411A

Just a small question...
Will the Vulcan participate and fly at airshows in the UK?

If not, it would be a distinct disappointment...as, quite frankly, the USA has nothing like this bird on active display...

andrewmcharlton

411A, it already has for the last year, subject to weather and servicability. Welcome to such an esteemed and prolific poster !

Andrew

Flying Signman

411A

Search for "Vulcan To The Sky" and you will find their home page.

Meantime, word on the club forum is of some major awareness or fundraising campaign being launched tomorrow.

There seem to be quite a few events lined up in February and March also.
Be interesting to see if the Press Office have anything to say?

FS

Blacksheep

I don't believe that all that much money has been "wasted" as some claim here. So many "Enthusiasts" have little understanding of the processes and expenses involved in civil certification. Much of the money will have gone to Marshalls and they will have expended a huge amount of 'labour' in producing the required documentation. For example, it may seem to the uninitiated to be a simple matter to replace a Smiths Military Flight System with an ordinary artificial horizon and gyro compass but it is classified as a "Major Modification" and requires full and complete documentation, including proof of compliance and test results. I'd quote at least £15,000 for such an STC seeing as how I'm a sentimental old fool. A hard headed business manager would quote much more than that (for example, in US practice an FAA DER typically charges US$1,000 per day just to look at a modification.) The same applies to a major structural repair - especially when deviating from original design drawings. I think the costs incurred so far are entirely reasonable. The problem with this project is that those who set out on this project fall into two camps - those who naively believed that restoration to flight was a simple matter and those who, like me, appreciated what was involved but chose to wear blinkers and went ahead on the assumption that something was "bound to turn up".

saracenman

411A - go to www.vulcantothesky.com

also just search for "XH558" on Yootoob - squillions of clips of her flights last year

sm

Tim McLelland

Well Blacksheep, some of us "enthusiasts" do think money has been wasted, in fact we know it has!

411A

Have done so already, and passed these on to others at the time.
Just wondering if these flights will continue, as there seems to be a fair bit of dialogue ...future funding etc.?

Let us hope that the tin triangle has a bright future.

XH558 Press Office

URGENT PRESS RELEASE - LATEST NEWS FROM VULCAN XH558 – issued 30th January 2009

At the time of this press release, the ’09 Pledge Fund Scheme to raise £1million is coming to £250,000, which, in the harsh economic climate, is staggering in the 8 weeks it has been active.

Thankfully, due to the continued support of sponsors & supporters, it has been possible to extend the deadline of the Pledge scheme to the end of February, in the hope a wide spread publicity campaign will save her.

It is continued promotion, not only to the Aviation community, but to the wider public beyond, that will be key to our success in reaching the £1million goal in such a short period of time.

The Vulcan to the Sky Club is therefore pleased to announce: The
24 hour Vulcan Scramble! – a race against time to save XH558

Taking place on Sunday 22nd February, father and son club members, Robert & Steven Lowe, from Newark on Trent, who conceived this idea, will be joined by Crew Chief Taff Stone, in one of the Vulcan to The Sky Teams’ Subaru 4x4 vehicles. The club is providing 100% logistical and promotional support.

Starting in East Fortune with XM597 at 00.01 hours, the team will travel the length and breadth of the country, visiting all 15 existing Vulcan Airframes – hopefully within a 24 hour period.

They will be joined on different legs by surprise guests and staged events to encourage them on their way.

Fellow club members will be acting as coordinators at each location, liaising with the museums involved, creating a presence on the day to welcome the team, as they stop by to change drivers, snap a picture and carry on with their challenge. Supporters will help explain the event and our plight to all the visitors, backed up with promotional posters and leaflets explaining the Pledge fund and the many ways people can help save the aircraft. With 850+ miles to cover, 18 hour 50 minutes journey time, it only leaves 15 minutes spare at each location – and that does not allow for traffic. At all times, speed limits will be observed. It is the challenge and raising of public interest in XH558 that most appeals to the team.

All locations have expressed fantastic support for this initiative and we would like to thank them for their encouragement and invaluable help, not only in the planning stage, but in the operation of this event.

A dedicated page explaining the challenge and giving full details will be available soon off the main website www.vulcantothesky.com Here, the time remaining, progress details and pledges or donations received, will be updated for all to see, together with links to partake in sponsoring of the event.

On the day, a central control room at Bruntingthorpe, “Scramble HQ” will track the team and give updated details as they progress along the route. Staff there will process Pledges collected en-route and enter onto the on-line system. You will be able to watch the progress of this event, add additional sponsorship or pledges and see the results as they happen. Official collecting tins and any donations received on the day will be added to the running total.

