subject altogether.

Thanks for taking time out on Sunday TwinOtter to chat about some of the exciting projects NAM have got coming up, hope they all come to fruition and I’m impressed with the thought and effort you’ve all put in to cater for allcomers to the Museum. I was delighted to see so many people there on Sunday despite the cold and damp and so many from the younger generations too, enjoyed the morning!

I’ll try and make the Sunday even if its late on as I’d like to catch up with you, and no sadly not aviation related…Medieval Chapel related, one final push to find it : )

I hope to see you then – good luck with the Chapel search! 🙂

[QUOTE=WJ244;1689607]It does seem to me that we have a generation or two currently aged between 12 and 30-35 ish where an awful lot of people have little interest in anything other than drinking or possibly going to the gym to get a great looking body to attract the opposite sex. Anything remotely technical or historic seems to be instantly labelled as boring. Many of these people seem to have little knowledge about anything and little or no respect for anyone or anything.

[Quote] Very well said that man !! 🙂

I’ll try and make the Sunday even if its late on as I’d like to catch up with you, and no sadly not aviation related…Medieval Chapel related, one final push to find it : )

Tom,

TBH the Harvard idea was a potential ‘quick-fix’ i.e. NAM is already considering an EATS / BCATP training scheme for when the aircraft is eventually restored – it just seemed like a good idea.

I should hopefully be back on line a bit more now that my oldest son has been safely delivered back to university and a few other family commitments have been fulfilled. The EATS / BCATP training scheme is a vital part of the Training Story that NAM aims to tell; indeed amongst today’s emails is something from the NAM Archivist for a future Object of the Week that has Canadian connections – a wartime Liquor Permit from Mount Hope, Canada!

JR,

Hopefully the trial displays will remain on show for a few more weeks; thereby enabling us to gain further feedback on them, so the Monday would be OK – not sure whether I’ll be around.

Being nosey here, but is the geophysics aviation related in any way?

I’m down for a geophysics survey that day Twin Otter, but it will be called off if the weather’s too bad, in which case I’ll be there, will it continue into the Monday if I can’t make the Sunday? Would love to see it.

And that sounds great Tom!

Twin Otter 23
“Shame about the Harvard Tom – back to the drawing board on that idea!

NAM’s original President was Air Commodore David Bonham-Carter, who amongst other postings was involved in helping establish some of the Canadian elements of the Empire Air Training Plan. This is an important part of the Training theme that NAM is planning to feature as part of its revised Interpretation Plans and I hope this is something that can be developed in an engaging way.”

I think we can still work together re: the EATS/BCATP as there is a connecting story to tell.

Last year we flew 2000km in an open cockpit bi plane visiting the Alberta Training bases, this year we will be doing Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
All part of the 70th Anniversary celebration of the Training Plan.

We will be connecting we are connected with the Harvard Historical Society in Red Deer and on the 2011 portion of the tour we will be working with the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum in Brandon Manitoba as well as several others.

Perhaps there is a way to tie our efforts together.

Tom

No problem JR – if you’re around on January 23rd why not pop in and see some of the display ideas that our ‘graduate placement’ has come up with!

Hopefully I will be there for most of the day – not that I wish to put you off!! 😀

Thankyou Twin Otter, I’m blushing! Yes, long may it continue, I still find it amazing that the place I started the research (on the site of part of Winthorpe) is where the crew were briefly.
Having not known and still not knowing much about Historic Aviation I found the resources of NAM and the help of members of forums invaluable (especially Peter), and what I found particularly rewarding with this type of research as opposed to the usual historial research I do is the fact you can get a personal side to this…..names, faces and families, I was shocked at my ignorance in these matters, and will never forget the day the pile of Bomber Command Losses books were placed in front of me at NAM to read through to try and find our aircraft, reading page after page of names and snippets of information, I found it so easy to be distracted and try to find out what eventually happened to these men, I had no idea of the true scale. This is a vital part of history I’m so glad so many of you are working to preserve, keep it up!

Shame about the Harvard Tom – back to the drawing board on that idea!

NAM’s original President was Air Commodore David Bonham-Carter, who amongst other postings was involved in helping establish some of the Canadian elements of the Empire Air Training Plan. This is an important part of the Training theme that NAM is planning to feature as part of its revised Interpretation Plans and I hope this is something that can be developed in an engaging way.

G-APDK – I will call you as suggested in your PM!

I would thank jack russell (JR) for her comments and I know that she won’t be too embarrassed if I shed a little more light on her ‘Canadian connections!’

JR has been involved in the research into and establishing a memorial at Staunton in the Vale to the crew of a Lancaster and she has put on displays about the crew and the project at the last couple of Cockpit-Fests.

To illustrate a small part of her work the following text is what is being included in the soon to be published airfields and memorials booklet ‘Aviation in Nottinghamshire’.

“This memorial commemorates the crew of 61 Squadron Lancaster W4270 that crashed 1 mile north west of St Marys Church on 18th February 1943. The aircraft was operating from RAF Syerston and was returning there when it got into difficulties.

