Museums…what are your likes and dislikes

A big “Thank you”

Just a big thank you to all those theat took the time to past on your comments.

The information gleaned is going into improving our layouts an programming and your input has been appreciated.

the thoughts put forward on displays contridictes some of the common practices on our side of the pond and has lead to the changing of some plans.

You have also made it obvious that food services are more important than expected.

thank you all again

Tom H

hello Beurling

Many of the things you mention are on our radar…like the kids programming.

We are already working with the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame on special rotating displays that change every 2-3 months. We are also continually changing various smaller displays.

The plan is to re-arrange the aircraft every 3 years (first time was this past fall) to keep things fresh.

The flying aircraft as you know is tougher…

If the Ventura guys can find the balance of the funding they need we will have a world class one of a kind aircraft in the air. Meantime we are working on more affordable light aircraft flight programming.

The big buggaboo is money, me just keep ahead of the game now…to bite off a airworthy warbird would put us in the red at this time. That said part of my job is to find the support to make things like that happen and I am working on it.

In my mind we really need to help get the Ventura flying, it’s place in history is important and both the team doing the work and I want the remaining veterans that flew the Venturas to be able to see this one before it’s too late.

Heck most casual enthusiasts don’t even relaize how much it did in the 2nd World War or that virtually every allied country operated them.

I appreciate the comments and am glad you enjoyed the website.

Tom H

Hi Tom, great website the museum will definitely be on my to visit list next time out west.

Some suggestions:
-Having not visited your display yet I can not say if this is true or not but many museums I find are stagnant. The displays rarely change and there is never any more story just plaques with some basic facts. I think many of the museums today need to start telling some of the stories behind their aircraft – this would provide new content for generations and would prevent the personal histories from being lost. I find I go back to talk to the veterans that show up from time to time as their story with that particular aircraft is what is really interesting. Such as if you had a spitfire just dont say this saved Britain and it goes X mph and is 29’10” long- tell who designed it, how they got to the design, what they went through to build it under bombing, who flew it and what was it like, etc. etc.

One visitor who stops in to see our spit twice a year shares bits and pieces which are just amazing from his wartime flying. An example we were in the process of riveting our p8 compass tray when Jerry arrived and he told us of how they drained the alchol out of the RAF compasses in the aleutian island campaign. And how it was a ****** alone with the weather without flying with a compass full of water in below 0 temperatures. I will not go on but this is the kind of stuff which puts a human perspective on an item which by itself is just a compass.

From the children aspect I think this is the really important factor as all our aviation associations are suffering from low attendance these days. I think some projects which give the kids hands on experience with the aircraft is what is really needed. How can a nintendo/xbox generation child know what is involved to build and maintain one of these aircraft if they have never riveted a solid rivet or helped fabric cover a wing. Now I am not talking about a working piece but some displays with a mockup that they can be shown how to do this stuff hands on. Run a different program each month or weekend and tie it in with young eagles so there is an end goal of getting to actually fly in a light aircraft.

Just some thoughts.

Oh and the big one I know but aircraft were meant to fly – so a museum with a flying display will always be my favorite over one which has hanger queens.

J

Video and computers

Very little has been said about the use of computers and video in displays.

We use video quite a bit with the appropriate airframes

– Vickers Viking (replica)…..flight segment from Map of the Human Heart
– Fairchild 71………………..segement from Captain of the Clouds (our bird
was in it)

– Mosquito……………………segment from 633 Squadron

This seems to have been a very popular feature with visitors and helps them put the aircraft into context.

Right now we use 20″ TV’s but are looking for funding to go to much larger screens and expand the program to all our aircraft.

We have tested a slide show screen saver of the restoration of the Mosquito with the Mosquito and found it to be very popular as well….the only complaint has been the 15″ screen.

This too is something we are looking at making a feature of each aircraft with much much larger screens.

We feel this lets us tell much more of the operational story with the video and much much more of the restoration process using the slide show screen saver system.

Are any other museums doing similar things…any suggestions?

Tom H

Comments appreciated gentlemen

Pondskater, Rocketeer, Scotavia

Thank you for bringing up the font size, frankly something I had not dealt with yet and what you say is very helpful.

bri

All of our facility is accessible by those in wheel chairs, even the mezzanine that is under consideration will be wheel chair accessible.

