The Aviation Museum Society's Tuesday Club activities in 2025

Suomeksi

The year 2025 was an exceptional one for the Tuesday Club compared to previous years. In March, we moved from the Finnish Aviation Museum to continue our ongoing restoration projects in the premises rented by Aviation Museum Society Finland at Puusepäntie in Tuusula. The reason for leaving the museum was that the restoration space there was modified to prepare for the museum’s future relocation, thus our restoration activities at the museum came to an end. However, our cooperation with the museum continues, and it is fortunate that the premises at Puusepäntie are only a ten-minute drive from the museum.

After moving to Puusepäntie, the initial months were focused on equipping the premises for the society’s meetings and as an actual workshop. Fortunately it was fairly soon possible to restart the interrupted restoration projects at Puusepäntie. The first to be moved from the museum to Puusepäntie was the fuselage of the Snoopy (OH-XEA “Ressu”). After the summer break, we continued equipping the workspace and refurbishing and painting the exteriors of two dilapidated shipping containers acquired for the Puusepäntie yard. Restoration activities also gained full momentum.

At Puusepäntie, the Tuesday Club members were divided into two work groups, mainly because the size of the workshop limited the whole group from working there at the same time. One group worked on Tuesdays, and the other on Wednesdays. Alongside them, the Demo-Myrsky builders operated as their own Tuesday Club project group at Puusepäntie. During 2025, there were 27 active club members in the Tuesday Club. The Demo-Myrsky builders completed about 1,500 working hours over the year. Other restoration projects by the Tuesday Club took about 3,200 working hours. Altogether, we achieved a total of 4,700 working hours in 2025.

Project activities in 2025

Equipping the Puusepäntie premises

The equipping of Aviation Museum Society’s rented premises was completed during the autumn term of 2025. During the autumn, the 40-foot and 20-foot shipping containers acquired for the yard were also refurbished externally. The 20-foot container, which was insulated, was equipped as a hot work area, while the 40-foot container was set up as a storage space.

We refurbished a decommissioned aluminium neon light advertising box to promote our Puusepäntie premises. A new front panel image was made for the lightbox, featuring the Society's Stieglitz SZ-18, flying among the clouds, with the Society logo and the text "Ilmailumuseoyhdistys ry" below. The illuminated sign was installed above the entrance door to the workshop.

Restoration of the Snoopy

By the end of 2024, we had completed the restoration the Snoopy’s (OH-XEA, “Ressu”) wings, tail sections, and their associated equipment. We had also started work on restoring the Snoopy’s fuselage. We managed to clean and paint the previously rusty fuselage frame and installed the controls and their cables to the elevators and rudder, before the work paused for a few months due to the move to Puusepäntie. In the spring work continued at Puusepäntie. By the end of the year, the entire fuselage had been covered with cotton fabric and tightened with shrinking dope.

The cockpit received an original-style roof window made of polycarbonate plexiglass, and the undercarriage wheels were fitted with hubcaps. The engine, badly damaged in the crash, was refurbished externally to resemble a functioning engine and is waiting to be installed on the Snoopy’s nose. It will not be made into a working engine. Exhaust pipes, resembling those on the Continental engine previously used on the Snoopy, were constructed for the engine.

Demo-Myrsky

The Tuesday Club’s Myrsky group continued the construction of the Demo-Myrsky. The Demo-Myrsky is being built using the test wing from the Myrsky project, combined with the fuselage frame of the Myrsky MY-5. The MY-5’s fuselage frame has been restored and otherwise equipped, and welded in the Myrsky container located in the yard of the Finnish Aviation Museum. The fuselage frame was brought from the museum to Puusepäntie on 19 November. There its completion has continued by fastening the previously finished wooden vertical stabiliser and the rear upper fuselage section behind the cockpit. The fuselage formers are ready, so their installation can also begin.

At Puusepäntie, the wooden horizontal stabiliser and elevators for the Demo-Myrsky have been constructed. The original aluminium elevator we received, which was broken in two, has been repaired.