All of the crewmembers were killed in the crash and most were returned for burial in their home towns. However the Canadian pilot “Herb” Warne is buried in Newark Cemetery (No 307 Section P). A research team has investigated the nearby crash site and have found a lot of new information, including the fact that the crew trained with 1661 HCU at RAF Winthorpe.

The memorial was rededicated on 3rd July 2010 when new plaques were unveiled, and at the same time contact was made with the last of the crewmans relatives, so all are now aware of the memorial.”

I know that Peter has also assisted JR so it’s nice to know that this aviation hobby knows no boundaries and long may the exchange of ideas continue!

Sorry if this is going off subject too much, but just wanted to add a comment about getting the interest of young people into historic aviation. I am lucky enough to have NAM on my doorstep and have used their extensive resources on numerous occassions for research and advice on our small project, and regularly took my young son there during school holidays as it was his favorite place to go, I have also dragged my daughters along to help at Cockpit Fest, and all have now started to get interested. When I took a media graduate to NAM to take some footage for our short film I worried he may find it boring, quite the opposite, we struggled to get him out, he was fascinated and filmed so much stuff, most irrelevant to our project, but he was so enthusiastic I felt mean trying to stop him, anyway enough waffle, if there was a way to encourage young people to go to Aviation Museums and see and hear the tales behind some of the exhibits I think some would soon get hooked, although sadly distance will always be a problem. I’m looking forward to seeing the plans NAM have got for the Visitors Centre, and am also pleased to see that some schools are also visiting, perfect age to get youngsters interested. Best of luck with it.

Your efforts are exactly what is needed!

At our museum we do many similar things and unconventional events to attract new visitation.

It works better from an individual I find…FWIW

Tom

Newcastle Aviation Academy’s initiative to get the current ‘yoof’ interested in old stuff is going from strength to strength. See here:

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=104417

Expansion will follow…. 😀

Sorry if this is going off subject too much, but just wanted to add a comment about getting the interest of young people into historic aviation. I am lucky enough to have NAM on my doorstep and have used their extensive resources on numerous occassions for research and advice on our small project, and regularly took my young son there during school holidays as it was his favorite place to go, I have also dragged my daughters along to help at Cockpit Fest, and all have now started to get interested. When I took a media graduate to NAM to take some footage for our short film I worried he may find it boring, quite the opposite, we struggled to get him out, he was fascinated and filmed so much stuff, most irrelevant to our project, but he was so enthusiastic I felt mean trying to stop him, anyway enough waffle, if there was a way to encourage young people to go to Aviation Museums and see and hear the tales behind some of the exhibits I think some would soon get hooked, although sadly distance will always be a problem. I’m looking forward to seeing the plans NAM have got for the Visitors Centre, and am also pleased to see that some schools are also visiting, perfect age to get youngsters interested. Best of luck with it.

Your last post has got me thinking even more than usual Tom!

I haven’t had chance to search for any details of #2AOS but did they by chance operate Harvards at any time?

Sorry TO
#2AOS operated Ansons and the school was commanded by none other than W.R. (WOP) May. Many thousands of students from the Commonwealth passing through the doors.

Also on our airfield was #16EFTS (about 500′ away from our facility) operating Tiger Moth DH 82c’s…we are lucky to have what appears to be the sole remaining Tiger from #16EFTS in our collection.

A notable graduate of #16EFTS….The Desert Ace Stocky Edwards!

In Alberta Claresholm was the main Harvard base as I recall (going by memory)

Tom

G-APDK I’d be willing to try and investigate common areas; we’ve been working with Renaissance East Midlands on a number of strands in these areas most notably the Volunteer Providers strand that’s mentioned here! This draws to a close at the end of March 2011, but is very much museum related – although some of the good practices that are encouraged could be applied elsewhere!

The Interpretation work being undertaken by a graduate is another of the Renaissance strands connected to widening participation and audience development that specifically relates to NAM’s new Visitor Centre project.

PM me an email address and we can communicate off board!

TwinOtter23
I am a director of an aviation enthusiasts association and fly-in organiser and we too have been trying to grapple with this issue of attracting new and younger members. I agree with the comments of others that nudging etc seems to be the way forward as noone has yet found the panacea to what seems to be a collective problem for our “sector”.

Full marks to Newark on taking that initiative and I too would be interested in seeing the results of the students efforts.

Clearly there is a need for the likes of museums, airshow organisers, enthusiast bodies and like-minded aviation related organisations to build interest for their own and collective benefits, particularly when individuals think even more carefully on where and how they spend the “disposable income”.

Is there an opportunity here to perhaps consider putting collective minds together to share thoughts and expereinces for the greater good?

G-APDK

Your last post has got me thinking even more than usual Tom!

I haven’t had chance to search for any details of #2AOS but did they by chance operate Harvards at any time?

As we are proud of our British and other Commonwealth connections through
#2AOS that operated from the Hangar that is now our Museum.

Look forward to working together as the opportunities come up.

Tom