I will check into a pause for the tour program, thanks for the suggestion!

Almost everyone has mentioned food service, we have not dealt with public food services to this point…but it is obviously a higher priority that local surveys show…appreciate the input.

For the record we do run a volunteer lunch program…but need to get a handle on the public.

Thank you all again.

Tom H

Oh almost forgot….AVRO Arrow, doesn’t fit the collection policy of our facility bri, but an hour away the Reynolds Museum has a full scale mock up!

2 Weeks ago we had Randall Whitcomb, author of AVRO Aircraft and the Cold War, was the speaker in our speaker series….so much new info is leaking out that is adds a new level of questions.

Thanks again

Tom H

And please make the text on your boards big enough for people with imperfect eyesight.

Oh yes, forgot about access. If you don’t want huge boards with huge text then have a large print guide written out in a couple of folders. The partially sighted like that. Well, OK, I like it: I lost my pilots licence to a rare eye disease :cool:. Having a folder to carry means I don’t get irritated having to lean over barriers or press my nose on the glass to read the signs in the dim light – and my eyes aren’t as bad as some, I’m still allowed to drive 😀
Good access benefits all without just being for the benefit of a few.

One answer you’re not going to like is – I don’t like it when an original aircraft is substantially modified to represent something it never was. I understand the rationale, in that (in your case) a Mosquito B.35 never saw wartime action with Canadian forces. But isn’t the museum’s purpose to preserve these artifacts for future generations? Otherwise you may as well just use a fibreglass replica.

That said, your specific aircraft did see service in Canada as a photo survey aircraft with Spartan, so surely that would be something worth representing? As it is, it’s not a B.35, and it’s not an FB.VI. Is the modification reversible?

The former RAF Museum’s T3 has also been painted up as a FB VI. Don’t know if it’s only a paintjob.

Cees

Some construcive comment for you:

Don’t forget the disabled for access and facilities. And please make the text on your boards big enough for people with imperfect eyesight.

Food at museums can be provided by outsiders (burgers stands etc) but make sure they don’t gang up to make prices high. That happens at some UK venues.

Your website looks good, but the ‘tour’ of the museum should have a way of pausing or cancelling the tour. I needed to but had to shut down my browser.

Other than that, the best of luck to you with your museum. And how about an Avro Arrow!

Bri:)

Certainly I believe that the airframe should be displayed with a history of how it came to be preserved and its history. I feel it is only fair to give credit to the stalwarts who put in the hard work behind the scenes. In the case of the RAF Museum this was my main moan when Hendon opened.

Tom

I think your museum sounds great and right up there. During my tenure with the BAPC I had plenty of time to consider what is a good or not so good museum. They all had their plus points. Ken Ellis wrote a fantastic paper on the top things the public want from a survey…I shall try and find a copy. The top items were clean toilets and somewhere nice for a coffee. Aircraft came number 4 IIRC!!!

Often people have come a long way or want to take a break during the museum.

I take my girls to many many museums and the visit goes like this:-

Enter, toilet, rush hurridly past the gift shop (more for me than them!), look at half exhibits, coffee & a cake, toilet, other half, into shop for a souvenir toilet and home.

I am more interested in the human side of the story and aircraft parts, so love mixed displays of an aircraft with supplementary displays.
We use the 3 tier labelling format:

Big Font Title: Supermarine Spitfire Mk !
Medium Font : The Spitfire fighter was one of the main RAF fighters of the war…Mitchell, Merlin…..plus very little blah
Small Font: details of manufacturer, key dates, history of particular artefact etc.

This enables the public to pick out exactly what they want in the way of info.

We also like the use of easily approachable people to answer questions.

cheers and look forward to coming over one day!

Thank you again for the input gentlemen

HurriRV7

Certainly wish CWH well, just like to get some of their corporate $$$, but it will come in time for us.

Their location does help for sure, but we do many of the same things they do except for the flying aircraft. But I’m working on that!

Appreciate the input and all the best to the WCAM as well.

Consul

I am so glad you enjoyed our facility and the hospitality of our volunteers.

We have made many changes since you were here, please check the website for some of them.

