We were greatly saddened by the Museum closing on the 16th December 2007, particularly to make way for a car park. You may also have heard, or read, that the alternative hangar offered by the airport authorities is in a remote location, currently in a much neglected state, not big enough and totally unaffordable. But all is not lost…

A group of Volunteers and Friends of Bournemouth Aviation Museum have formed the "BAM Action Group" to look for affordable alternative accommodation, or exhibit storage, on the airfield. They have ambitious plans to seek significant sponsorship, grants and other funding for a new purpose-built facility also located on the airfield. With a history of over 150,000 visitors since it opened, very substantial assets and an excellent reputation for exciting the interest of school parties this is no "pipe dream". It could turn into a major aviation attraction in the region. Where else in this area can you see vintage, exotic aircraft being restored, also see and hear aircraft being started and flying. Where else can youngsters see technology and engineering being applied in such a dynamic and exciting way? Add to this a strong educational element and we are convinced that we are on to a winner. We intend creating something new and exciting and are thinking of calling it: The Bournemouth Aviation Heritage Centre".

In the short term we are trying to identify suitable people to become trustees of the existing BAM trust, as the current trustees have publicly stated that they will be standing down at AGM to be held in January 2008. Volunteers and Friends of the Museum will have an opportunity to nominate themselves or someone else before the meeting.

In January we will be meeting the Airport Manager who has indicated a strong wish to help make the move as painless as possible. We will let you know the result of that meeting.

Although the Museum has closed, and we will soon be "homeless", we are arranging a suitable place for Volunteers and Friends to meet regularly to be kept informed and to have an opportunity to have their say. We are also arranging quarterly interesting aviation "events" on the airfield to maintain everyone's interest and to raise funds for our new facility - in whatever form it takes. We also intend publishing a quarterly newsletter.

We hope that past Volunteers and Friends of the Museum will maintain their interest and continue to subscribe to membership of the Museum as every penny counts. We may have to adjust the subscription but have not had time to consider that yet.

It is early days yet but, as you can see, there are a lot of good ideas emerging already. More will follow.

We look forward to your continued interest and support. Just watch this space…

Best wishes,

Ken Bradley, Richard Edwards & Stuart Law (Co-spokesmen)

We value your feedback. If you would like to comment please email us via: phil@philbc.freeserve.co.uk

All volunteer / member meetings will be posted on this page with agenda and at least one weeks notice. Those not having Internet access will be notified by post.

Meetings will be held at Bournemouth Flying Club with thanks to the club management.

Details for those wishing to apply to become trustees, should be posted within the next week or so.

We have been very busy behind the scenes over the Christmas and New Year period exploring various short and long term solutions to the problems.

Our immediate concern has been the risk of losing aircraft on loan to the Museum. The voluntary managers were obliged to send out a letter asking owners to arrange the collection of their aircraft and other artefacts. Half of the wonderful collection of model aircraft has been removed by the owner and the other half will follow soon. The Trustees and Museum voluntary managers are now under pressure to clear the Exhibition hangar by the Estates Manager of the Airport whilst we have been exploring alternative hangar accommodation for them and trying to slow the process down. Not easy to do over the prolonged Christmas holiday, let alone trying to provide an instant solution. Various hangars were suggested but investigations are still ongoing. However, by the time this goes on air we hope that we have a solution so that the Airport authorities see that we are clearly trying to cooperate.

As a result of a rather ambiguous statement, in an otherwise very helpful reply to a letter from Stuart Law to the Charities Commission, a wild rumour went around suggesting that the Trustees were no longer in charge. This proved to be incorrect; however we understand that they still intend to resign at the AGM. We are still waiting for the date of the AGM to be announced but understand that it is still scheduled for late January.

We are now looking for nominations new trustees. After much deliberation we have decided to accept nominations up to 2 weeks before the AGM so that we can publish a list to all volunteers and Friends 1 week before the AGM. This is going to be a major admin exercise with over 500 members eligible to vote and nominate themselves. So we have decided to accept email or postal nominations consisting of a "pitch" not more than 200 words long accompanied by a clear photo which, if colour, is suitable for changing into black and white so that it can be photocopied. We hope that lurking out there is some incredible talent but, we are anticipating that it will take time to attract trustees that have the ability, experience, influence, time and energy to really take the "collection" to new heights. We therefore expect that there will be a re-shuffle of trustees to make room for such people (if they exist!) to avoid the size of the committee becoming too cumbersome. We have not decided which one of us will handle and compile the nominations yet, so please be patient and we will announce it on this website very soon.