Restoration of the Super Chug

The restoration of the Super Chug (OH-XTM, “Super Sytky”), which suffered a landing accident in summer 2024 and was donated to Aviation Museum Society, began with the badly damaged fuselage. The aircraft is the prototype Super Sytky, designed, built, and initially owned by Kai Mellén.

The lower part of the fuselage is severely damaged between the rear cockpit and the firewall. Therefore, everything in the badly damaged area was removed from the front section of the fuselage. The broken plywood surfaces of the damaged front fuselage were removed to allow the sides to be covered with new material. The main focus of the repair work so far has been reconstructing the lower part of the double fuselage former in front of the cockpit, rebuilding the fuselage under the cockpit floor, and repairing the firewall. The surfaces of the Super Chug’s VW 1600 engine, which was removed from the fuselage, have been cleaned. The broken propeller was detached from the engine and replaced by a wooden propeller, which was built in the 1970s and donated to us, and is suitable for the Chug’s VW engine.

Restoration of the Blenheim V-series bomber (BL-106) seats and rudder pedals

During the spring term, we completed the restoration of the BL-106 bomber co-pilot’s seat, after which we were able to begin restoring the pilot’s seat. We removed the seat shell from the seat frame and cleaned the rusted steel surfaces as well as the oxidised aluminium surfaces. After cleaning, the parts were painted with RAL 7005 grey paint, in accordance with the wartime VL standard of the Finnish State Aircraft Factory. Once painted, the restored seat was assembled.

Alongside the restoration of the pilot’s seat, the restoration of the BL-106’s rudder pedals was also started. The steel surfaces of the pedal components were cleaned of rust. The aluminium surfaces were cleaned of grease and dirt using CRC Brakleen Pro brake cleaner and a steam cleaner. After cleaning, the rudder pedals were painted grey, as with the pilot’s seat.

Floor panel repair in the Douglas DC-3 OH-VKC

A new surface was made from 1 mm thick aluminium sheet, bent to match the original floor panel, to replace the worn-through surface of the DC-3 cockpit’s aluminium floor panel.

Instrument panel for Iljušin IL-2 Sturmovik

In autumn 2024, we built an IL-2 Sturmovik instrument panel with authentic instruments for the Finnish movie “Sisu 2 - Road to Revenge”. The instrument panel was used in the IL-2 flying scenes. After the filming was completed, we received the instrument panel back. The panel will be put on display on the wall of the instrument department in the exhibition building of Hallinportti Aviation Museum. Wooden supports were constructed for the panel, which will be used to attach the panel to the instrument department wall next spring. A text board will be placed alongside the panel, introducing the instrument panel, its construction by the Tuesday Club, and its use in the Sisu 2 movie.

Singer Link cockpit operations simulator

The Tuesday Club repaired the door of the Singer Link cockpit simulator, which was once used for pilot training at Malmi Airport. The hard plastic door of the simulator had become brittle and had partially broken into pieces. We repaired the door by filling and patching the damaged sections back into place. The repaired areas were painted with a grey primer, and they will later be painted with Singer Link’s characteristic turquoise matt paint. The dull plexiglass window in the door was polished clear using car headlight lens polish. The plexiglass is now almost fully clear, but polishing will be continued.

MiG 21 BIS cockpit simulator

The cockpit section of the MiG 21 (MG-111), owned by Aviation Museum Society Finland, is being converted into a simulator. The Tuesday Club has removed metal brackets from the cockpit walls to make room for the simulator equipment to be installed on the walls.

Roadside guide signs for the Caravelle III

We made two guiding roadside signs for the restored Caravelle III OH-LEA “Bluebird”, located at Turku airport. The signs were made from 3 mm thick aluminium sheet. The guide signs were designed and painted to match the appearance of official attraction signs, complete with St John’s arms emblems.

Cooperation with the Finnish Aviation Museum

In 2025 regular collaboration meetings were arranged with the Finnish Aviation Museum staff. Members of the Tuesday Club participated in preparatory tasks at the museum, related to the museum’s future relocation. Among other things, we have cleaned aircraft engines which are on display in the museum.

Photos: Lassi Karivalo

Translation to English: Erja Reinikainen