Bentwaters Open Days

We went two years ago and it was a good day out. Including bus tours of the
airfield. Carolyn Grace flew her Spitfire and a Yak flew. Probably no flying this year (?)
I imagine their Jaguar will be “live”

Some time before the Jaguar is likely to be viewable to the general public. Got most of the bits, but smaller attachment bolts special to type need to be found and really the amount of time people can spend on it against what is required to get it near completion is the biggest issue.

Geoff Goodall’s warbird register website states P-38H 42-66841 is with David Arnold/Flying A Services, Bentwaters UK. Is this incorrect?

David Arnold/Flying A Services must own the P-38 then. Its Air Leasing Ltd that undertake the rebuilds at Bentwaters,if they have not already moved to Sywell along with Spitfire ML407.

Geoff Goodall’s warbird register website states P-38H 42-66841 is with David Arnold/Flying A Services, Bentwaters UK. Is this incorrect?

Does David Arnold have a warbird facility at Bentwaters? If so, does it open to the public?

Not that i know of.

Does David Arnold have a warbird facility at Bentwaters? If so, does it open to the public?

NIMBYs………………. Not In My Back Yard, describes those who protest about adjacent neighbouring airfields, farms, roads, development etc….

Including many who have bought second homes in the area, pricing locals out of the housing market.

NIMBY! That’s fantastic. I’ll have to remember that because I have a special disdain for those who complain about airplane noise. It makes my job more difficult than it should be!

brewerybod,

I appreciate the information. I’ll have to check it out.

NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard

Rather like the folks at the Snape Maltings Concert Hall, who launched a campaign to stamp out flying at Bentwaters even though they booked the Spitfire to appear at their events. They tried to rationalize this by saying that all the other aircraft based there were considerably noisier than the Spitfire.

NIMBYs………………. Not In My Back Yard, describes those who protest about adjacent neighbouring airfields, farms, roads, development etc….

Can anyone tell me how these are run, and what I can expect? I’m going to try and go to one this year if work will allow it. I was reading some reviews on Trip Advisor and other places, and given its proximity, I think it would make a great day trip. Any thoughts?

I am one of the trustees at the Bentwaters Cold War Museum, we used to hold a special open day every year but no longer do that.
Instead we hold airfield walks,bus tours and also this year we are hosting a classic car event on Sunday 17th April, the museum is open on the following dates, see this link – http://www.bcwm.org.uk/visitor-information/

Keep an eye out on the museums web page for airfield tour dates when they are arranged.

Cheers

Pardon the ignorance, but what are Nimbys?

Oh and for the record I didn’t think of Bentwaters as an airshow thing. I just assumed it was a museum based on everything I saw when I was reading about it the other day. Not looking for an airshow experience just wondering if there is a different between a normal day when the museum is open and a day that they call an “open day.”

Thoughts?

You won’t see any flying*. The Spitfire, Seafire and Yak-3 have relocated. The Grace family went to Sywell and the Duxford diary shows the Yak as having lived there all winter. I assume it won’t be back as there is no service/support any more with the Grace’s gone. The last ML407 newsletter suggested they are keeping a storage hanger here but all maintenance and operations will carry on from Sywell.

I believe the museum is well worth a visit and I’m ashamed to say I can walk to it in under 5 minutes from where I’m typing this and have never actually managed a spare weekend that coincides when they are open. Reviews of the bus tours seem positive. There was a post recently on here telling us all they have the A-10 from Alconbury on loan which would be good to get close to later this year.

*well having said that the army Apache and occasional Osprey from Mildenhall often exercise over Rock Barracks (formerly MOD Woodbridge) which is right behind us on a fairly regular basis but not sure about weekends.

My office overlooks a very quiet abandoned airfield all because of a few local Nimbys

We went two years ago and it was a good day out. Including bus tours of the
airfield. Carolyn Grace flew her Spitfire and a Yak flew. Probably no flying this year (?)
I imagine their Jaguar will be “live”

I thought the local NIMBYs had pretty much killed Bentwaters as an active airfield