Latest Quest for Funds

[Bubbles]

I wasn't actually

[Ray C]

Just to add my 10 pennies worth (I know nothing about maintaining or restoring aircraft)
I just can't see funds comming in on any appeal for 558 with at best one last season in the
air...!

Look at this year £300,000 + raised (what an ordeal thay was) with part of the programme missed.

Simple maybe (Stupid) suggestion. Do a rental deal at Finningly or on appropriate airfield
with a hanger facillity, mothball her maybe with fee paying viewings and then carry out
light maintainance work on her until this financial (firestorm) were all in subsides.

Remember absence makes the heart grow fonder.....

[Mayfly]

It's not the funding or lack of, that will end her flying life Ray it's lack of airframe fatigue [FI] and engine cycles. There is no expertise left for the engines, no tooling, no jigs - to set it all up again would cost millions and millions. You can't moth ball her - it would cost far too much and take far to long to bring her back to flying standard again. Plus of course as I've already mentioned there is still the lack of flying life to deal with.

They have always struggled for funding and the end of each season brings the same claims of mismanagement, cost of wages etc, etc. when they have a fresh appeal for funds.

By the very nature of 558s complex category - the length of runway required, [not many airfields these days have the minimum required 6,500ft], conditions placed on the VTST by the HLF when they gave the grant it hasn't been an easy ride over the last 12-13 years. However the TVST did it! they returned 558 to the Sky and for that even the most hardened cynic and detractor can not say that to return 558 to fight wasn't the most ambitious aviation project ever especially for a civvy organisation with no corporate backing behind them, at least in the early days.

I don't always agree with the way things have gone and I know some have been treated quite badly others have not had the recognition they perhaps deserved and the management appear to have a habit of singing from different hymn sheets.

Personally I can't see V3e at Finningley working - I don't think a grounded museum piece will have enough appeal on it's own at an unproven venue.

I do however wish them all the luck and hope they succeed.

[Jogger321]

I agree once she is grounded she has very little interest from me and I think the plan to have her own museum is pie in the sky thinking! At the end of the day in a few years she will just be another vulcan that once flew.

I think the best place to send her to is Bruntie where at least she could participate for the next 20 years or so in fast ground running alongside the other cold war jets

[Kermit]

@ Mayfly

well said and you probably speak for most of us too.

Never bought the Ve3 idea, doesnt make sense, financially or otherwise.

Am I the only person to wonder at the near deafening silence that has greeted the last flight news on the VTTS website itself ? Stiff upper lip doesnt begin to cover it, so whats going on there ????

[Jigsaw]

I'm with Mayfly and Kermit (ooer missus)

I do also think that Brunty would be the best place for her as well

[RLN]

Makes sense for Dave Walton to have her back at Brunty, otherwise as has been said, she would just be another museum exhibit gathering dust.

[Sploosher]

I agree once she is grounded she has very little interest from me and I think the plan to have her own museum is pie in the sky thinking! At the end of the day in a few years she will just be another vulcan that once flew.

I think the best place to send her to is Bruntie where at least she could participate for the next 20 years or so in fast ground running alongside the other cold war jets

Another option is send her to Wellesbourne so she can strut her stuff alongside XM655.........

If there are funds available to go ahead with the Ve3 project, then why not have it there, just imagine the sight and soun d of 2 Vulcans doing fast taxies

[Crew chief]

I agree once she is grounded she has very little interest from me and I think the plan to have her own museum is pie in the sky thinking! At the end of the day in a few years she will just be another vulcan that once flew.

I think the best place to send her to is Bruntie where at least she could participate for the next 20 years or so in fast ground running alongside the other cold war jets

Another option is send her to Wellesbourne so she can strut her stuff alongside XM655.........

If there are funds available to go ahead with the Ve3 project, then why not have it there, just imagine the sight and soun d of 2 Vulcans doing fast taxies

Nice idea but there is a lack of room at Wellesbourne.
I would give 558 back to the people who saved her in the first place Dave Walton and co.

cc.

[Ray C]

Things will be not the same without....she's airbourne, she's over Lincoln, so on so on.....
Time for a new project....? I know Lightning city auction less than to weeks to go....!
a two seat Hunter or Buccaneer.

Get it bought !!!!! I daren't surggest a Lightning.