Your comments paint the picture of the atmosphere we are trying to maintain and build on.

The Cranwell is in restoration right now getting a re fit and being 1/2 covered to better demonstrate the construction techniques of the day.

The Norseman you mention (the 2nd is displayed inside) is now proudly mounted over Kingsway avenue on floats! Beside here is now a large memorial dedicated to all facets of aviatioin (Pioneers, Civil and Military) that is highlighted by large bronze sculptures.

right next is 1 or our Voodoos at the opposite end the BOMARC missle.

Certainly make our place easy to find.

Pondskater

Apprecaite your comments very much.

We do have on gooing visitor surveys, track our advertising and have a guest book that has provided great comments and ideas to work on.

But I am always looking for more comments from afar as visitors often tell you what you want to hear, not what you need to hear.

I also spend alot of time interviewing guests casualy and making notes.

Research, research, research….

Thanks again to all of you for your comments

Tom H

Tom,

Likes: Discovering something new, which means having the story of the aircraft, object or person clearly told.
Dislikes: Clutter. Museums which feel they have to display everything and make following the story very difficult.

The computer idea sounds good. There is plenty already available on how to label museum exhibits but I always like the three tier approach of having a headline to summarise the object (eg World’s last surviving . . .etc) bold text to fill in more detail and then small print for the captivated to study. You can walk past exhibits taking in the top line of information, or spend much longer reading the detail if you want to. Your computers will do that if programmed well – just don’t make them too complicated. And tell the story of the aircraft: saying how long the wings are isn’t really needed when it is in front of you!

But anyway, my area of work includes researching what our visitors want. I presume you have a visitor survey? This thread will work very well as a form of focus group to see what the aviation enthusiast wants but a survey will identify other types of visitors and what they want to see. Ask them about a new cafe, kids activities in school holidays, guided tours of museum highlights etc. If you want to be sure you know what female visitors want, it will show up. You can also target your marketing activity much more effectively when you know where visitors are from and what appeals to them (eg put a photo of the most popular aircraft on the front of the next leaflet)

But, it sounds to me as if you are doing most of the right things anyway. I wish you and the museum well.

Allan

Hi Tom,

I live in the U.K. Midlands but over the last several years have made a number of visits to Canada and have been fortunate enough to visit many of the aircraft collections. A couple of years back when staying in Calgary I hired a vehicle and drove up to Edmonton primarily to visit your museum.

I was absolutely delighted with the experience. I found the range of exhibits fascinating – especially as they spanned civil and military aviation heritage and information available put exhibits in context with the use of the aeroplane in your region – the geography and climate in Canada lends itself to fully exploit aviation and I think the background and scope of how aviation has benefited society is well covered.

The staff and volunteers could not have been more helpful and seemed to make all visitors feel welcome. When I happened to mention that I was from the UK and that it might be my only visit to your museum I was invited to stay a little after hours and was given a tour of some of the workshop and storage areas.

It was interesting to be able to view the Ventura project and see the good working relationship between the guys working on that project and the “main” museum.

The fact that exhibits covered all eras of aviation development also maintained interest. All aeroplanes were easily photographable (not so in many museums) and technical background was readily offered by restorers and some vounteer ex veterans who I chatted with.

You have some really imaginative displays – one that springs to mind is the wall-mounted rear fuselage and empennage of a DH Dragonfly, greatly enhanced by a representation of the rest of the aircraft being painted on the wall! You also had a Cranwell CLA.4 on show with its skeletal form exposed enabling construction details of this unique exhibit to be admired.

Finding your premises was no hardship due to the machines mounted outside (when I visited the Norseman was still hangared waiting to be hoisted into place).

The simulators and artefacts were well exhibited and overall my impression was VERY favourable with space used to good effect.

Keep up the good work!

Best wishes,
Tim

Hi Tom,

Good luck with your museum.

I had the good fortune to visit Canadian Warplane Herritage Museum last weekend. It was like no museum I have ever seen before, so vibrant with lots of people working on the aircraft. Most museums I have been in are, to be quite blunt about it, dead, or pretty close.

