Author: Brian Butson

Categories
Recruitment

Volunteer at Bournemouth Aviation Museum – shopkeepers and stewards needed

Bournemouth Aviation Museum Background

As a self-supporting charity, the museum is always looking for help. Whether you are an aviation enthusiast or not the likelihood is that you have some skills that could be beneficial to our operations. Many of our volunteers are retired and are looking for something to occupy some of their time. We have a variety of roles available and you can choose how much time or which days you want to help out.

Reception/Shop: You will be in charge of the visitor reception point. This is the first point of contact for our visitors when they enter the museum so its a great way for you to interact with them and all the other volunteers. You will also manage the small shop area we have where visitors can purchase items from the displays. You don’t need an aviation background for this role as its purely about meeting people and informing them about our museum.

Steward: An essential part of our activity is helping the visitors whilst they are going around the museum and informing them about the exhibits we have. It’s a great way to meet people from all walks of life and have really interesting conversations.  As a Steward you will also be responsible for opening/closing the museum at the start/end of the day and you will receive full training.

Practical help with exhibits: you may wish to provide hands-on practical help with our conservation projects, which is an essential part of what we do. Our site is mostly open air and many of our exhibits are exposed to the elements, which means they need continuous care and attention. Anyone, with even the most basic engineering/carpentry/painting skills, can be of enormous help. It’s great fun and really satisfying to be able to keep these vintage aircraft in tip-top condition and to see the joy that our visitors of all ages get from the results of your work.

Give it a try, you may be very pleasantly surprised and you will certainly get great satisfaction from what you achieve and of course you will get full training on which ever role you decide on. If you are interested then please come in and have a look round and chat to some of the current volunteers or you can e-mail us at enquiries@bamhurn.org

 

Categories
Exhibits

Folland Gnat arrives at the museum

A new aircraft arrived at the museum recently, it is a Folland Gnat XR541 which first flew on 8th July 1963 and served operationally with the RAF until 1978. It served with 4 FTS at RAF Valley  and the Central Flying School and also took part in the Finningley Jubilee flypast 1977. The aircraft remained in active service until 7th February 1978 when the aircraft suffered on engine failure on take-off at RAF Mona.

It was subsequently used for instructional use and spares finishing her carreer at RAF St. Athan with the Civilian Craft Apprentices School where she was was painted in the camouflage colours with the mock serial of PF179 added, as part of a Painters and Finishers course number.

It has now arrived at Bournemouth Aviation Museum and hopefully we can put the aircraft back together again as XR541 and give her a nice new paint job that will do justice to this fine old aircraft.

Categories
Shop

Gifts available in the museum shop

We now have some new stock available in the museum shop and there is plenty of variety to choose from!

  • aircraft models – many interesting types, all good quality and at reasonable prices
  • models of other vehicles such as trucks, coaches, helicopters even the Space Shuttle!
  • aviation books – hard backed books or just magazines
  • authentic aircraft instruments – all safe tested

Why not come and choose a birthday present with a difference, all available in the Museum shop at reasonable prices and all the profits go towards the running of the Museum.

Categories
Uncategorized

Aircraft instruments for sale

A number of genuine aircraft instruments are now for sale in the museum shop. . They come from a variety of aircraft and are being sold as they are no longer required by the museum. All have been fully tested to ensure they are safe.

 

Categories
Schools & Group Visits

Children’s Party Time

Children’s Party Experience

You can organise a Children’s Party with a difference at Bournemouth Aviation Museum, ideal for birthdays. It will be a party that should appeal to all children particularly if they would enjoy sitting in the cockpits of real aircraft pretending to soar in the air.

There are a number of different options available for birthday parties at the museum. We are currently putting together a more comprehensive list of options and prices and hope to have this available on the website shortly.

In the meantime, if you would like to hold a birthday party at the museum, please contact the museum by phone to discuss your requirements or email us and we will see if we can help.

Optional – Gift vouchers which are redeemable in the museum’s shop within twelve months. Minimum £3.00 but can be up to any chosen value. We will include also, a free boarding pass for each child to visit the museum at some other time. Helpful for any children who cannot attend the party.

You can fill in our online application form here.