By the early hours of Monday 23rd February, the club aim to have not only raised a significant level of interest, but a not too insignificant level of further funding!(Message Ends)

Look out for more details of this event on the official VULCAN TO THE SKY WebPages soon:

XH558 is the only airworthy Vulcan in the world. Restored to flight after nearly 15 years at a cost of £7million. She now faces grounding forever, unless an additional £750,000 can be raised in February enabling funds for another full air show season. Last year, she appeared in front of over 1.5 million people.
She inspires immense pride in all who see her. A full education programme is built around her, not only telling the story of the cold war era, but the value of science and technology in inspiring future engineers. She was the “mother of concorde” - Can you help us save this ICONIC BRITISH AIRCRAFT?

Any Press or Media wishing more information should contact: Richard Clarke - 07714 898548
For Sponsorship Opportunities please contact: Michael Trotter – 07803 141483

No reply is possible by this office. Look out for another release next week. Many thanks for your interest and support.

Tim McLelland

major awareness or fundraising campaign being launched tomorrow

Oh well, I suppose it was only to be expected that it was a non event, which I note the "Press Office" hasn't even bothered to post on here - the one forum that might be worth publicising things on.

Why will driving round museums in "one of their Subarus" (how many do they have exactly?!) achieve anything other than wasting almost as much money as it will generate? Still, at least they've extended their deadline another month, and seen as they're er... a quarter of the way to the target, a bit more tin rattling around some museums is sure to do the trick.

It would be funny if it wasn't so sad. I give up.

saracenman

i know i might be seen as being uber pro-TVOC - i do not want to be thought of as one of the mere "keep the faith" bunch, as many of you know that I'm as far from that as it is possible to be!

however, i think that this "Scramble" deserves more praise than that Tim McLelland...

BUT...

only if it has been arranged to get maximum national publicity! i know that a huge amount of logistical organisation has gone into it - it' not just a few blokes swanning around in a car for the hell of it!

the locations of the preserved Vulcans stretch across the nation, which hopefully will garner some much needed publicity - without which we will surely see 558 grounded for good.

there are several more publicity 'stunts' in the pipeline, some of which I'm proud to have been involved with - these are tentatively planned for later in the year, so let's hope that we get that far!

instead of slating these guys for actually doing something constructive, perhaps we could wish them luck and hope that they achieve the newspaper column inches that 558 so desperately needs!

sm

Tim McLelland

Maximum national publicity? For God's sake, they couldn't even manage to post the press release on Pprune!

I've wished everyone involved with 558 luck from the day that David Walton bought it. But come on, this is just silly now. If they can't even be bothered to try and get some more money out of HLF then they might as well forget it. Going round the country with a collection can is just pointless.

danohagan

The problem with these fundraising ideas is that they, without fail, appear small-beer and a bit "village fete". A day for 30-odd people at a shooting range, the risible "Welcome Home Day" last autumn which featured apple-bobbing as one of the attractions on it's official poster, a stall at a Christmas market with not enough stock, and now a couple of chaps driving a car round to a few museums. A multi-million pound project HAS to think big, and BE big. The national media, and even the local press aren't going to drop everything to film a couple of enthusiasts in a Subaru driving to a few wet, cold aviation museums.

To get in the press, and especially to get on TV the story MUST be visual - ie have an element which lends itself well to either photography or film. Even in a regional newsroom the editor will have maybe 50 possible stories at the start of the day, without taking into account stories which break in the hours before the programme. To cover these stories they'll have perhaps six reporters and maybe only three or four cameras, so the editor has to be selective about where to deploy resources. I will tell you now, the prospect of filming a couple of spotters at an aviation museum driving a heavily-logoed Subaru (From experience, I can tell you that ITV News are VERY careful about showing anything which might be even loosely construed as product-placement) is highly unlikely to make the programme, and even if it did, it would be no more than a cursory ten second filler story.

Sorry to sound so negative, but the bottom line is that to have any hope of raising awareness, the team need to be a lot more savvy in HOW to appeal to the media.

JEM60

I get the feeling that the TV and Media companies feel that they may have had theirt fill of the Vulcan. Sure, it was covered on it's first flight, and some other shots from shows, but they are not going to continue with this sort of coverage. It has been done before, therefore it is not new or 'news'

Flying Signman

Tim and others,

I can assure you the Press Office statement was posted here yesterday evening. The same time the story was being populated around other sites. I believe it is in "moderation".

The first message took 2 days to appear here. As to the reason, I do not know.


Many thanks,

FS

hurn

After reading through some of your repetitive 'axe to grind' posts it would be nice if you actually did.

As far as the 'Scramble' goes, bear in mind its a supporters club initiative, so I doubt they have the resources for a 'massive' media campaign.

