Update 3 - Eventing & Raffle
It has been a busy few weeks at the Blackbushe Heritage Trust as we continue on our mission to recover Vickers Viking G-AGRW from Austria for restoration at Blackbushe.
We have attended open days at RAF Odiham and Elstree airfield. Both provided a great opportunity to not only fundraise but also to raise awareness of our project. Merchandise continues to be popular with mugs and baseball caps being the best sellers. A limited number of these are available from the Pathfinder Cafe and also the trailer when open. However, the full range of merchandise is available through the online shop Logo that Polo (https://logothatpolo.co.uk/store/bbushe). This platform allows ordering direct which means we don’t have to keep vast quantities of stock ourselves.
A number of you have taken on roles and responsibilities during the last few weeks. Pete Vickery and Mike Elms have been opening up the trailer at Blackbushe during recent motoring and biker events on Sunday mornings at the airfield. Kevin Bond and James Burton, assisted by Flo McEwan have taken on social media. Many thanks for all your hard work. We have set up a WhatsApp group for volunteers to communicate on. Please get in touch if you would like to be added. We now have around 25 volunteers actively engaging with more specific roles being required over the next few months.
We have been privileged to meet a number of people who worked for airlines operating the Viking at Blackbushe in the 1950/60s. One such individual is pilot Mike Bennison who bought along his logbook to our Pathfinder volunteers evening in late July. We were thrilled to see he had logged flights on G-AGRW!
Our raffle is currently available to buy tickets for. The first prize is a session in an airliner simulator at Heathrow courtesy of British Airways. There are 3 second place prizes of a 30 minute light aircraft flight and third prize is a selection of our popular merchandise. Tickets can be purchased from the Pathfinder Cafe or when the trailer is open on some Sunday mornings. If that is not convenient for you, please email us at team@blackbusheheritagetrust.com and we can arrange to take payment and send out your ticket stubs. The draw will take place on 3rd Dec 2022.
The Wheel of Fortune for children has proved popular with foam gliders, sweets, windmills and cafe vouchers up for grabs. We are very grateful to have received second hand aviation books from a number of you. These sell really well so please if you have any gathering dust that your partner has been nagging you about for years, now is the perfect opportunity to make some space by donating them to the BHT.
Our last main event of the season will be the Abingdon Air and Country show this weekend and then we intend to start up a programme of talks to be held in the evening at the Pathfinder Cafe. These will mostly be aviation related and we already have some interesting speakers lined up. We also hope to organise an evening photography session later in the year. Watch this space for further details…
We are in need of a couple of trestle tables to present our merchandise on outside the trailer. If anyone has one gathering dust which is no longer required then we would give it a good home. Even if it has seen better days we would very much appreciate it.
A couple of people have recently asked why we are planning to restore a Viking when there is one at nearby Brooklands in a more advanced phase of restoration. The reason is Brooklands tells the story of the manufacturer whereas we plan to tell the story of the operators. Blackbushe was home to many examples of the type operated by a number of different airlines. It is an airfield that played an important part in the development of post war British airlines.
The trustees are currently exploring other fundraising opportunities which we could potentially offer to expedite the recovery of G-AGRW. We will be publishing more details soon.
Our next volunteers meeting will take place on Tuesday 27th September, 1900 hrs at the Pathfinder Cafe.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Best Regards,
BHT Trustees