Black out at RAF Museum?

Hendon are just like that, the guy in charge Dr Fopp IIRC is a great guy and all up for looking after Hendon. However the chap who runs the museum day to day is about as much good as a chocolate fire guard and the planes are gradually falling apart. Whilst I was there we did a lot to sort out problems and the team that are stil there are doing a great job, but they don’t have the backing or the numbers to support such a large collection. The management need to sort it out and soon.

Milestones of flight is not good but is 100% better than ‘our greatest hour’ and Hendons worst!

Flood

Thanks for posting that pic of the Caudron GIII, I worked on that in its infancy in our spare time in a hangar at Stradishall (now High Point Prison, Suffolk) way back in 1966.. She was but a mere shell of a kite then so it’s great to see the finished article.

I put a piece on PPRuNe some time back and received a few replies as to its condition and place of worship.:)

Thanks for posting the photos chaps.

I lasted visited Hendon a month or so ago and i can only describe my visit as an utter disappointment. Im glad it’s now free as i would have felt cheated to have paid for that visit. The Milestones of flight building is half hearted, a mish mash selection of aircraft in my opinion. At least it keeps a few aircraft undercover though.

In what way is a T.35 Mossie, a milestone of flight?

Why is a Plastic 1:1 Airfix Eurofighter inside and a real hunter outside?

Why is there two million, all expensive and bad, eateries in the complex?

Why is there a cafe right in the middle of the helicopter display area?

Why did they let Trigger paint the sculpture outside the Milestones building?

Hendon really could do with a few licks of paint and a general tidy up as well as getting some improved lighting.

The only highlight was the Graham White Hanger which will look great when it is kitted out with period signage etc (i hope they do this anyway)

Please excuse the rant 🙂

Originally posted by DamienB
For gawd’s sake drop the stupidly long sig Flood, eh?

Sorry – just having a little arguement with those that Snapper refers to as ‘bus drivers’.

Flood.

Take it then that you weren’t the American chap spending over £600 on Corgi models in the shop?:eek:

Flood.

Not me – didn’t have my tripod with me. (Shame faced) – wish I ruddy well did though!:(

Flood.

Originally posted by AdamK
true, but thats as long as you can afford one. im just speaking from my experience of the iwm here. thats the problems that we tend to have.

cheers
adam

But you can hire them… And in this day and age the lighting systems (admittedly in new buildings/exhibition halls/places where bulb replacement might be difficult) are either:
a/ triple redundant so that they should last three times as long;
or
b/ on a rail system so that they can all be brought to one point for replacement or repair;
or
c/ a combination of the two.
Earls Court has the first (I believe) and the NEC at Birmingham has both – plus the cherry pickers (admittedly neither are museums).
Hendon is just dark, and the bossman doesn’t want to display the dust in the corners!;)

Anyway, a job for some air cadets one day might be to repaint the replica Spitfire and Hurricane out the front. Both were badly faded (but thats to be expected after however many years they’ve been out there…).

Flood.

I had to wait to view the airframes whilst a film was shown, and from what I could see the BoB hall was dark. When we could actually get in to see the ‘planes the lights came on and…It was still dark…:rolleyes:

Flood.

Originally posted by AdamK
the problem may well be that, when youve got light fittings that high in the celing, its very difficult to get at them to change the bulbs. it would probably require a cherry picker to get to them, and those babys aint small. therefore, all the a/c would need to be bumped round to beable to get the ‘picker in. it is, from whjat ive seen, quite a big operation, and may be the cause of the problmes.

cheers
adam

Nope – you can get them up that high using a ‘baby’ that is twice as long, and half as wide again, as a luxury motorised wheelchair these days; they could go just about everywhere throughout the museum. The lights were on except over the Lanc and the Battle – or much of the BoB hall.

Flood.

Ha – I was probably standing in your way, or you in mine, at some point…

Take a replacement bulb next time!;)

Flood.

Unfortunately throughout the whole museum there seems to be a fixation with noses! In the BoB hall you could see the noses but the fuselages seemed to be hidden from view behind other noses, and in the Grahame-White Factory the Avro 504K was hidden behind several rotary engines…

Flood.

But the Sopwith Pup had layers of plastic sheeting over its tailplane and a couple of dozen garden benches stored behind it (out of shot to the right, nearly)…

Flood.

The Grahame-White Factory is, on the other hand, nice and light and the exhibits are not all packed in to every available space…

The Caudron GIII.

Flood.

As an aside – I remember reading about this Hunter PR10 returning from Oman but not heard about it being at Hendon…

Flood.

The helicopters were better lit, but actually more akin to sardines…

Cierva Rota 1.

Flood.

The poor old Battle, with no light bar that from my flash.
Note the Valiant in the distance – still bright white but gloomy.

Flood.