Its the people who really care the most getting up and doing something themselves to raise awareness, and I can only applaud them for that.

andrewmcharlton

Tim, I applaud your tenacity but it does look as though you are now just looking for anything to start a fight or criticism. God knows I am critical of them but having a go for not putting a story on PPrune immediately isn't cricket old man. I am sure their need, which we all accept is great, is to get more publicity than PPrune can afford them.

Go easy tiger its beggining to look like the MontyPython "Burn the Witch" scene.

I shall be sending off my aforementioned letter to the good Doctor later today and see if I can obtain a constructive response. Stand by your bunks.

Flying Signman

Tim,

As an after thought, if you have the time to write such well crafted words of negativity, your services and input in a positive manner, would always be welcome. It seems to me, you do have the time resources to help the cause.

Ideas..... Copy.... Up for it?

I can provide an email address if you wish to PM me?

Cheers,

FS

Flying Signman

Dan,

You make good points in your post.

Yes, some of these fundraisers seems small beer, but they are all Club orientated and helps bond friendships and a team spirit that has now resultred in the Scramble.

I hear a "presentation" cheque will be handed over next week, showing the £100,000 the Club donated to the Trust last year. That is no mean feat and accounts for nearly 15% of the annual projected running costs.

Now, as to the wider picture, Airshow aviation, and then Historical Aviation is such a small blip on the general publics radar, that to come up with the very promotional angle you mention, is hard work. That is the overiding factor in any interest from Press and Media.

It has been said before, Education is key, with actually getting the fact out there of why XH558 was built and the technological and engineering skills that Britain had at one time.

Perhaps now the world is realising you can't rely on financial services and part-time jobs in supermarkets to build a healthy economy, the project will stand a better chance of getting these values into the school curriculum, and the government will realise £2million a year to inspire future highly skilled, higer rate tax payers - might actually be a good investment.

Until that time, how do we change the publics' perception of a "boys toy"
and get them to stump up for their kids future?

All answers on the back of a postcard or here in this thread.

Flying Signman

It has indeed just appeared. Timed at 18.01.
Well before Tim's post on lack of communication.

Seems everyone is all too eager to jump on the projects back!

I hope this Scramble scheme does have wide publicity and gives a massive boost to the pledge fund.

As SM has mentioned in a few of his previous posts, those close to the project are seeing massive changes.

It will naturally take time to filter through to the sceptics and general public. Such is life.

FS

Tim McLelland

FS - fair point if an attempt was made to post the release. That's obviously something the Adminsitrator should be looking at then. I get the impression that at least one of the Moderators on here has some sort of "axe to grind" regarding the whole subject as someone mysteriously removed someone's posts on at least one other occasion and also tried to lock me out of the thread (without the knowledge of the Adminsitrator). As to what the motives are/were, we don't know.

As for the other sarcastic comments from various people, that's fine, I couldn't care less. I'm just being realistic, unlike heaven-knows how many other people on this thread and ones on other forums, who are living in cloud cuckoo land.

As for getting involved FS, well er... been there, done that. I tried my best to give TVOC what would have almost been their own book, and for no personal gain - it wouldn't have made me so much as an extra penny, but in return for my (and my publisher's efforts), all we got was complete disinterest, and endless sniping from the usual silly (jealous) plane spotters on other sites who wanted to imply that we were doing it for our own benefit - which certainly wasn't the case. I also gave-up photographs from my own personal collection which were printed into posters and sold at air shows, museums, etc. I didn't get a penny in return - not even a free poster (I had to buy my own), but as far as I know, none of the income went into the funding - it just disappeared. I also had the support and interest of a very well-known former RAF fighter pilot who offered to mount a major national campaign but again, TVOC couldn't even be bothered to discuss the idea. So in short, I've had enough of them, and I wouldn't waste any more of my time even trying to deal with them.

My negativity doesn't stem from all this though. I can write-off all that as just a shame and best forgotten. What really annoys me is that I know (from the information given to me by people who are or were on the TVOC team) that huge amounts of money have simply been wasted. As if that isn't bad enough, they avoid even trying to seek more money from HLF (which I admit is a long shot) even though it's the only possible way out of this mess. If they'd tried and failed then great, but to not even ask? That's just a complete disgrace. So what do they do? They issue occasional pleas for more dontaions and allow some well-meaning people to drive around the country, presumably in the hope of getting a few lines in a local paper and a few hundred quid. I mean, what is the point? It's just absurd.

Clearly, the project's coming to a grinding halt but on the basis of the way it's been handled, my view is that it may as well end, and then at least there's a vague chance that other people might try and resurrect the project, once the same old muppets have finally gone.