We are still waiting for the invitation to meet the Airport Manager, Peter Duffy and have stressed the urgency to do so to his PA. It is hoped that we can see him some time next week so the co-spokesmen, Ken, Richard and Stuart, are meeting in a couple of days to discuss their strategy for the meeting.

Richard has also been doing some crystal ball gazing looking into a concept for a future purpose-built facility. He is currently producing a "concept" document, suggesting various ideas for a new Aviation Heritage Centre based upon his experience of being the Project Manager for the BAM and having designed a number of its facilities, organised its refurbishment and obtained various sponsors. It will be published soon to allow volunteers and Friends to have their say. Its main purpose at this stage is to show the Airport management what could be achieved and try to gain their full support to rescue the existing collection and to help find the location of a new facility. In addition it gives us something to aspire to - or dream about!

We really appreciate the messages of support that have been flooding into this website. It has been most encouraging. We have, however, instructed the manager of the website to act as "moderator" to ensure that the messages do not offend individuals or the Airport authorities, as we want a positive dialogue with all parties, especially at this delicate stage of negotiations.

This website has already paid dividends. We were in grave danger of the 111 being carted away to join another collection but after spotting the notice about our Action Group being formed they have now stepped back to allow us time to come up with a solution.

That's all for now. We will provide another update as soon as we have something significant to tell you.

Thanks for supporting us.

An introduction, see .... http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/publications/cc3a.asp
What you need to know, see .... http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/publications/cc3.asp

We have been very busy working to try to find a new location for the collection of external exhibits and interior storage for the ones currently in the hangar.

On the 7th January Ken Bradley, Richard Edwards and Mike Phipp carried out a "trawl" of the NW sector of the airfield where most of the businesses are located. We visited each significant one, tried to speak to the manager and, when that was not possible, we left a standard letter explaining our plight. So far, as space is at a premium, there has been no positive outcome from that exercise but we are still following up the initial contact.

The area is a complete labyrinth of hangars, buildings of all shapes and sizes and a maze of roads. Thank goodness we had Mike with us who, as the Airport Historian, knows the place like the back of his hand. He was also able to point out where there were spare patches of ground on which it may be possible to store things. Ken spotted a large unused area and came up with the brilliant idea of using it as an outdoor Museum location. To cut a long story short, we presented quite a convincing argument to the Estates Manager, Harvey Greenman, a few days ago and he is giving it his serious consideration. The area is designated for future development but there may be a chance of using it in the meantime. (Set Google Earth to 50047'06.37" N 1050'43.37W Alt 140m at bottom of window). Currently this is being used by a small flying club but we already have the owner on our side. Do not hold your breath as this could be one of the many cul-de-sacs we travel up before the matter is resolved satisfactorily. Life is rarely that neat - but keep your fingers crossed!

If we are able to rent this area, and can afford it, then we could move the aircraft quicker and easier than scattering them to odd spaces around the airport (another distinct possibility). Manchester and the East Midlands Airport have similar outdoor museums. Both are also under the jurisdiction of Manchester Airports Group, so why not us? We are hoping that this would give us a base from which to operate and a means of retaining the loyalty of our volunteers and Friends of the Museum. Quite frankly, we would also need the money from their subscriptions and revenue from opening the facility to the public at weekend and holidays to cover the running costs. At least we would still be in existence to give us a chance to regroup and press forward. Send us an email to this website let us know what you think.

We also managed to scrounge the promise of free loan of a fully-equipped vandal-proof cabin (needs some TLC) and a Portaloo from a very obliging hire company on the airfield, if we go ahead with the plan.

Richard completed and issued his ideas for a Bournemouth Aviation Heritage Centre in a formal report and presented it to a meeting of the Action Group on 11th January. He also gave copies to the Estates Manager to see that we mean business and to the MD of De Havilland who is very keen to continue collaborating with the Museum. A further copy is being given to the Christchurch MP, Chris Chope this weekend to seek his support and political clout. The report is currently in draft form and will be available for anyone to see at the AGM, now scheduled for the end of February. He knows that he is putting the cart before the horse but needs to convince Airport management NOW of the need for an aviation museum or heritage centre before we are overtaken by events, gone and forgotten.

