Blacksheep

97% reliability? The world fleet reliability for B757s and B767s is 98.3% and 98.4% respectively, so 97% for an ancient old warbird is pretty good.

The commercial figures are supported by detailed reliability engineering data though and every flight is meticulously logged, none of this "62 give or take" stuff. Exactly how many formal bookings were there and how many no-shows - other than unavoidable due to weather?

DHfan

I make it 94% but I think it's still impressive for an almost 50 year old aeroplane. If that includes the weather problems, it's even better.

hurn

If you'd bothered to look at the link I provided a couple of posts up you'd have a pretty good idea!

Here it is again: Save XH558 - Avro Vulcan Bomber - Flight Information/Air Shows

In the case of a no-show, it tells you why at the bottom, next to the corresponding number.

As I said, it's certainly not bad at all.

Tempsford

Thanks Hurn,

As I said, I was sure someone would know where to find the info. As has been said not bad Technical Reliability. All involved with Airshows will be pleased to know that they have a 90% + chance of the Vulcan Showing up. That matters a lot to all concerned.

Best not give Blacksheep a hard time though. He is getting on now and his mind isn't what it used to be!

Blacksheep

True! How true!
Finger trouble on the old electronic calculator. However my trusty old manually operated Blundell Omega says 94% but only on the data provided.

The website data is another matter. There is No Computed Data for 17 events - I guess thats the "give or take"? Of these it is apparent that several "appearances" consisted of fly-pasts from a single departure. We seem to have have 3 events on 25 July, 2 on 23 August, 2 on 5 Sept, 4 on 11 Sept, 3 on 13 Sept, 2 on 20 Sept and 4 on 27 Sept. Thats just seven departures for a total of 20 appearances. The total number of scheduled departures not cancelled for weather then becomes 48 with 5 technical cancellations .

For the 48 possible flights, of which five were cancelled for technical reasons, the depatch reliability is then 89.6% which is amazingly good. Bloody good show!

kiwibrit

Hmm. As an ex Vulcan SEngO I am of course fond of the aircraft. But I wonder, taking into consideration all costs incurred since 558 flew into Bruntingthorpe, how much each flying hour since then has cost.

robin

I note the usual annual campaign has started again - pay up or it's grounded forever.

They can't keep doing that, no matter how wonderful the Vulcan is..

hurn

The appeal has been going for about two months now, and without a major sponsor they're probably always going to need public donations.

I believe one reason for more cash needed is that some engineering work has been brought forward a year as they used up much more of the fatigue life than was expected last summer.

Anyway, no-one is forcing you to donate if you don't want to.

robin

Very true,

I have been donating to the project for sometime but, to be honest, I'm suffering my own cash flow problems so am stopping now.

I wish the team well, having done a splendid engineering job. I'm less than impressed with the business planning, though (as my bank manager has said to me).

Lyneham Lad

Not my headline - it is Flight International's. This article by Martin Withers gives a very good insight to flying this wonderful machine within the currently permitted constraints.

Another article in Flight "Can Vulcan return for 2010?" states that the aircraft is spending the winter at Lyneham. I must have been out when it arrived...

bubblesuk

Hi guys

Avro Vulcan XH558 is bored in the hangar at RAF Lyneham, and has decided to join Facebook!

She needs all the friends she can muster, so please come and search for Avro Vulcan and be her friend!

Thanks
Aggy (Bubbles's better half )

andrewmcharlton

Happy New Year to all. I see a good write up in January's Flypast magazine including the good Doctor's stated intention to step down shortly...

Tankertrashnav

V-Force Reunion website update

Just a heads up that I have just updated the website V-Force Reunion with some info on signing-in tables for the day. Next week I should be doing a further update with details of how to book for the evening function, so if you are hoping to come to that it is important to check the site out and get your bookings in as soon as I ask for them. NB we are asking for one or two more volunteers to man tables on the day (details on the site). Also please check you are getting the updated version of the site (4 Jan 10) and not the old version (17 Sep 09).

coughing corner

Unfortunately sounds a bit like some throat cearing going on in the large lady's dressing room, especially if the national media aren't up for it.

