Cockpitfest 2010 @ Newark Air Museum

With the 2011 C'Fest fast approaching, it's a good time to blog about last year's event.....

For the un-acquainted, Cockpitfest (sureley a better name could have been chosen!) is an annual event held at Newark Air Museum, over a weekend in June. The museum invites private cockpit (or "aircraft nose section") owners to display their pride and joy's to the public. This event brings a lot of visitors to the museum, and is great for publicity. These owners restore and rebuild their nose sections just like a classic car owner would, and this show is the classic car show of the aviation world!

Fir the participants, or displayers, it's a fantastic networking event, I've only attended twice (2009 and 2010) and have made some really good friends, and some great contacts within the classic aviation world.

The museum usually organises a small air display or fly-past during the weekend which adds to the interest. For people who display, a Saturday night session is put on, with FREE hog-roast and FREE BEER! - So needless to say Sunday morning can be a bit slow.... We camp the night over within the museum inbetween the exhibits, which is a unique experience in itself! Official event website below:

http://www.gbairspares.co.uk/cockpitfest/4121/

2010:

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The weekend had a great turnout, a lot of cockpit owners brought along their cockpit projects in various states of repair, and a lot completed. Around 30 cockpits attended the event, plus a host of non-cockpit displays from private collections of aviation related memorabilia, stuff, etc..

Stacks of visitors through the gates over the weekend, mainly families having a day out. It's great for that, as the kids love sitting in the aircraft cockpits, and get to learn so much.

 

My contribution to the event, not being a cockpit-owner was my collection of Flight (US term) or Flying (UK term) Helmets. I'd built a special display stand which got named the "Helmet Tree" by FlyPast magazine’s editor Ken Ellis. There were a lot of non-cockpit displays, mainly instrument panels, ejection seats, flight and survival gear. I was really chuffed when the Helmet Tree won the first ever award for Best Non-Cockpit Display, which was a nice collectable bottle of Single Malt Scotch!

Cheers to Newark Air Museum!!  And many thanks to my understanding, long suffering wife! ;o)

 

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