The Travels of Tel's Tin Tent.

Airframes · 2015-05-13T19:12:06+00:00

Part One. In this thread, I hope to share some of the sights and experiences of the tours in my recently acquired 'Tin Tent', or camper-van/motorhome, as I travel around the UK, and, hopefully, parts of Europe, at some stage in the future. Many of these 'excursions' will, of course, be to air museums and air shows, but with diversions to other interesting or picturesque venues along the way. The first 'outing' was two weeks ago, and very much a 'shakedown' exercise, in order to identify any minor problems with the van and its equipment but, due to being totally knackered with arthritis, and virtually bed-ridden since my return, I haven't been able to edit and post the photos until now. I'm happy to report that there very were few snags identified, apart from a 'miss-match' with the electricity 'hook up' cable's socket, and the socket on the van, easily sorted (I used a tent hook-up cable to get around the problem temporarily), and one tiny leak, where water dripped from a skylight after a particularly heavy rain and hail storm over night. The only other 'snag' was when the throttle cable decided to part company with the carb linkage, near the end of the return journey, again easily fixed, as a temporary measure, by the breakdown guy who as on the scene in very quick time. So, on to the first of the Tin Tent's travels :- Stage One. I set out at Sparrow's fart on the Sunday morning, for the 175 mile drive to the North East Aircraft Museum near Sunderland, not far from where I was born and raised, in order to meet up with Karl for the day. I hadn't visited this museum since the late 1980's, and used to visit the airfield in the 1960's and 1970's, when it was surrounded by open countryside, so I was quite surprised by the fact that the area is now totally swallowed-up by surrounding industrial parks, with what once a major road, now being a narrow track leading to nowhere except the museum entrance, which is opposite what was the main entrance to the former RAF Usworth, later Sunderland Airport, now no longer identifiable as such, being buried under the massive Nissan car plant. This is a fairly small museum, literally packed into one main, medium-sized hangar, plus a workshop and another 'Nissen-type' shed housing a military vehicle collection, along with a few outdoor exhibits. Some of the aircraft on display are looking rather tired but, considering the limited funding, and its 'out of the way' location, the museum is doing excellent work in gradually restoring the airframes in its collection, which includes some interesting, and relatively rare, exhibits. PICS 1 and 2. The Vulcan, and Canberra target tug, displayed outdoors. The Vulcan was flown into the airport before it closed, and was originally on display within the airfield itself, before the entire collection was moved across the road to its present site, upon closure of the field for the construction of the car factory in the early 1980's. PICS 3 and 4. Royal Navy 'Gnome' Whirlwind and a F-100 'Super Sabre' (ex Greek Air Force, from memory) under restoration. PICS 5 and 6. Part of the Military Vehicle Collection, all of which are in working condition. PIC 7. BAC Lightning F6 in the final colour scheme worn by the type. PIC 8. Part of the 'indoor' 1940's street display. PICS 9 and 10. A Pucarra captured in the Falklands, with Karl for scale, showing how large it actually is. PIC 11. Concorde has landed ! PIC 12. A German 20mm Flak gun and trailer. PIC 13. The only 'Sabre Dog' preserved in the UK. Being so closely packed, and with lighting far from brilliant, photography was rather tricky, although I managed to get a few detail shots of some of the 30+ aircraft, and other exhibits on display. The next couple of posts will continue with the rest of the trip, covering a meandering journey through the north Yorkshire moors and coast line.