[Minty4371]

See the latest graphic on here: http://www.vulcantothesky.org/

[Hazzer111]

Things will be not the same without....she's airbourne, she's over Lincoln, so on so on.....
Time for a new project....? I know Lightning city auction less than to weeks to go....!
a two seat Hunter or Buccaneer.

Get it bought !!!!! I daren't surggest a Lightning.

How about another v bomber, VICTOR!!!!

[Bubbles]

@ Mayfly

well said and you probably speak for most of us too.

Never bought the Ve3 idea, doesnt make sense, financially or otherwise.

Am I the only person to wonder at the near deafening silence that has greeted the last flight news on the VTTS website itself ? Stiff upper lip doesnt begin to cover it, so whats going on there ????

I'll get shot for this but sod it.

The deafening silence is because there's so few on there and anything that's considered negative etc is jumped on fairly quickly as is banter etc. the VTTSC forum is considered elsewhere to be a forum where free thought, opinion and speech is not allowed. A million page thread on football however is fine.

[10680]

Might be difficult raising funds during the year next season. If £800,000 is the shortfall, is the other income budgetted at the levels of previous years? Will people spend knowing the aren't supporting a flying Vulcan? (into the future)

Although if there hadn't been an announcement they would have been accused of raising money under false pretences.

[Jigsaw]

@ Mayfly

well said and you probably speak for most of us too.

Never bought the Ve3 idea, doesnt make sense, financially or otherwise.

Am I the only person to wonder at the near deafening silence that has greeted the last flight news on the VTTS website itself ? Stiff upper lip doesnt begin to cover it, so whats going on there ????

I'll get shot for this but sod it.

The deafening silence is because there's so few on there and anything that's considered negative etc is jumped on fairly quickly as is banter etc. the VTTSC forum is considered elsewhere to be a forum where free thought, opinion and speech is not allowed. A million page thread on football however is fine.

Shouldnt be shot. Nothing wrong with saying it how it is.

[Mayfly]

I think if you look at the back ground it's not surprising really - moderated mainly not by simply club members but those who have a close association with the Trust and look whose site it's hosted on.

You wouldn't expect to gate crash a Labour party conference wearing blue and shouting 'Up the Tories' without some objection!!

Saying that of course I know it has been the reason many have left over the last few years and closed their wallets when they did so. Once upon a time it was such a busy place.

[Minty4371]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... costs.html

[Jigsaw]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2217846/Last-Cold-War-Vulcan-bomber-final-flight-year-soaring-restoration-costs.html

"The only action that XH558 saw was in the Falklands War in 1982 when it flew 8,000 miles to bomb the runway at Port Stanley and Argentinian planes on the ground"

[Minty4371]

Will the report on the two engine damage be released into the public domain, or be kept private?

[Bubbles]

Private is my guess

[Minty4371]

Someone who was at a fundraising talk the other week says that it will be released at the end of the year.

[Bubbles]

Then you answered your own question

[Ramshornvortex]

Then you answered your own question

Unless the

Someone who was at a fundraising talk the other week

was talking bolleaux of course....!

Besides, he didn't state the end of which year........

[Hungry Haggis]

I think if you look at the back ground it's not surprising really - moderated mainly not by simply club members but those who have a close association with the Trust and look whose site it's hosted on.

You wouldn't expect to gate crash a Labor party conference wearing blue and shouting 'Up the Tories' without some objection!!

Saying that of course I know it has been the reason many have left over the last few years and closed their wallets when they did so. Once upon a time it was such a busy place.

And then why not do the same at the Tory one but UP Labor instead.I looked on there earlier and see they have 771 members registered We on the other hand have 536 and something And Kind moderators NO comparison i know but at least here you have the ability to have free speech and thought as long as the argument is non threatening or abusive( just my way of seeing it anyway.) I have noticed over there though the almost total lack of any criticism which i think is non productive .Sorry if this may offend some people but I for one prefer the banter on here .

Will they get the funding they need for just one more season .I sure hope so .There is No real reason why they should not .I also think Brunty would be by far the best place for her very last landing ,She is one of th elast cold war jets after all and they would I think keep her alive as long as they could same as all the others in the collection.

[Bubbles]

Then you answered your own question

Unless the

Someone who was at a fundraising talk the other week

was talking bolleaux of course....!

Besides, he didn't state the end of which year........

Very true.

They may as well make it public as the circumstances behind the incident isn't a secret and to do otherwise will bring even more criticism, though on the other hand releasing the report is going to draw down a lot of flack. A case of rock and hard place.