558 to Waddington 2nd July (WARNING - HAS BECOME ADULT!)

[Prometheus]

What an absolute mess they've made of this, I can see the trust losing many supporters which could ultimately spell the demise of the entire project. My renewal is due this month, it won't be happening

[Wedgy]

TVOC need to take a few lessons from MaPS

[Sooty655]

TVOC need to take a few lessons from MaPS

Thanks very much for the vote of confidence, Wedgy, but the truth is that we (MaPS) do not PRETEND to be qualified or able to Maintain and Preserve a flying vulcan.

It seems there are others who do PRETEND.

[Wedgy]

Meant in the administration/organisational sense Sooty
I could be totally wrong here, but it seems it's basic management failure here, not a technical expertise problem

[Hungry Haggis]

FFM thank you for your clear insight into what should have been done but clearly was not .in situations like the present one ,the managment regardless of what title they hide under this week are the incompitant ones .Did someone say FIRE sorry was a bit slow I forgot me gun. The engineering team under Smiler have my greatest respect for all they have done It's the so called managment or experts at screwing up that need lined up with their P45s .Living so far away and being out of touch a bit I normally keep quiet on this sort of stuff but this time .It was not on to send 558 to an airshow on the last day of her PtoF if they knew as they must have that things had not been completed as expected ,did they think the CAA would just roll over and issue one anyway.Now that is taking money under false pretences otherwise known as Fraud.In this case i hope the Waddo organsers have not/do not pay the fee apart from static display.

"Disgusted" of Scotland.Back under rock now

[Old Rigger]

If it was not for the new and old (not as in old age, by the way) people I met at Waddington yesterday and today and seen there faces, listened to their feelings over this and watched them just try and make the best of it during today knowing how much effort, time and money that the club has put into saving the incompetent trusts asses again I would just walk away and withdraw all my financial contributions and add them to those I send to Help for Heroes, but I also have spent too much time, money and effort to let all you guys down, but this has to be the biggest cock up yet and demonstrates that the club members and general public are still held in as much disdain as before.

[Crew chief]

Hi all.

I really can't believe what i have just read.558 with no permit to fly am i dreaming?.

[Wedgy]

From TVOC:

ScimitarBow
New Member
United Kingdom
92 Posts
Posted - 04 Jul 2009 : 17:45:49
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I left the airfield at 2pm, as I couldn't be ****d with hanging around the place any longer. Thoroughly upset and dejected at the whole scenario. The guys in the vulcan village, god bless them, were trying their best, but they had no information either. I felt very sorry for them, especially as they are volunteers who have to fund their airshow visits themselves, and who have to deal with idiots who come into the tent and shout their mouths off at them. I wished the two guys the best of luck for the rest of the season, even though i was not overly happy with the the fact the guys had no info.

It was left to an A4 sheet pinned to the entrance to the village to explain the situation. (ironically, i nearly got flattened by Andrew Edmondson, as he scarpered the village, into an awaiting car, and away from the site.)

I'm utterly appalled at this oversight. How in the name of all that's holy could this have been overlooked? The commentator seemed to try and blame it on paperwork, but how the hell can not having conducted the required tests be put down to paperwork? In the words of Alan Partridge, Unbe-bloody-lievable.

And why no fast taxi either? it would have passified a large number of the crowd to hear that noise on a take-off run, even though the power would have been cut halfway down the runway.
This will cost the project THOUSANDS. Presumably Waddington will turn around and say they can whistle for the appearance fee, and the lost revenue in both donations and merchandise will have been a huge blow.

I too now have a fridge full of beer, and will be blattering it down my neck to round of what has been a totally, wholly, utterly and completely **** day.

(Edited because i can't spell Waddington)

[Coastergirl]

I zeroed in on that line too, Wedgy.... It sounds like an escape attempt for a President during an assassination attempt, not the proud Engineering Manager of the VOC - who should, theoretically, have nothing to hide or be scared of. I fear there are a lot more weeds and worms to dig up before we'll know the real damage this time.

[Old Rigger]

My hope is that we can recover and move on from this debacle and hope it is not one cock up to far to be able to recover from and confidently go forward again, or is the next bare faced cheek going to be another announcement that they need even more money to complete the PtF.

[Hungry Haggis]

Evening all I'm waiting for an answer from the very muppets at the top IE Dr Bob AE and the originator of the piece on TVOC news page Lets see if they all or even one of them has the common decency to reply to a common member of the Public (the very people 558 was given back to last year) I did ask for an explanation of all of it and in particular this bit as to me (an idiot) it does not mean a dam thing apart from it could have been writen by a politician.
UNEXPECTED My rear end and what does Establish mitigations mean for crying out loud ,why not say they just plain forgot.Or there is no procedure for them to follow ,or they just didn't know or couldn't be !!!!!.Anyway lets see if they answer and i would bet I'm not the only one thats asking.
XH558’s Permit to Fly on 3rd July 2009, using the airframe of BAE Systems-owned Vulcan XM603 at Woodford, as part of the scrapping process of this aircraft. Unfortunately, despite best intentions, it has not yet proved possible to complete or establish mitigations for all these inspections. Consequently, we have currently not fully met the conditions that would enable the issue of XH558’s Permit to Fly renewal.



