Will 558 ever get finished and back in the air? All it seems to do is miss every deadline by miles and the next one set months away, by an even greater margin.
Is there any hope?
I support the charity but am geting a little fed up with keep hearing excuses and not the mighty birds engines spooling up for flight.
The problem is that there are too many so-called 'experts' who front up this project, who frankly know diddly squat! I was told personally by 'Rusty' that the aircraft would definately be at Waddo, although she did say it wouldn't display, just static. She also categorically told me that it would fly and display at RIAT, guaranteed. Well guess what?
Of course neither happened, and you end up with further frustration at a team that appears to be ruderless and makes promises they cannot keep. The result is a public that is once again rapidly running out of patience.
At RIAT I asked the 'official' Vulcan stall if they had any memorabilia to purchase and was told that they only had some damaged compressor blades at some ridiculous amount of money. But i could make a donation please! Yeh, right.
I'm afraid that all you get is this never-ending plea for more money, promises that never materialise and a total lack of credibility from an organisation that should and could do so much better.
Robert Plemming never responds to posts on here, in fact he has never responded to one of the letters I have written to him and I know many others have also written to him with no responce. But unless something happens fairly soon, the project will again come under threat and perhaps fold. Its time for them to stop poncing around and showing off in their 'freebie' 4x4's and get something done, that the puiblic can see.
With only one 'major' type airshow left in the UK this year, it looks highly unlikely that the public will see the old girl fly this year, or maybe not any year, who knows?
...and there I was the other day wondering if Tombstone was practising his Salsa and getting various (previously unseen in public) bits waxed and touched up?
There are so many variables, that if, for example, the delay with the PFCU motors, that it is nigh on impossible to pin down an EXACT flight date. There are so many things to go wrong and they are at the mercy of so many suppliers/OEM's that no one can say for sure when she'll fly.
As Flip Flop Man said, go to the website forums, ask the question, and an engineer will give you the answer. Quite simple really...
Location: Quite near 'An aerodrome somewhere in England'
Posts: 14,374
Don't worry, Tombstone - Primetime Joanna will supply both camera crew and rose......
Part 2 of her Vulcan to the Sky trilogy (yes, I know) is now out - a very good DVD indeed - you can see a preview on the www.tvoc.co.uk website. Please buy one and support the project - part 3 should be out in August, with luck. And a 4 part boxed set later in the year.
And VIP tickets have now been won (not by me ) to view the first flight.
Expect to hear the purr of 4 x Olympussies very soon now!
Apart from FlipFlopMan we never get any sense from this outfit. Let me guess just how long they've known that re-certified PFCUs were a 'rather important' ingredient.
Anyway, is it the PFCU's or the PFCU motors? If it's the motors just how long does it take to re-cert an electric motor?
...and there I was the other day wondering if Tombstone was practising his Salsa and getting various (previously unseen in public) bits waxed and touched up?
WAX! Who mentioned wax?!? Rose thorns yes, wax no. That would simply be wrong, wrecking any (hmmm) street cred I'd have left after producing said rose and going hands free...
Touched up... Well, if there are any pretty ladies out there who are willing...
One of the things I learned very, very quickly as a techie was to avoid giving an estimate of how long as job was going to take at all costs, because someone, somewhere would treat your word as a cast iron guarantee of job completion Aircraft maintenance is not always an exact science, and with the number of systems that this aircraft has, and their age and complexity, the team must have been faced with a daunting task in restoring her to flying condition. In her day this old lady would have been maintained by a mass of experienced techies with spares on demand, full sets of APs, manufacturer support, and of course she wouldn't have been laid up for years doing nothing, gathering dust, moisture and corrosion in her vital parts. The team are having to re-learn old systems and also train up people who have never seen a Vulcan fly in their lives. I am actually amazed that they've got this close, and always thought that the estimate for flying her this year was optimistic, especially when I saw the state she was in last year. Missed deadlines are part and parcel of the job of getting her up again, keep the faith as I'm sure they'll do it.
I am very surprised this thread has aired itself on what is a aircrew dominated forum, surely you guys should understand that such a laborious and critical task of restoring this particular type of aircraft can only be done one way and that is the CORRECT way !
These things take time, for the sake of 558, her crew and her fans, let the restoration take as long as is necessary.
Just a very quick one, as this is not really a thread in which I wish to become entrenched,
Forget,
Thank you for your kind words, however, I must set the record straight regarding the PFCU motors. These were sent away to OEM over two years ago. The question of how long does it take to certify a set of motors, is a very pertinent one indeed. This has been completely out of the hands of TVOC, and has been entirely due to hold ups with the OEM. There have been issues with the motor bearings, then with the shellac for the windings, the list truly goes on. Return dates have come and gone, and unfortunately left us up the proverbial creek. The PFCU motors are unfortunately not the only components we have had OEM issues with, however, sadly, beggars cannot be choosers, and when you are having the work carried out for free, or at vastly reduced cost, you cannot simply go shouting the odds, especially when the support of the same OEM is critical to the CAA permitting the aircraft to fly.
I can assure you all that we are truly working as hard as is physically possible to return XH558 to the air as soon as possible, recently working anything up to an 18 hour shift in order to 'get the job done' however, sometimes things are out of our hands. I would like to ask for your continued support and a little faith in the fact that we are actually doing everything physically possible to return XH558 to the skies as soon as is humanly possible.
Finally, Tombstone, I can quite happily tell you that your well placed contact is quite wide of the mark, and I rest happy in the knowledge that when you are soon 'making an arse of yourself', you were actively looking forward to it
Location: Across the road from the remains of deHavilland
Age: 61
Posts: 2,167
I must say that my original scepticism that this was a "do-able" project was based on my memory of how hard it was to keep the Vulcan fleet in the air with full support from all the OEMs and a fairly huge workforce. In forty years its still the most unreliable and labour intensive aircraft I've ever encountered bar none - even the Shack. I think its amazing that the restoration has got as far as it has. The boundless optimism that leads the team to miss deadlines is in fact the same optimism that keeps the project going.
Getting 558 airborne is of course only the beginning; keeping it airborne is likely to be even more expensive and time consuming. Even though I don't share the team's boundless enthusiasm, I do hope they succeed.
Can't remember which of the following papers ran this (Times or Mail I think), but on Saturday en-route somewhere I remember seeing the chance to fly in the Vulcan being advertised
I didnt keep the paper in question and wondered if anybody else saw this?
The problem as I see it, is not the fact that delays occur (anyone with any understanding would expect that) but with the folks who 'front up' your organisation, and keep making promises that constantly fail to materialise.
When things don't go as 'promised' and the aircraft dosn't pitch up at Waddo or RIAT, it is those at the 'front' of your team who then blame everyone else for the delays, OEMs in particular.
This is what is getting people annoyed and frustrated with this entire project, constant promises from ill-advised so-called experts, who frankly wouldn't know one end of the aircraft from the other! Please tell them to just shut up and keep quiet and tell them they MUST stop making wild and unrealistic promises that do your cause more harm than good.
Similar Threads 
) to view the first flight.
Aircraft maintenance is not always an exact science, and with the number of systems that this aircraft has, and their age and complexity, the team must have been faced with a daunting task in restoring her to flying condition.
Linear Mode
