I’ve retired officially from doing cadet things and I don’t regret it. I’ve recently read through my reasons for leaving that I communicated to OC SE and I still agree with all the reasons and I have real wish to be back in the fold. I was asked a while ago if I would act as the extra driver on a STEM trip for the RN Cadets and I agreed. I didn’t have to be put onto any official systems and I was just going to be a pure civilian. I was happy with this arrangement. I will admit it is over a year since I drove a vehicle with a manual transmission – but I didn’t stall and it still felt natural. The only issue was the minibus not being very happy about starting – that caused raised eyebrows!
I visited the Fleet Air Arm Museum many years ago when I was on my way to see friends in Cornwall via a motorbike. I had passed the sign a few times and decided I would go in and see what it was about. I haven’t yet done the Army Air Corps museum and that’s in that direction too. One day I’ll pop in to that museum.
I don’t remember there being a Concorde when I last visited but there may have been. I guess I could look through the photos from that day, if I could find them. The museum is pretty good. There are four main halls and it covers naval aviation from before World War One through to current day. It is a good place to visit.
Lots of the aircraft had really easy to read histories explaining their roles and what issues they may have faced. It was nice to see. Rather than fill this communication with pictures of aircraft I thought I’d show some of the details of parts of aircraft. The above are windvanes on the nose of the Concorde prototype. It would be interesting to see how much data collected and what movement these vanes would have when travelling supersonic. There were some seats in the Concorde but really it was full of recording equipment for the test flights.
This is the cross section of the folding part of the Fairy Fulmar wing. This particular aircraft was the only Fulmar in existence and was the prototype. It’s a shame to think it’s the only one around.
This is the landing hook of the Sea Vixen. This was situated in the carrier deck hall. It’s quite impressive to see a hangar made out like a carrier deck. You could even wander through the island and see carrier group operations centre which was nice, even if the signage was a touch vague.
The final image from the trip is this part of everyone’s favourite low flying bomber the Buccaneer. It’s a lovely aircraft, large and impressive. Love the rotating bomb-bay and the automatically retracting gear. It’s fast and low. Have a look at some videos online to see just what crazy shenanigans the Bucc could get up to. I had a lovely time wandering the museum. It was a long day though!