New Year Message and 50th Birthday Appeal Update

10th January 2010

Dear Supporters,

Firstly, I hope all of you had a good Christmas break and, on behalf of everyone at VTST, I wish you all the very best for 2010.

The message I have today is addressed to you, the “XH558 Activists”. I hope I am right in assuming that everyone who reads these newsletters is fully supportive of seeing XH558 continue to fly, and that each, in his or her own way, is committed to helping.

Your help is the past has been the reason why XH558 returned to flight, and entertained and inspired so many people over the last couple of years. Without you, and specifically your donations, this would never have happened.

Looking forward, we continue to face huge challenges. Our costs have increased, albeit hopefully temporarily, but the economy is in dire straits. I have just read a newspaper article forecasting that the impact of the recession on ordinary people really hasn’t been felt yet, and that things will get yet more painful in 2010.

In March 2009, after we reached our £1million Pledge target, I’m on record as saying: “We know that VTST needs to change, to adopt a new business model, that will ensure we don’t need to go through this all again next year, and also to have a chance of weathering poor economic conditions.”

Changes there have been: we have chopped costs wherever we can, but given what we do and how we have to do it, there is a limit to how much cost we can take out of the organisation. One example: with the business now based at Hinckley, and with XH558 at RAF Lyneham, we have saved over £10,000 per month in rental costs. We continue to focus on cost reduction, but there will always be surprises, so a large contingency element is vital.

We have increased our airshow revenues, through a combination of charging a higher average appearance fee and through a new “regional sponsorship” revenue stream. For example, XH558’s appearance at Whitehaven was sponsored by BNFL Sellafield.

We have revamped our merchandising, with the objective of substantially increasing the income from this source. A new online store will be launched on 1st February, with all profits now coming back to us. The Commercial Partnership Programme for small businesses is proving slowly successful, but corporate sponsorship in significant amounts continues to elude us due to the economic conditions, despite a very attractive offering.

But despite our best efforts, “fundraising” in all its forms remains our largest and most important revenue stream.

Since the end of the successful 2009 display season, our plan for fundraising is based on attracting large numbers of new supporters, principally from those 2.5 million who were thrilled by XH558 last summer.

Our key question to them is “Would you like to see XH558 continue to fly, so that she can entertain you and others in years to come?”. If you, as I have done, ask anyone who saw XH558 last summer this question, the answer is an emphatic “Yes!”. “Will you help by making a donation?”; “I didn’t know how to.” – is the way the conversation usually goes.

We have had no success at getting our message to this much bigger audience through the national media, even though we have tried every route we can think of, short of a national advertising campaign, which although costly, is under consideration. The problem is that we are no longer newsworthy – it’s old news, we did it, we got the Vulcan flying again!

This is where we now need you, as our loyal “XH558 Activists”, to help, principally because I believe we now have exhausted the realistic capability of our most loyal supporters to continue to fund XH558’s operation.

We need a National Campaign to keep XH558 funded, and whilst we talk to those who have been successful in setting up such a campaign, the only way we will do this is if sufficient numbers of people make a sufficiently big noise – this is where we need to have your help.

Very much our friendliest national newspaper has been the Mail on Sunday – you may recall the excellent coverage XH558 has received over the last year. But even the Mail on Sunday has admitted that there is currently no significant “hook” on which to hang a story.

This is where you come in. As a call to action, I ask everyone who is reading this message to email or write to the Mail on Sunday to ask them to take the lead in a National Campaign to keep XH558 flying, not only for this year but right the way through to Her Majesty the Queen’s – and the Vulcan’s – Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

If you can get your friends and family to email or write, the more the better! If enough people ask for a National Campaign, this must surely stand a better chance of success.

Please email:

mail on sunday

Or write to:

The Editor
The Mail on Sunday,
Turning now to XH558’s current 50th Birthday Appeal, as expected, the donations to the Appeal tailed off in the run-up to Christmas, undoubtedly due for the most part to the inevitable expense at this time of year.