I am a member of the Western Canada Aviation Museum and the following were what I judged as the main differences between CWHM and WCAM:
1) They keep a large number of their aircraft flyable.
2) A larger number of enthausiasts are interested in helping maintain a flyable aircraft rather than restoring one for display.
3) Their restoration area is located in the main museum. Only the “dangerous” tools were located in another room. Lots more to see.
4) They have a restaurant which serves breakfast (all day) and decent lunches.
5) The museums restaurant serves as a social focal point for the volunteers. 10:30am Smoko/Tea break is an opportunity to catch up with friends and fellow volunteers not to be missed.
6) Information desk located within the main display area staffed by volunteers who were not only interested in telling you about the displays, but were happy to tell you about their life and hear about yours (if you wanted to).
7) Young volunteers who were forced to perform volunteer work by their school, but upon meeting the older volunteers found a paternal friend.

You no doubt can judge by my points above that I now consider the CWHM the measure by which I will judge all other aviation museums.

Apparently they received federal and provincial funding to replace the museum when it burnt down in 1993(?), but I was told that they receive no other government funding. I suspect that this may not be entirely true.

CWHM does have the major advantage of having Toronto one hours drive away to draw members from. I was told that they have around 2500 members who pay on average $100 per year.

Regards,

Thank you to everyone for their thoughts and input!!!

I have made careful notes and appreciate all the suggestions.

Please do visit our website, bearing in mind it is still being revised and features added…..www.albertaaviationmuseum.com

Soon to have several more links added to features like “Wings of a Hero”.

Kids section coming in the future!

Fresh ideas and thoughts are what allow us to build a better series of displays.

Tom H

I like the idea of history behind individual aircraft ,i know i can come home and enter the details on here ,either by search or post and get the full history in a matter of minutes, but its not the same as actually being stood besides the aircraft and feeling that history.Ive been to museums where parts of crashed airframes are on display, but no details apart from aircraft type ,i don’t know if it would be disrespectful to the surviving families to have the aircraft number and a list of the lost air crew to accompany the objects?

nice idea slipstream.

We have an operational lancaster landing gear. It only costs a dollar and raises an lowers timed exactly like a unit fitted to the aircraft. It is a hit for kids young and old and the funds go directly back to the lancaster restoration.

My pet hate is cases filled with irrelevant ‘tat’ such as Officers caps, cigarette cases, verey pistols etc. I like to come away feeling I have learned something, seeing a black box with dials, captioned ‘RAF type 12a receiver’ tells me nothing – if the caption explained it’s significance, for example how it increased operational capability, it would have at least told me something.
What I do like ( because my children respond to it) is interactive or moving exhibits which educate.
Which would be the most interesting to see, an engine, the same engine sectioned or the same engine, sectioned and rotating ? ( The option of ‘installed and flying overhead’ isn’t always available sadly ).

Movement brings life to an exhibit and whilst it may not be possible for larger exhibits to be in motion, the use of video screens can show what it was like in operation.

682al

cig1705

In order to give the enthusiast as much detail as possible we are currently attempting to fund computer video displays that will start with a presentation of the “easy” information for the layman and then delve into the specific restoration and history of each aircraft for the enthusiast.

This seems to be the best compromise on getting maximum information availabile while not overwhelming the aircraft with massive story boards.

What do you think of our idea?

Thanks for the input.

Tom H

That’s a great idea – if you can do it for all the aircraft, it will certainly work well. Just ensure (if you can) that the display screens are nice and inviting – lots of pictures (maybe some “cool facts” for less aviation-inclined visitors) and the like. Should be good!

Arriving at the Yorkshire Air Museum at 3.10 p.m. on a blazing hot sunday in October, seeing earlier visitors strolling around in shorts and T-shirts, and being told:-

“Sorry, we close at 4 p.m. in winter and we don’t like locking up in the dark.”

Thanks Tom,

Which contrasts nicely with an unplanned spur of the moment visit to the Mosquito Aircraft Museum a couple of years ago, to be told:

“We’re not open to the public on mondays, and cannot offer you the full range of customer facilities, but if you’d like to wander around and perhaps make a small donation…”

Was that you Bruce (or any other volunteers who frequent this board)? You’d disappeared out of sight by the time I’d ended my abbreviated tour but I wanted to thank you for showing courtesy and initiative.