Other key outcomes from the recent Action Group meeting are that we have appointed Ivan Halstead as our Assets Controller after he quietly completed almost 80% of the inventory and put it on a database, mostly over the Christmas period. Now there's dedication for you! We have also asked Don Harrop to take charge of the logistics of the move as he managed a similar move during his RAF service. We urgently need shipping containers to store office and other equipment. Does anyone know how and where we can get them, preferably free?

At present we are trying to help Chris and John, the voluntary Museum Managers, with the mailing of notification of the AGM (when the date is announced). It will mean packaging and mailing about 580 letters. This letter will seek nominations for trustees from members and other people proposed by a member. Those wishing to put their name forward will be asked to send a letter stating their wish to become a trustee and to write a "pitch" of not more than 200 words and send a photograph. This will enable us to compile and print a list of nominees to be sent to members before the AGM, which we hope will make the selection process quicker and easier.

That's the story so far. We appreciate your continued support and interest.

Following our meeting with the Estates Manager we were informed that our suggested location for an outdoor Aviation Museum had been turned down. We were told that it had been earmarked for development and there were security issues (which we felt could be overcome), also the Airport authorities wanted to ensure that we moved just once. It was also clear that they wanted to deal only with Trustees and there was no point in further discussion with us until the new ones had been elected. It raises two questions:

It seems odd that great pressure is being brought to bear upon Museum staff to show positive signs that we are packing up and going, yet the other occupants of our hangar (De Havilland, Worldwide and Bournemouth Helicopters) cannot move until their "new" hangar is refurbished and the surrounds repaved, which have not been started and will take months to complete.

Why is the onus upon us to identify on-site places? If we don't know where we are going, how can we plan to move there?

However, we are still trying our best to help the Museum comply with the Airport's requirements by preparing aircraft, exhibits and other paraphernalia for the move and organising internal storage for vulnerable items. To this end, a letter has been sent to the MD of FR Aviation seeking storage for the Lightening and Vanguard cockpits. We have also had successful discussions with the CEO of a major transport company who has promised help by providing time-expired trailers for storage, including delivering and re-locating them. In addition, John Sullivan, a member of the Action Group has offered to check and prepare some of the external aircraft for moving with the assistance of other volunteers. He and his team are currently, de-rigging some parts of these aircraft and carefully checking that the wheels and tyres are in a satisfactory state for towing. He will also carry out an assessment to list the things that need to be done to ensure the safe movement of the aircraft.

We have received offers of help from other external sources and will soon be evaluating them and producing a contingency plan to implement in case we fail in our attempts to convince the Airport authorities to allow us to stay on site.

Richard Edwards has contacted the Mayor of Christchurch to inform her of the situation. She has expressed great concern and he and Ken Bradley will be meeting her and the Chief Executive of Christchurch Council later this week. He is also trying to gain the support of other local mayors and leaders of the business community.

The AGM has now been set for the 28th February and letters are being sent out to member Volunteers and Friends informing them of the meeting and inviting nominations from prospective trustees. Please note that anyone can be nominated providing their application is supported by a paid-up member. We are also trying to organise a meeting of prospective trustees before the AGM so that they can be fully briefed about the responsibilities before the meeting.

It is a little frustrating at the moment not being able to speak directly to the decision-makers of Manchester Airports Group to find out what they have in mind for our future. Nevertheless, we will keep plugging away and try to do our best to show that we are fully co-operating with the Airport authorities and doing everything possible to ensure the continuation of the Bournemouth Aviation Museum.

Some good news at last: There is a strong possibility that we will be able to store most of the external exhibits in a safe place. At this stage we are unable to tell you where that will be but will let you know when it has been officially confirmed. Also, we have received our first enormous trailer from GIST, a leading logistics company, and others will follow as and when we need them. These have been given and delivered to us absolutely free and solves a major storage headache. We are now looking for free or inexpensive sources or packaging materials so that we can maximise the storage space within the trailers. In addition, we have received a very positive response from FR Aviation to our request for help storing our most vulnerable exhibits and will be following that up within the next week.

Our volunteers are continuing to prepare the aircraft, engines and various other exhibits for moving. When the Harvard, Meteor & Provost were assembled we did not anticipate moving them. No provision was made to ensure that they were structurally sound to do so. It would be quite embarrassing, to say the least, to have an undercarriage leg collapse when one of these was towed along a taxi way or, particularly, whilst moving across the runway. So special bracing has to be constructed to ensure that this does not happen or we may just have to dismantle them and move them on a special trailer. Fortunately we have a huge "Queen Mary" trailer at hand and access to the towing truck.

