At least once a month some character appears at my desk with the inevitable clip board and asks " will you sponsor me to do xxxx". Just for the sake of a bit of peace and quiet I'll say "yes,ok, I'll give you £x ", and promptly forget about it.
Some weeks later said character will reappear and ask for his dosh which in good faith I hand over. On rare occasions an individual will advise that he couldn't complete the 50 mile hike or whatever because he broke an arm or a leg or keeled over with heat exhaustion. Because he or she has given it a go I'll still cough up and out of interest ask how much he or she has made for his chosen charity.
Normally these people do not have the benefit of a thread on PPRuNe to advertise their endeavours.
In the case of Global Eagle, SS created a thread to highlight a great adventure. It was the job of Autorot8 to fly the beast around the world and the responsibilty of others to keep the public informed of progress. Unfortunately this was not readily forthcoming and was left to others to contemplate what was actually going on.
Now, I may be naive but I would have thought that some of the sponsorship money would have to be used to fund the running of the project. The pilot has said that he has lost a considerable amount funding the project ( the considerable amount being his house ) which would suggest that the whole project was underfunded.
Now as an interested onlooker I don't give a toss whether or not the aircraft was licensed or whether it was beyond repair.
If someone at GE was to make a statement " Sorry folks..we didn't make a feckin bean " then that is fine, regrettable, but fine.
What is pissing everyone off is the sound of silence from those at GE who should have been keeping everyone informed.
A statement to the effect that the project has been abandoned due to bad weather is hardly satisfactory.
Sorry, rant over
Edited for punctuation correction.
Last edited by Echo 5; 21st Feb 2005 at 21:10.