Wattisham Station Heritage Museum

Another glorious Suffolk sunny day attracted a great variety of visitors to our Museum and HAS.

We started the day off by preparing the aircraft for display to the public, especially our recently painted Phantom, allowing the public to see the recent work that has been undertaken on it by our volunteers.

We used the morning to teach some aircraft towing and tractor driving techniques to some of our volunteers, getting the aircraft re-positioned to show off the recent work.

Plenty of interested and interesting visitors were shown round the exhibits, and many tales were regaled by them for our enjoyment. We are always pleased to learn new facts and tales from our visitors.

We are also pleased to welcome new volunteers into our ranks, we all get a great buzz helping out and giving something back, and are always welcoming to prospective new volunteers. If you fancy joining our ranks, please get in touch here: https://wattishamstationheritage.com/contact-page

If you want to arrange to visit us to see our work, take a look here: https://wattishamstationheritage.com/book-a-museum-visit

We were very grateful to receive some very relevant donations to our Museum recently.

An aircraft panel from Phantom XV494 was kindly donated to us by Peter Cooper, and this will now be displayed in the Museum alongside the Phantom canopy from the very same aircraft.

Also, a fantastic Lightning painting which will be displayed for the public to see was also gratefully accepted.

Thanks again to all our visitors and generous donors.

Please check out or visit page to book yourself in to see us and our progress, https://wattishamstationheritage.com/book-a-museum-visit

Another glorious day allowed a keen group of volunteers to continue our ongoing program of work on Phantom XT914.

As always, preparation is the key, and complex masking is tedious but ultimately worthwhile.

Masking off first allows a much easier and better application of the final paintwork without making mistakes.

Our artist-in-chief worked on the more intricate details.

Debates raged about whether to leave out the “Chicken in a basket” markings.

Everyone got stuck in, gaining practice and experience for future ventures.

The reveal is always very satisfying.

This picture shows how faded the airframe actually had become over time.

Another gracious donation to us will be well used.

Come and visit us to see the progress for yourself…….

Another few hours spent over at the HAS to tidy up our Phantom XT914 to make it a bit less faded and patchy.

As usual, preparation is the key, and although the sanding and extensive masking takes a decent amount of time, this really pays off at the painting stage.

The finished result really does show that it is worth while taking the time.

Please visit us over the summer to see how our work is progressing. https://wattishamstationheritage.com/book-a-museum-visit

Throughout the summer we have kept ourselves busy as usual.

As well as hosting the normal public open days, there is always a number of ongoing maintenance and upkeep tasks to be attended to, as well hosting additional private visits for individuals and groups.

Continued work over at the HAS site this week as usual, even when there are no public Open Days or private visits taking place.

This week we took delivery of another custom-made aircraft canopy cover, in a similar style to our previously purchased Meteor canopy cover. A small team were on-site to fit the cover and secure it correctly to the Phantom. This cover will help ensure that the Phantom cockpits are kept dry and free from debris, as well as keeping the glass and perspex out of direct sunlight.

This cover is relatively easy to fit/remove when needed, and is great added protection to the aircraft. Thanks go to all the team involved in obtaining and fitting this cover, as well as the supplier.