At the last meeting we appointed Tony Erwood to examine the alternatives currently available to us and the offers of help from external organisations. He will be producing a set of "contingency plans" to ensure that we are not caught on the hop if the situation changes and to avoid last-minute panics or snap decisions.

Ken Bradley and Richard Edwards had a very cordial and helpful meeting with the Mayor of Christchurch and the Chief Executive of Christchurch Council. They gave them a full and undiluted briefing about the past and present difficulties faced by the Museum and discussed the proposals for a future Aviation Heritage Centre. The Mayor and CE were interested and offered their full support once the new trustees had been elected. Ken and Richard have also been invited to meet the Mayor of Bournemouth, the CE of the Council, and various other influential councillors in the next few weeks. We have also received the enthusiastic support of the new President of the Bournemouth Chamber of Trade and Commerce.

The AGM is next Thursday evening at 7.30 and will be held in the hangar of the Museum. All Volunteers and Friends should now have received their invitation to the meeting and information about how to apply to become a trustee. Nominations for trustees can be received at the Museum Foundation's registered office (Magnolia House, 24 West Street, Wimborne, BH 21 1JS) up to the 25th February. At the moment we are very concerned about the way trustee selection will be conducted. It has also been pointed out that anyone who purchased a "season ticket" for the Museum has the same rights to become a trustee, as someone who has dedicated much of their time and energy to the Museum over many years. Conversely, we have recently had people who have "come out of the woodwork" and have been of tremendous help and/or have first class management skills. How can we consider and judge the relative merits of these people in a situation and process that seems to demand a snap decision? It seems to be much too important to be treated in such a casual way. To enable to Museum to survive and have a good future we need trustees who are "movers and shakers" not just enthusiasts or popular. So we just hope that the existing trustees come up with a means of fair selection on the night to ensure that the right choice is made.

We are also starting to look at ways of retaining the interest and membership of the Volunteers and Friends, particularly if we can find a temporary "home". We already have a fantastic restoration project lined up for volunteers and are planning regular meetings with interesting speakers. More later.

Before the AGM, we would like to thank the Bournemouth Flying Club for their encouragement, warm welcome and support, allowing us to hold our fortnightly meetings at their clubhouse. You do not need to be a member to visit the club during the week and we would thoroughly recommend it as the ideal place for an inexpensive lunch with a superb view of the main runway. Try it and see.

We look forward to seeing our loyal band of volunteers and members at the AGM, exercising their right to vote and enabling us to make a fresh start (don't forget to bring your volunteer / membership card).

Bournemouth Aviation Museum Action Group

The nominations for new trustees (in alphabetical order) are: Ken Bradley, Andrew Dixon, Richard Edwards, Martin Gwynn, Guy McNair-Wilson.

We look forward to seeing members and volunteers at the AGM at 7:30 on Thursday 28th February 2008 in the Museum hangar (don't forget to bring your volunteer / membership card).

The new trustees (in alphabetical order) are: Ken Bradley, Andrew Dixon, Richard Edwards, Martin Gwynn.

There was a tremendous turnout for the AGM on the 28th February of about 100 people. The previous trustees resigned and four new ones were elected. You can find out more about them by clicking on the “New Trustees” link on the main page. Since then they have had various meetings with Airport management and have managed to get a further 2 months grace, which means that all our aircraft, exhibits and other possessions have to be off the site by the end of April.

The Estates Manager has gone to great pains to try to show and convince us that there is simply no spare space on the airfield. Although an aerial view of the airfield shows large empty grass areas, CAA regulations prevent them from being used, let alone being accessible to the public. Also, despite being surrounded by spare heath land, these are Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI’s) and cannot be used. No spare land or building seems to be available now and we will not be allowed to use vacant land earmarked for development in the future, even for a short time. Disappointingly, we are also having great difficulty convincing the Airport authorities to allow us a small storage area for our aircraft on the airfield. Their main fear is being ultimately lumbered with their disposal, even though we can reserve funding now for that contingency. All they are prepared to do at present is to rent us a small compound for £4K a year in a remote and unsecured part of the airfield for our trailers. It is not a very satisfactory state of affairs but we have not given up yet.

To enable us to load the trailers generously donated by GIST, we have had to notify the owners of the superb aircraft in and outside the exhibit hangar to remove their aircraft within 14 days. It was a very difficult thing to do when they have been part of our “family” for many years and will, no doubt, have problems relocating them.

