Winco

Croqueteer

See what I mean?? This guy is being paid £70K+ of the money that you and others have donated to pi$$ you all about!! It is a joke wouldn't you agree??

Thanks dp for the info, I think it yet again only proves the point about Pleming and his (lack of) managerial skills.

deltapapa

update now in

Vulcan To The Sky - Thank you!

forget

John Sharman. Chairman of Trustees, Vulcan to the Sky Trust

I know what he meant to say - but I'd have worded it differently.

AndoniP

because keeping something going for the pleasure (and supposed education) of others is vastly different to collecting to feed starving children in poor countries. i know where i'd rather send my money.

they're keeping it flying for educational purposes are they? yeah, right, i bet loads of people attending airshows have learnt something new about the cold war

i don't want to see the vulcan stop flying like many of you but there comes a point where it seems that the public are being taken the mickey out of, then thats time to leave them to it with my blessing, i'm out.

Dr Jekyll

Every time it flies it's a reminder that with teamwork determination and sheer persistence an apparently impossible task was successfully accomplished.

A good lesson for anybody.

AndoniP

you talking about black buck 1? this thing has been flying to remind everyone who watches it about one bombing mission?

i thought it was to educate people about this being one of the instruments of the cold war... something that lasted for decades.

either way i'm not getting into a slanging match about the vulcan's achievements. part of the reason the lottery grant was given was that this would educate children about the cold war as written in the objectives of the project, i've not seen the Falklands mentioned, unless someone can correct me?

and while i'm at it, how effective it has been as an educational instrument.

JEM60

Just seems to me to be a small bunch of enthusiasts convincing other people to pay so they can see their toy fly!!..Bit of a con-trick.........

Mike7777777

Lots of whinging on this thread, bigger picture appears to have been missed by many

In years gone by, there were two main attractions at British airshows, the BBMF Lanc (because it's historical and there's only one) and whatever Harrier(s) turned up (because after more years than I care to mention, I'm still convinced that the Harrier display involves some warping of the laws of physics, particularly the bowing and exit stage left).

The Vulcan has changed this, as per many quotes there are shows with the Vulcan and there are average shows; but it needs to do the thing it excels at: noise, noise and more noise please. If this is accompanied by some minor destruction of the runway then that's fine by me, but how can this be converted to income? Transparency is paramount, to reduce the bickering and negative comments (which may or may not be justified), and - from the limited info available - if Big_Sponsor is not forthcoming then the income from Gift Aid must be the focus of attention. The margins can offer survival.

In closing my pontification, I offer the following from somewhere on the internet:

sisemen

I ask again - just how difficult would it be for 6 volunteers to wander up and down the crowd line at every 558 appearance with buckets ready to trade on the "oohs" and "aahs" with a 'Fiver to keep her Flying'??

At the very least someone ought to be considering it for a cost/benefit analysis and/or trial to see what the likely income stream might be.

deltapapa

Because most airshows won't allow it!! With the exception I believe of the ATC.


Collections may only be made at the stall. You can't allow it for 558 and not for others.

Saying I believe RIAT made an exception a number of years ago and allowed collections in their car parks long before 558 took to the air.

BEagle

Well, it is indeed good news - thanks to all those who still have some faith in the project! I'm still unsure why the salary bill is so high though - or why Plemming should have netted £72K.

The VTTS stand was doing very brisk trade throughout Farnborough week - even though it was a very long way from the rest of the show area. So I would imagine that a lot of folk do indeed wish to support them. As for donations, to my mind keeping the Vulcan flying is far more worthy than, for example, donating to Richard Noble and Dead Dogs' 1000 mph car project..... Thrust SSC, the first supersonic car, really was a 'first' for Britain - but Bloodhound does seem rather pointless. Although I wish it good luck.

Dr Jekyll

I'm taking about the achievement of getting 558 restored and back in the air when most of thought it was impossible.

Feathers McGraw

Well Beags, some of us have put our hand in our pocket for both '558 and Bloodhound SSC (and Thrust SSC before it). Both are worthwhile in their very different ways....

Muzzey

A question to the learned ones here at PPRuNe

One of the stated ambitions of TVOC is for '558 to take part in the 2012 celebrations by participating in the planned flypast over central London, whilst I am very keen to see her doing so - It is my understanding that there are strict restrictions on what can fly over London in this way - single/multi engine, commercial/military/private etc etc
Can someone who knows better than I please explain what the rules are - or if my brain has made the whole thing up!

JEM60

I'm not sure what all the foreigners attending the event would make of an aged cold-war killing machine overflying them. What possible relevance to the celebration of one of the world's top sporting events would that have to them.
Nice for the Brits, if some of them knew [or cared] what they were seeing, but to everybody else, zilch.

andrewmcharlton

Being cynical, there will be a set of rules which will be ignored for the purposes of leveraging money out of folks in a vane hope it is going to appear, notwithstanding it is inappropriate or irrelevant as JEM says.

Delighted they made their target and the ground team have their jobs saved. I hope their might be a few who decide to fall on their swords for the good of the project but seems unlikely given the form book.

Hope the team who escaped the redundancy notices have a good end to the year and Christmas as they thoroughly deserve it.

Muzzey

Ok - thanks for the replies chaps, I believe it's the queens birthday rather than the olympics that the flight is planned/hoped for but - point taken, we will see I guess?

Tankertrashnav

Well one or two Vulcans acted as test beds for the Olympus engine - that's relevant, surely?

More seriously, you may as well say that any flypast is irrelevant to the opening of the Olympics. But if you are going to have one, then a big noisy beast like the Vulcan will make it all the more impressive.

sooty655

I think you'll find that the phrase "2012 celebrations" refers to The Queen's diamond jubilee, not the Stratford International Sportsfest.

JEM60

Thanks Sooty. My mistake.