East Coast Weekend Part Four - Flixton Aviation Museum

The Norfolk & Suffolk Aviation Museum at Flixton, near Bungay, turned out to be a gem of a place. We visited as they were holding a Seventieth Anniversary of the Battle of Britain event.

One of the first things we spotted was the famous bat of my old squadron - IX(B) Squadron.




They have a Valetta transport plane that visitors can look round. It is so comfortable and luxurious inside, much better than the Hercules and Tristar planes that Dad was ferried around in.



Lots of enthusiasts in period dress turned up, and Sam loved the vehicles they brought.

De rigeur, Sam scooted up the RAF Honington climbing wall.

A beautiful example of a Green Goddess fire engine was there too.

The new areas of the museum are only half-full of exhibits at the moment, but contain lots of fascinating bits and pieces, like this gyrocopter.

Sam was delighted to find another Fokker (see Hendon museum for more info).

And Dad was amazed to discover a model of a Tornado in the livery of his first ever squadron - TWCU at Honington. Yes, I used to keep the flying hours records for this very plane, ZA541. Marvellous.

East Coast Weekend Part Three - Army Parade

All the men love a parade! Well, actually they don't, but don't tell Sam that. To mark our stay in the White Feather Sam arrangerd for his soldiers to put on a parade, as you can see in these photos.

Note the eighties-style furniture!

Sam was especially pleased with his close-up of these dropped bombs.

And here he is, taking that very picture!

East Coast Weekend Part Two - Pleasurewood Hills

It cost just one English pound for us to gain entrance to Pleasurewood Hills. Well, combined with £30 of vouchers, bought with £7.50-worth of Tesco clubcard coupons. What a bargain!

We were hoping for a little drizzle to keep "other" people away, but the day was fine with occasionally hot sun. Pleasurewood Hills is a small-ish theme park, and a little dated, but still great fun. We arrived half an hour before the gates opened after a happy and noisy drive, doobie-dooting along to In The Mood and Pennsylvania 6-5000. First through the gates at ten, we didn't leave until half past four, and had a blast in between. The top pic is Sam & Dad monkeying around on the chairlift that travels the length of the site, and above is the view of the biggest ride, Wipeout, from said chairlift. Below is Wave Breaker, a high-speed raft slide. Ace.

There are quite a few activities that will require an additional payment, such as the shooting gallery, the petrol go-karts (superb fun, and we won!), and the mini-racers shown below.

A highlight is the sea lion show. It's the usual scenario of the animals clapping, waving, you name it. Here you can see one of them heading a suspended ball - notice the proximity of the children to the impending landing area of the sea lion....

Towards the end of the show the biggest sealion ascends to a high platform....Sam asked if he could go to the front....of course he could! In the picture below you can see Sam gazing upwards (he's the one directly below the keeper's welly).

For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction, according to Lucy, 18, from Weymouth. And when 45 stones of aquatic mammal hits the water from 2.5 metres up, a lot of the water jumps out of the way. Here's a soaking Sam to prove that the laws of physics actually do hold true (he thought it was great fun, despite the expression!):

As well as "grown-up" rides there are more traditional attractions. We're suckers for a classic set of Gallopers....

And Sam loved the spinning balloon thingie too.

So, Pleasurewood Hills. We had a fantastic day of fun, and it cost us next to nothing. Sam tried the adult-size pirate ship ride for the first time, loved it, and we went on five or six times in total. I think the full price of £31 for the two of us would be slightly over-priced, so make use of special offers (and they're plentiful) if you plan a visit. We'll be returning, one day.

East Coast Weekend Part One - Great Yarmouth

It's almost a year exactly since our last East Coast adventure, this year we were only there for two days. We weren't in a tent either, I booked us a family room in a seafront guest house in Yarmouth - the grandly named "Hotel White Feather". After the day at Pleasurewood Hills we were having an early night, but I decided that we ought to do what most families do in the evening while at the seaside - we went for a stroll along the prom!

Above are the bright lights of the seafront, and below you can see our "luxury accommodation" lit up behind Sam.




Sam took a photo with the moon and the lights in....

And we both found the disused pilings of the older, longer pier quite a spooky sight in the gloom....

To be honest, the White Feather is not bad value for money. You don't pay a fortune and you get a clean-ish, "back to the eighties" type of place. Breakfast was plentiful and tasty, and all the staff were friendly. Not bad.

