What does aircraft preservation mean to you?

On a Saturday at Bruntingthorpe, it means hard work, getting freezing cold and wet, or sunburned (sometimes all in one day!). It means going home smelling of aviation fuel and Hydraulic oil, but most of all it means spending time with a bunch of the best friends a man could ever have, laughing and joking over hot cups of tea.

On a weekend in June, it means dragging my son’s cockpit and instrument panel collection to Newark, seeing and sharing all the other cockpitfesters wonderful and skilful work. Marvelling at how some even managed to get these wonderful pieces of history to the event, but the very best bit, sharing a weekend amongst friends, sitting with a can of cold beer and a bag of hot fish and chips, in the shade of the Vulcan, watching the sun go down and talking about aircraft.

On a cold winters Saturday, sitting in a portacabin at the MAM, and doing one of the BAPC volunteer courses, and seeing the look on my sons face when he got his City and Guilds certificate through the post a few weeks later, and during the breaks, wondering around with a cup of tea, talking to friends, seeing the progress being made since our last visit, and admiring there hard work and dedication.

Aircraft preservation can be almost anything you want it to be, it’s your choice, but do what feels comfortable to you, don’t think you need to be an trained engineer or ex RAF, there is always something for everyone to do, if they want to, enjoy it, and make the best friends you could possibly ever have, and help preserve the past for the future. We do.

Well you cant make it any clearer than that, thanks Ritch, thats spot on. Bex

And in Bex case it will be………………………

grows a replica of a long lost Canberra variant. :p

Has someone been reading my mind perhaps??? Thats all I will say for now :p

Bex

A tremendous amount of time & TLC goes into existing airframes & cockpits but I have to take my hat off to people like Dave Collins who scratch build their projects. Just on this forum alone off the top of my head theres Graham Adlam, Stuart Gowans, B17man and ofcourse Dave, plus many others whose names escape me at this moment, but their work never ceases to amaze me, and I wish I could do what theyre doing.

One thing I really enjoy is meeting old crews, I recently bought some FRC’s for a PR7, and I bought them from a guy who flew 773 in April 81, so I was over the moon to have an original document that had been flown in her. Also, advice from them always helps too, its one thing to read the manual, but its another to get the chance to talk about how things actually got done to avoid bodily damage LoL

558, well, yes I admit its an awful lot of money been spent, but Im hoping the publicity it will cause will help and make people aware of the work that goes on behind the scenes ( and I mean the average member of public not enthusiasts such as ourselves)

Bex

Bex

I am a few rungs down the ladder from you and aspire to do what you are doing at the moment, Right now I have a young family which are my priority and I also work shifts which don’t allow me regular time off, also my ‘local’ aircraft museum is 45 minutes drive away which isn’t all bad as there are two to chose from (Newark or Doncaster).

My collection is growing and centered around one type (no guessing:D) but I am keenly interested in most things, I hope to one day be able to give up my spare time on days off to volenteer at a museum but that won’t be until my kids both go to school full time.

Preservation at the moment means so much to me in so many ways, from the very least of just holding onto something rather than scrap it becouse it’s a bit rusty, take Sunderlands Vulcan for example, some would say scrap her becouse of the condition she is in but with the drive and determination of ‘young blood’ her future is looking better, even if it is only for a few years longer isn’t it worth it?, I think so.

Your Canberra is in a poor state and again people would say why bother but that to me is a bad attitude, if we all carried that attitude where would we be in twenty years time with dwindling museums and nothing to look at.

We all look up to people no matter where we are on the ladder, it gives us inspiration to do better, personally I enjoy each museum on merit from the very smallest to the very best and envy those that work within them, one day I shall make the step and even if its just sweeping up and cutting the grass I will be as happy as…..well you know the rest:) .

Regards,

John.

John,

Thank you for your very positive words, I like you have a family and at the moment I get 1 day a week on the Cranberry and I try to get to as many of the open days rain or shine. All I can say is roll on September. You and I both have our favourite Ladies thats for sure.

In the last couple of years we’ve seen 2 Vulcans scrapped due to a lack of TLC and more preserved aircraft will follow that way as not all museums are lucky enough to have huge buildings to house their collections in or a huge runway to hurtle down. One thing I do hope, is by taking my step son to other museums, when he grows older he will be able to see aircraft you and I grew up with and more importantly their historical significance, no matter how minor.

Bex