Update 11 - February 2024
After many hours of hard work by stalwarts Pete Vickery, Richard Dyett and James Burton, the new BHT shop opened on Sunday 4th February. It will now open on the 1st and 3rd Sunday every month, between 10am and 2pm. This of course assumes we can maintain a healthy number of volunteers in the shop team so if you can assist in any way then please do get in touch via the usual channels. We currently have over 1400 aviation and military books along with hundreds of aircraft models which have all been kindly donated. We held a special model sale on Saturday 17th February as before we take these to events we felt it was right that our loyal supporters and volunteers got first choice. It was great to see many familiar and new faces dropping by.
We are very pleased to announce a new partnership with Safran Landing Gear Systems. Based at Gloucester (Staverton) airport they operate a centre of excellence for landing gear design, testing and refurbishment. The refurbishment centre specialises in Airbus A319/320 and Boeing 737 gear systems, which are stripped down and rebuilt after every 20,000 cycles or 10 years, whichever comes sooner. On 10th January we delivered both main gears and the tail wheel assembly from G-AGRW so their apprentices can rebuild them over the next few months. A number of Trustees spent the morning at the facility hosted by senior management. We particularly enjoyed talking to the apprentices who will carry out the work which very much fits into our main aim of providing training for STEM subjects. It is a great opportunity and we look forward to developing this relationship further.
The engineering team have been making great progress often working in inclement weather. Due to the ambient temperature, the paint removal has been their biggest challenge with only a handful of guys scraping inch by inch 19 metres of fuselage. They have got to the stage where they are now using special oxidation cleaner and this past Saturday they were using wet and dry sanding by hand. This is the last process before priming the roof and if the temperature is in our favour in the next couple of weeks then the first coat of white paint will be applied. We have identified a red paint close to the original colour of Peony Red from BEA drawings. Five antenna have been fabricated by members and four fitted to the roof. The sound generator has been successfully trialled and will be fitted along with the cabin lighting switches. The tech team has 50+ volunteers but only a handful, 6 to 8, turn up regularly. They are a very friendly team and are always looking for new volunteers to help out. Please do get in touch if interested, no experience is required and there is no minimum commitment.
National Transport Trust Red Wheel unveiling The Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, Nigel Atkinson did us the honour of unveiling it to a small crowd. The red wheel which commemorates over 80 years of history of Blackbushe Airport and recognises the important part Blackbushe has paid in British aviation history, during war time, as London's second airport, and today. Photo taken by Ken Brunt, NTT
Following on from the Safeguarding policy, which we introduced last year, we have now finalised our Code of Conduct. These documents form the Volunteer Agreement and cover areas such as use of the BHT brand, third party communication, handling of data and decision making. We do require all active volunteers to read both sections and fill in an online form to confirm acceptance. The website link will be posted to the WhatsApp groups shortly.
We were charity of the month during January at the Princes Mead Shopping Centre in Farnborough. Organised by Terry Boorman it was an opportunity to have a table set up on a busy Sunday at the centre and spread the word about what BHT is all about. This is hopefully not the last appearance by us at a local shopping centre as advanced discussions are already underway with a number of others.
It was standing room only at January’s Pathfinder talk as Trustee Dave Payne took us back to Blackbushe, Northolt and Heathrow in the 1950s, 60s and 70s with Propliner photos collected over many years. He will be back for Part 2 later in the year. Then a last minute cancellation of this month’s speaker saw Richard Dyett step in for another presentation about Air Traffic Control. Many thanks to both David and Richard.
The next event for the team is the Heathrow Enthusiasts Fair on 24th March. We are already making plans for this year’s Blackbushe Air Day on Saturday 15th June where once again G-AGRW ‘Vagabond’ will be one of the main attractions. Hopefully by then we may have some good news as the consultation for the land exchange at Blackbushe has just ended. We remain confident that a positive decision from the Planning Inspectorate will pave the way for a number of new hangars and a much needed larger Pathfinder cafe. BHT is a major part of this with plans for a new heritage centre with G-AGRW as the centrepiece.
And finally one unnamed member of the team can finally sleep soundly after the inner wings were repatriated to Blackbushe. We couldn’t quite fit them onto the 3 HGVs which made the journey back from Austria in April last year but Trustee Pat Marchant completed the final piece of the jigsaw when he transported them back to the UK in early February.
Best Regards, Peter, Phil, Dave, Pat, Chris, Becky and Mark Trustees