On the brighter side, Andrew Dixon, will be joining us as a Trustee. He was the fifth person to put his name forward as a trustee. Andrew is a very experienced and distinguished pilot, owns a Pembroke and Sea Prince and is the Training Captain for the B17 “Sally B”. His details are on the Trustees page. He will be looking after aircraft and engineering issues.

We had very successful discussions with directors from European Aviation and FR Aviation, two major aviation companies on the airfield. Both have pledged their support and will be offering us storage facilities. We are in the process of preparing lists for them at present and hope to find out exactly what they can store later this week.

We have also reconfirmed the loan of the large portakabin which we are hoping to locate somewhere convenient on the airfield so that we at least have a base from which we can operate and continue our campaign.

The present problems are occupying us full time at the moment, but it has not stopped us from starting to discuss ways in which we can retain the interest of our considerable loyal following. We have been discussing, albeit briefly, the possibilities of arranging regular meetings with interesting speakers. Bournemouth Flying Club will allow us to use their premises for meetings and we already have a couple of interesting visits lined up and promises of some aviation “experiences” as possible raffle prizes. Let us know your ideas but please do not expect us to respond for a while. As you may gather, we have enough on our plate already !

Although the future seems a little bleak at present we have been very encouraged by the increasing support we are receiving from local aviation, business and political community. So, even though we risk being homeless soon, we have a team of dedicated, experienced and capable people grinding away at the problem, determined to come up with a satisfactory solution. It may take time but we are determined to get there. Wish us luck.

Bournemouth Aviation Museum Action Group.

Our apologies for the delay providing you with an update but much has happened over the last month. We have continued to look and campaign for new premises on the airfield but every suggestion we have made has been turned down. It became increasingly obvious that we were fighting a losing battle, but you never know…

In the meantime, we turned our attention to where we could store our aircraft and cockpits. We met senior executives of European Aviation Limited and FR Aviation who were very keen to help us and tried very hard to find space in their hangars but, after many weeks delay, they discovered that they just did not have the room. However, FRA offered to store our trailers in their secure car park for a year. The most difficult and frustrating part of that process was waiting for replies from these very busy people as the clock ticked towards the end of April deadline.

Bournemouth Flying Club was most helpful and offered to take the Harvard as a "Gate Guardian" at the entrance to their clubhouse. They were also prepared to store another couple of aircraft on the grass on the "air side" of their premises. We also approached them about using an office in their Flying School and received a positive response.

The cockpits were another matter, especially the Vulcan. Things became so desperate we tried negotiating with a local farmer for temporary storage in his large grain store until harvest time and arranged for the Viscount cockpit to be loaned to the aviation museum at Newark. Time was running out.

Meanwhile, our volunteers were busy sorting and packing a mountain of exhibits, artefacts, displays, cabinets and goodness knows what else, collected over 10 years labour of love. Over this time the number of 43 feet trailers provided by GIST increased from 2 to 5. The interiors looked enormous but as the deadline approached they rapidly filled.

Organising the packing the trailers was a task in itself, trying to make sure that the items least likely to be needed in the future were towards the front and v.v. at the back. We also tried to note the position of the types of items on a chart taped to the outside, but often forgot (sorry, Ivan). Some things, like aircraft engines, required heavy lifting equipment and a lot of heaving, grunting, groaning and moaning! Some things looked as if they were going to fit into the trailer but did not. One evening we borrowed the use of a large fork lift truck and driver to try to get the Griffon engine in a trailer but its centre of gravity caused the back wheels of the truck to lift off the ground as the engine was lifted. So we next tried getting the Vampire cockpit in. It only just fitted but as it was moved into the trailer its wooden supporting frame collapsed. It took us another hour or so to get it out and was an even greater challenge to move and park it outside the hangar.

Our local volunteers were absolutely brilliant. Their sense of purpose and team spirit was fantastic. They worked their socks off and were very patient when we had to change plans or unpack things we discovered were in the wrong place or trailer. Our bribes of free coffee, tea, sausage rolls and cakes seemed to work. (No, we did NOT put Bromide in the tea!) One of our volunteers organised a similar move in the RAF which took 8,000 work hours to achieve using fit, young people. So, ten people working 8 hours a day should take 100 days i.e. over 3 months. We packed our Museum in 2 months, using mostly retired people who could give us a few hours a day. Now that is something to think about. The clock ticked on and pressure mounted from Airport management for us to get out.

