How to Fence a Caravelle

Suomeksi

Since the beginning of June, the restored Caravelle has been protected at Turku airport by temporary rented fencing – providing only rather moral security. On Tuesday October 24th the permanent fence around the aircraft was completed. Fortunately during these months before the real fence was built there were no damages or accidents caused by the lack of proper fencing.

Photo by Ismo Matinlauri

When the Caravelle’s location was planned in the Turku airport area, it was already obvious that a fence must be built around the aircraft. The main worry were vandals, graffiti sprayers and odd curious visitors. Secondly the fencing helps to control visitors and in other times protects the curious passers-by from accidents in the vicinity of the aircraft.

Naturally the fence will not stop the most persistent trespassers, but it will, however, provide sufficient security.

The purchase of the fence material started already before the Caravelle arrived in Turku. In spring 2022 Aviation Museum Society Finland bought the material for the fence and the gates. First the construction of the fence was scheduled to take place before the aircraft is moved to the site in spring 2023. Soon it was discovered that the fence will hamper the crane operations on site during the assembly and also make the actual assembly work more difficult. Therefore it was decided that the Caravelle is assembled first, and the fence is erected after that.

The construction of the fence was left to a professional – that means that a contractor was hired to erect the fence. For cost saving reasons some of the work was done by the Aviation Museum Society Finland volunteers. In this case this meant assisting in setting the fence poles into concrete and in spreading the net wiring between the poles. This reduced the total cost nicely.

Building the fence was an efficient procedure, completed in five workdays:

• Day 1: marking and levelling the fence line, digging the holes for the concrete foundations,
• Day 2: setting the posts into concrete, 50 – 200 litres of concrete was poured into each hole,
• Day 3: drilling the bases for the fence posts on the rock slope behind the aircraft and landscaping the concrete foundations,
• Day 4: fastening the wire net on the gate halves (two 5 m wide gates) and making preparations for fastening the wire net,
• Day 5: unrolling the wire net and fastening on the posts, installing the gates and checking their operation.

Photo by Janne Salonen

Photo by Janne Salonen

Photo by Ismo Matinlauri

Photo by Jouko Tarponen

Photo by Jouko Tarponen

Building the fence in late October was eventually a good thing. The weather is getting cold and there is quite a limited amount of work which can be done inside and outside the Caravelle due to the cold and wet weather, so we had plenty of time to assist in erecting the fence.