We left Brian the Duck on guard while we went out.

RAF Museum Hendon - Aeronauts Interactive Centre

Our final point of call at the Hendon museum was an area known as the Aeronauts Interactive Centre. It's brilliant! Here you'll find lots of hands-on, fascinating experiments for the children to play with and learn at the same time. Above you can see Sam in a cockpit and a scale model of a Spitfire in front of him. The control inputs made by Sam are mirrored on the model, which is being blasted by a high speed fan to reproduce airflow. Ace.



There are many, many excellent things to try out here. Such as a glider simulator:



Another flying controls demonstrator:



There's a model of the Eurofighter made entirely of bits and pieces:

Apparently it featured in a TV advert. I don't remember it:

The hang glider is quite impressive:

And that's it. You MUST visit this place, we both absolutely loved it, and WILL be going back.

RAF Museum Hendon - Bomber Hall

Next up was the Bomber Hall. Sam had been wildly excited about seeing an Avro Lancaster, as it is his very favourite aeroplane. When we found the Lanc the expectation wasn't in vain. I was brought up not far from RAF Coningsby, where the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight is based, so I've seen the Lanc flying past many times, either outbound to, or inbound from, various airshows. Sam hasn't had that pleasure, so standing underneath one was heaven for him. It's big, isn't it! Look at the size of that bomb bay.




7,377 Lancs were made, and they averaged just 21 missions before being lost. The average age of each crewman was just 22.




The Bomber Hall was fantastic. We spotted one of the Buccaneer aircraft that was in service when I joined up - 25 years ago, a quarter of a century! Above is a pic of an accurate recreation of Barnes-Wallace's design office. The accompanying film show is sobering yet pride-inducing.


One amazing discovery was the Queen Mary transporter below. It's almost certain that Sam's Grandad drove this very vehicle, as he spent many years ferrying broken up aircraft around the world. His tales of driving the awesome Queen Mary were often a wonderful highlight of summer family barbecues.

And amazingly, we discovered that the example of the Tornado GR1 in the museum has the tail number ZA457. The tail number is like the registration plate of a car, unique. ZA457 was one of the aircraft flying when I joined my first posting in the RAF, at RAF Honington. I clearly remember recording, in longhand, and with a pencil, the flying hours that the Tonkers flew every day. It's now in a museum. Fantastic!

RAF Museum Hendon - The Battle Of Britain Hall

Did I mention that it's free entry to Hendon museum? Yes, free. You have to pay to park if you drive there, but I reckon £3.50 is a very, very small price to pay. The Battle Of Britain Hall itself is worth £3.50. Above is Sam reading about the Hurricane. And below is a Messerschmidt 109E, which I think looks menacing and sinister even today. But why did they paint the nose section yellow?

The Stuka dive bomber is just as daunting as the ME109. Being so close to one of these fearsome and terrifying war machines is an uncomfortable feeling. How many people died because of this very plane?

There's an excellent area dedicated to depicting the Blitz, and I am really cross that our best picture was blurry! Not fair.

The Junkers bomber was the one responsible for flattening Coventry, and many other English towns. Despite it's role against us in the war, I think the glass cockpit area is stunning and iconic.

Our answer to the Junkers at the time was the Blenheim. Not a bad aeroplane, but not a patch on the German's bomber.

As well as planes the Battle Of Britain Hall houses vehicles, dioramas (is that the right word?), and there is an hourly film show called Their Finest Hour. It's an atmospheric, edgy, impressive show which is projected onto a screen hung above the aircraft. Lighting is synchronised with the images and commentary, and I found it moving anduplifting. Sam thought the dogfight footage and bombing scenes were great.

The vehicle above is a barrage balloon tether. As soon as he saw it Sam announced that the paint scheme was exactly the same as that of some Dinky RAF vehicles that Grandad gave him once. They now have pride of place on Sam's "museum" shelf of his bookcase. We pondered on why the winch operator would be housed in the cage and decided it was in case of a snapped cable, whipping lethally hither and thither. Were we right?

On the way out of this area there's the chance to walk right through an immaculate Sunderland seaplane. It's fantastic! Here's Sam perched in the doorway.

Finally, here's a poignant photo that Sam took. This display is entitled "An RAF Armourer" and Sam took the picture as a little reminder of Richard, who sadly died last year.