In the last week in April we had a breakthrough. Richard Edwards had kept the local MP, Mayor of Christchurch and the Christchurch Council Chief Executive informed of our current situation and our future plans for an Aviation Heritage Centre. During one of her official visits the Mayor mentioned our plight to the owner of Adventure Wonderland, situated just outside the airfield. He contacted us and offered us the use of his overflow car park as the site of an Open Air Museum. Negotiations have been taking place and we are drafting an official Agreement to use the site for one year providing we can obtain Planning Permission.

We have strongly resisted leaving the Airport as it will completely alter the concept of the Museum by moving away from flying aircraft and being able to see active aviation engineering activities. But, we have to be realistic and do what is best for the Museum and supporters of the Charity. Adventure Wonderland is a local attraction which caters for the younger members of families. It is very successful and has over 150,000 visitors each year. If we can attract just a small percentage of them and charge a modest fee we could make a very significant amount of money for our cause. It is certainly is much better than having nothing at all or to pay for storage.

The owner is also keen for us to move there as he sees the two activities as complimentary. (What a change!) We would have our own quite distinct and separate area outside his complex facing the main runway and the Terminal. OK, so it's behind a hedge, but we can always build a viewing bank or platform. He also has a 25 acre field closer to the end of the runway which could be a potential site for our Aviation Heritage Centre. It looks like an excellent compromise and opportunity but do not get carried away. We still have to get Planning Permission to display some large and, to some at least, visually intrusive items in a green belt area. Our main task is to obtain this as quickly as possible. (Google Earth users should enter BH23 6BA and look at the area right of the marked paths in the car park).

Time ran out on Wednesday 30th April when we reached our deadline to leave. A small army of volunteers scurried around to cram our last possessions into the trailers which were moved to FR Aviation's car park. There was also a flurry of activity craning containers out of the way and moving ground equipment so that the huge EAL aircraft towing vehicle could pull the 1-11 out of its position on the grass and, with just feet to spare, ease it past the hangar and slowly tow it away. It was sad to see it go and to return to our empty hangar. At 5.00 p.m. the airport's Estates Manger turned up to check that we had vacated the premises. But, to his surprise and our amazement, we actually did it! He complimented us on achieving what seemed to be impossible and allowed us the concession of letting our aircraft and cockpits remain outside until the end of May to give us further time to, hopefully, arrange the move of the remainder of our aircraft and cockpits to our temporary new "home".

We are not quite homeless. Bournemouth Helicopters is letting us use one of their offices in their associated "ground handling" business. It is in the Portakabin to the left of the Museum entrance.

During this very busy time we had a meeting with Volunteers and Friends at the Flying Club on the 16th April. The place was absolutely packed, showing the level of interest and support. The Chairman of the Trustees, Martin Gwynn, outlined the current situation and the efforts being made to find new premises. Andrew Dixon described the efforts being made to store aircraft and cockpits and Richard Edwards summarised the museum packing and storage activities. Richard then told everyone about the plans for an Aviation Heritage Centre, issued everyone with a copy of the proposed layout and took them on an imaginary tour. Ken Bradley then described a new Club we are creating for Volunteers and Friends to enable us to meet regularly and enjoy interesting talks and visits. The Club will be run by its members and the subscriptions will be donated to Museum funds. [Richard has already received a voucher from EAL for 4 people to have an hour's training in their 747 simulator which we will be offering as a raffle prize].

We also suggest that, in the short term, we meet for chat and to keep people informed on Tuesdays at 10.00. The Flying Club seems a suitable place, especially as the staff are so welcoming and it has a fantastic view of the runway with lots of aircraft activity in that area. If anyone would like to join us for tea, coffee, or breakfast we would be glad to see you.

Now that the main part of the move is over we will also turn our attention to our administration and improving our communication with Volunteers and Friends. One of our priorities is to update our database, particularly so that we can make more use of email. (Don't worry, those without will not miss out). We also want to revamp this website to reflect our changed situation and to make it easier to read and find information.

So, although we have lost the battles to remain at Hangar 600 and to find another location at the Airport, we hope to hover on the rim ready to rush back if there is a change of ownership, management or attitude. We will NOT let our local aviation heritage be cast aside for commercial interests, or for the successful and popular facility that we have taken so long and hard to create, and the public to enjoy, to become history.
Look out MAG - we will continue the fight and are determined to be back !

Bournemouth Aviation Museum Action Group

P.S. Will the person who packed my shirt, trousers and fleece in one of trailers, let me know where they are. I'm getting a bit cold! - Richard