XH558 is however is fully serviceable and ready for flight, and Marshall Aerospace together with VTST and BAE Systems are doing all they can as quickly as they can to resolve this unexpected, one-off issue within the next few days. We are very sad that it is not going to be possible for the Vulcan to display at Waddington over the weekend of 4th/5th July.

BOY am I in trouble now ,SM be gentle when you ban me for 10 minutes I bruise easily

[Coastergirl]

On BBC now : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/8134361.stm

[Hungry Haggis]

Can I quote my good lady when we read the bbc story .It means nothing says nothing and ladies and Gentelmen keep your hands on your wallet as they are short of cash yet again.Or words to that effect .

[Coastergirl]

I notice that on various fora (UKAR, TVOC etc) people are speculating that it will only take a few days to get this problem sorted, and the PTF will be forthcoming...

My problem with that is ... if it is as easy and simple to get this testing done on 603, and we are hoping it will be done in the next few days/a week - then why wasn't it done before? If it was that small a job then how come it wasn't done?

[Spitfire]

Well my my - how things change is such a short space of time - just got in a read all of this and all of the 12 pages on TVOC

I am SO pleased I stayed in Cornwall as I seriously considered coming up to see 558 before the daughters wedding - what a total cock up this is

It is clear someone somewhere knew and witheld the information - appalling

That's it for me - no more money to that project - its being run by idiots.

I'm just off to send some money to a project I thoroughly respect - LPG

edit - that's it - done it - now I feel better

[Pujgnie]

P*ss Co*k and Whaz..... looks like Yeovilton will be a no-shower then.

It looks likely that this Incompetence may take a few days to sort out. Waddo and now probably Yeovilton will equate to a HUGE loss of much needed Revenue. Not to mention a loss of faith from Joe Public - and any potential sponsor.

Folks have worked so hard to get her back in favour with the public... and now this debacle. This is the publicity we DID NOT NEED. Beggars belief !!!

[Hihonyr8811]

Evening all.

Got back from waddo about an hour ago, just been catching up and trying to make some sense out of this mess.

As dissapointing as it was not to have her flying, the day was a sell out, and I didn't see many people leaving till the Lancaster was dislaying

We have made the decision not to go tomorrow, not just because of 558, although her flying with the Reds really meant a huge deal to my mum, but also because I just can't cope with another day in the sun (even with fct 40 on ), and I'm running out of after sun LOL

I did hear a few people say they were dissapinted the Vulcan wasn'y flying. but that didn't stop people flocking to see her on the static, and taking pics.
I can't comment on the VV, was very busy when we dropped by.

And now the official board seems to have gone down lol

Anyway, I'm of to look at my 388 photos and see if I can salvage any of them

[Pujgnie]

Either the official board has crashed due to overload... or for preventative measures. It was getting pretty heated in there earlier...

Edited to say its up and running again.......

[RLN]

I am not even going to bother. With my emotions as they are at the moment I would probably be sued for libel, but one word that springs to mind is onanists.

[Saracenman]

[Gully]

Sean Moffat has posted a piece over on Pprune that's worth reading. Apologies for not posting a link, but it was read out to me and having been up since 5.00am this morning to drive to Waddo, I can't be bothered to search for it!

I also understand that eddief will be 'clarifying' the situation over on the VTS forum later.

Undoubtedly there is more to this situation than just an oversight and whilst the buck has to stop somewhere, VTS are the messengers and it doesn't always pay to shoot them. As for deceiving the public, well, a release was sent to the press this morning at 7.30am, the airshow radio first broadcast it at 7.45ish and the ticket sellers on the gates were informing people from about 8.00am - not bad given the the final decision from the CAA was given just before midnight.

As for the Vulcan Village, yes, there were some people venting, but I'm told 70+% were supportive, if disappointed. The Volunteers were briefed this morning regarding the PtF, but could not respond to a number of rumours regarding possible delivery of paperwork being faxed or helicoptered in as they were just rumours!

Aside from all this stuff, I had a great day out in the sunshine with friends, entertained by a really good airshow! The Breitling jets were probably the highlight for me!

Gully

[Saracenman]

well I'm sorry but I'm not a member 'let's throw rose petals under Eddie Forrester's feet' brigade, and i have said as much on TVOC forum too

he can't give an impartial view of things I'm afraid, and it is very much in his interest to iron out wrinkles as soon as possible

sm

[Pujgnie]

No doubt Eddie will post more tomorrow.. when he is slightly more sober

OK, his Aerobytes Company have helped with funding over the last 12 months. But why do people raise his name so often, as if he is a demi-god - and can change things instantly by waving a magic wand.

He cannot do anything about this latest cock up.

If someone knows better... please say

[Dangerousdave]

I have a lot of respect for Eddie F and I know he was personally paying the wages of the engineers at one point. Having said that he can't seem to see that it is not the lack of permit that caused so much uproar, it was the keeping it secret.

[Crew chief]

Hi all.

I do not think that the testing on 603 will be a five minute job and could take weeks.The airframe will need to be stripped of its engines etc before the destructive testing can go ahead and we at Maps would like a couple of nice engines as spares for 655.



CC.