The Appeal now stands at just over £175,000 - a very positive result, yet there is still a long way to go for XH558 to be secure for another season.

January is a critical month for us, because to keep on track to fly XH558 in late Spring, we need to move forward on the Winter engineering programme. Despite not quite reaching the target of £200,000 for the end of December, we have decided to authorise Marshall Aerospace to start the lead-in work package, planning and design office activities, and this will mean paying them a substantial amount of cash up-front from the money raised so far.

Just this work alone will seriously dent our cash-flow as we wrestle to make the best use of the money you have donated to us, especially since the National Campaign could require substantial funding itself.

With this in mind, we wish to start calling in the first batch of pledges now from those who can afford it this month; we will send out letters very soon to those who indicated that they could honour their pledges in February.

Any pledges redeemed now will be put to good use not only in moving the Winter engineering programme forward, but also leveraging greater exposure and hence giving XH558 a better chance of success. The Vulcan to the Sky Supporter’s Club have also indicated a budget that might be made available for direct advertising of the campaign, so when added to the pledges, this could make a very significant difference.

If in these difficult times you are able to make a further donation, not only will it help the now-started Winter engineering programme along, it will help us engage the wider public - perhaps now the only realistic way to ensure our cause is successful. You, our supporters, can really make the difference…

Over the next two weeks or so, little work will be done on the aircraft herself, but our engineering team will be busy on preparatory activities, housekeeping, paperwork audits and the regular anti-deterioration checks at both our new Hinckley site and in the hangar at RAF Lyneham.

For those of you thinking of visiting the AutoSport International show at the NEC at Birmingham from 14th – 17th January, I am delighted to let you know that Vulcan to the Sky will once again have a stand. Members of our aircrew will be in attendance during the Saturday and Sunday to talk to those who visit.

We have triumphed before in the face of huge adversity, so I would ask you once again to do all you can over the next few weeks, be it a letter or email to the Mail on Sunday, a donation or the payment of your pledge. For the sake of all that XH558 means to the British people, we simply must not fail!

With best wishes,

Robert Pleming
Vulcan To The Sky Trust


PS: For anyone redeeming a Pledge: please mark your donation clearly as an honoured pledge, with your name and postcode to avoid subsequent reminders - thank you!

andrewmcharlton

Standby for the next round of "if everyone just gives £x" we'll be sorted type of emails.

Some high level day dreaming going on me thinks.

A2QFI

Another very non-aviation site I frequent has an appeal link and mentions £600,000 to repair and rectify damage caused by flying in "Rough Weather" (sic) during the last season, among other work.

deltapapa

558 wasn't damaged flying in rough weather but it did comsume FI. VTST have always known a mod was required to extend 558s FI & it was scheduled to be carried out during the 10/11 winter but now needs to be brought forward to this winter..

XH558 Press Office

XH558 Press Office

It is with great pleasure we announce - HANGAR TOURS ARE NOW POSSIBLE!

On behalf of VTST, the Vulcan Engineers at RAF Lyneham have been negotiating with the Unit to allow limited public access at weekends and can announce that, by kind permission from the Station Commander, these visits will commence on Sunday 7th Feb. There will be 2 organised tours on the 7th, one at 12:00 and one at 13:30. The tour round the aircraft will last approximately 1 hour. Personnel interested in booking a place on one of the tours are asked to contact Toni Hunter by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone on 07957 161192.

Bookings will be taken up to Wednesday afternoon and thereafter the list will be closed. This is so that the necessary administration and documentation can be completed in time for the visit.

Due to strict security requirements, private vehicles will not be allowed onto the unit but a minibus will be provided from a free car park nearby. There are a limited number of places on each tour and places will be allocated on a strictly first come first served basis. Applicants will be contacted by e-mail confirming their booking and further information will be given which they will need prior to arrival.

It is hoped that if these tours are a success, then they will continue for the foreseeable future and as many people who wish to do so will have the opportunity to see XH558 up close and personal.

Many thanks.

robin

An impertinent question, but does this mean Vulcan to the Sky have not issued redundancy notices to staff today?

Or was that another scare story?