Annual Cheese and Wine Lecture Evening 2009

Note – Late Bookings can still be made!

Why not join us, and other members and guests, for a glass of wine or two at the Putteridge Bury Manor Conference Centre.  This lovely building is set in wonderful grounds designed by Edwin L Lutyens, which you are more than welcome to enjoy. 
This years lecture is titled ‘Challenges and Opportunities for Digital Imaging in the 21^st Century’ or perhaps it should be titled ‘Is the photo’ album dead!’

Visit Wednesday, 10th June 2009, Luton, Hertfordshire

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Event – Shuttleworth Collection Visit

The visit to the historic and largely fully working aircraft at the hangars of the collection coincided with a thronging model aircraft event in the grounds of the Shuttleworth Estate at Old Warden.
Gathered members and guests were treated to a behind the scenes tour of the workshops by guide and restoration volunteer Ken Hyde. Amongst the paint pots and work benches of tools were wing parts, dismantled engines and evidence of meticulous and painstaking craftwork needed to keep these vintage machines airborne.
The group did not fail to appreciate the technical aspects of the operation and kept our volunteer busy with a constant stream of questions with some revealing answers, lending a greater understanding to the restoration that might have been missed otherwise.
The tour moved on to the main cluster of hangars, open to the general public, containing not only flying aircraft, but an assortment of cars and carriages, a traction engine and an impressive hanging static display of the earliest aircraft.
The group was treated to a vast array of information about each and everyone of the aircraft. Such as stories of how the Lysander aircraft, pictured below, used to run daring missions into enemy occupied France in the War to drop off and collect spies in the dead of night. And the fact that to enable these missions to take place extra large fuel tanks had to be fitted, as can be seen hanging beneath the Aircraft in the picture below.

The visit concluded after a full circuit of the collection, whereby the visitors were able to wander around the displays in their own time and visit the coffee and souvenir shop.
Some of the comments received back from the attendees included:
“An informative and enjoyable visit” Roy Bowdler
“Our guide around the museum and workshops was superb” Steve Wosley
“I'm impressed by the activity and ingenuity of the restorers (which include volunteers and professional engineers) to keep these old aircraft in flying condition. In many cases these relics are repairable because of the relative ease with which the parts can be restored. I wonder how many of our complex miniature electronic components will be considered to be worth repair or restoration 100 years from now?” Chris Danzelman
The committee would like to offer special thanks go to Ken and the rest of the staff for an engaging and insightful visit to the Shuttleworth Collection.

...James Stein & Robert Edmunds