XH558 - VTTS Stitch Up

[HoHoHo]

Total loss said:

Somebody's quick off the mark
The future ?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

[Total loss]

ChemicalChaos said:

Total loss said:

Somebody's quick off the mark
The future ?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

Can we crowdfund a purchase and send it to Dr Pleming?

He is so blinkered, he still wouldn't be able to see it with it right in front of him

Edited by Total loss on Monday 13th February 23:20

[slartibartfast]

My two pence.

Scrap the fking thing and donate to getting 'Just Jane' in the air.

in 2015 someone won the 1st prize competition to have a taxi ride in XH558...I got intouch with him...he hasn't had his prize yet but it's been promised for 2018!

VTTS have royally fked this whole thing up

edited to add: lottery funding agreement means VTTS have to keep the aircraft live and under cover.

Edited by slartibartfast on Tuesday 14th February 18:48

[aeropilot]

slartibartfast said:

Scrap the fking thing and donate to getting 'Just Jane' in the air.

I wouldn't scrap it yet.......its time will come for that eventually, but yes, donations to Just Jane instead of Dr. Flems expense account is a much better option for people to take.

slartibartfast said:

in 2015 someone won the 1st prize competition to have a taxi ride in XH558...I got intouch with him...he hasn't had his prize yet but it's been promised for 2018!

If I was the guy, I wouldn't be holding my breath it will happen in 2018 either.

They are going to need some ground and air crew for that to happen......and with little or no anti-det schedule being maintained through 2016/7.....it might well be a long way from taxi condition by 2018.

[ecsrobin]

slartibartfast said:

My two pence.

Scrap the fking thing and donate to getting 'Just Jane' in the air.

in 2015 someone won the 1st prize competition to have a taxi ride in XH558...I got intouch with him...he hasn't had his prize yet but it's been promised for 2018!

VTTS have royally fked this whole thing up

edited to add: lottery funding agreement means VTTS have to keep the aircraft live and under cover.

Edited by slartibartfast on Tuesday 14th February 18:48

There's a problem with just Jane getting airborne, where will she fly from?

[aeropilot]

ecsrobin said:

slartibartfast said:

My two pence.

Scrap the fking thing and donate to getting 'Just Jane' in the air.

in 2015 someone won the 1st prize competition to have a taxi ride in XH558...I got intouch with him...he hasn't had his prize yet but it's been promised for 2018!

VTTS have royally fked this whole thing up

edited to add: lottery funding agreement means VTTS have to keep the aircraft live and under cover.

Edited by slartibartfast on Tuesday 14th February 18:48

There's a problem with just Jane getting airborne, where will she fly from?

Where she is.

They stated several years ago, that they would be creating a new longer 6000ft grass strip at East Kirkby along the line of the original cross runway, plus an extension to the E-W runway as a reserve, for more normal UK prevailing wind conditions. (I think they'll be using that one more!)

[ecsrobin]

aeropilot said:

Where she is.

They stated several years ago, that they would be creating a new longer 6000ft grass strip at East Kirkby along the line of the original cross runway, plus an extension to the E-W runway as a reserve, for more normal UK prevailing wind conditions. (I think they'll be using that one more!)

It's been a while but when I was last up there there was a lot of talk that it couldn't go ahead as they didn't own the land to complete the extension and the landowner wasn't willing to assist.

Has that all been sorted now?

I have seen a post by the centre (back in 2010) saying "Over much conversing and deliberation it has been suggested that we would need around 5500 ft minimum to operate NX611" so with a runway of 6000ft it doesn't leave room for error.

Edited by ecsrobin on Tuesday 21st February 13:55

[aeropilot]

ecsrobin said:

aeropilot said:

Where she is.

They stated several years ago, that they would be creating a new longer 6000ft grass strip at East Kirkby along the line of the original cross runway, plus an extension to the E-W runway as a reserve, for more normal UK prevailing wind conditions. (I think they'll be using that one more!)

It's been a while but when I was last up there there was a lot of talk that it couldn't go ahead as they didn't own the land to complete the extension and the landowner wasn't willing to assist.

Has that all been sorted now?

I have seen a post by the centre (back in 2010) saying "Over much conversing and deliberation it has been suggested that we would need around 5500 ft minimum to operate NX611" so with a runway of 6000ft it doesn't leave room for error.

Edited by ecsrobin on Tuesday 21st February 13:55

Dunno what the latest is......there's been no official update as to what the situation is, if changed from before.

It is tight, and certainly not without risk tbh. I expect they are torn between flying it and wanting to keep it and operate it from EK.

I wonder given the close ties they have with BBMF, and close proximity to QCY, whether there's the possibility them conducting flying ops out of there during the main display season at least, which would at least give them fire cover as well?? I suspect the flight crew will likely be all ex-BBMF as well?

[ecsrobin]

I would expect the first flights to be crewed by the current BBMF pilots for air testing purposes?

[steve-5snwi]

Did Marshals and Rolls Royce etc stop support for the Vulcan or just 558 ? would they support 611 ?

[aeropilot]

steve-5snwi said:

Did Marshals and Rolls Royce etc stop support for the Vulcan or just 558

Err......'558 is the Vulcan?

And yes, RR & Marshall both withdrew support, hence why it was grounded.

steve-5snwi said:

Did Marshals and Rolls Royce etc stop support for the Vulcan or just 558 ? would they support 611 ?

The Lancaster doesn't need OEM support, it's not classified in the complex category.

[steve-5snwi]

Ignore me ... Being a plank I should have realised, for some reason I was assuming someone else was trying to get a Vulcan up .... It should have registered when everyone was saying the bbmf crew would fly it !

[spitfire-ian]

Well the spin on the previous press releases, etc suggested that if they raised £100,000 from donations then they'd get matched funding from some investors to build the hangar enabling 558 to be accessible again.

Reading today's email it says...

"This means we can fulfil our original objectives when we launched the XH558 Survival plan: to hibernate the existing operations and the vital specialist tools, displays, period artefacts and other key assets, and secure Vulcan XH558 and Canberra WK163 in the current storage location."

So basically they've raised enough money to store the thing.

Hope I've misunderstood the situation.

[ChemicalChaos]

spitfire-ian said:

Well the spin on the previous press releases, etc suggested that if they raised £100,000 from donations then they'd get matched funding from some investors to build the hangar enabling 558 to be accessible again.

Reading today's email it says...

"This means we can fulfil our original objectives when we launched the XH558 Survival plan: to hibernate the existing operations and the vital specialist tools, displays, period artefacts and other key assets, and secure Vulcan XH558 and Canberra WK163 in the current storage location."

So basically they've raised enough money to store the thing.

Hope I've misunderstood the situation.

Hmm, looking on their FB page they say:

"Earlier this evening the Survival Plan total of £100,000 was reached. Thank you so much to all those that supported this appeal. It now means XH558 is safely secured for the hibernation period during 2017.
This now releases the matched-funding from supportive philanthropists.
Should we exceed the target, then that’s even better.
If your generosity allows us to exceed our £100,000 target, any extra funds will allow us to add to our core plans for safeguarding XH558. Then she can emerge from hibernation all the more quickly, which we hope could include making preparations for engine ground runs and taxying"

[perdu]

If they've dumped (and dumped on) their existing engineers who is going to be preparing to take her out of hibernation?

I think the world has seen the last of "The Vulcan" experience
HE (he knows who) should be dumped from great heights, git!

[z06tim]

spitfire-ian said:

Well the spin on the previous press releases, etc suggested that if they raised £100,000 from donations then they'd get matched funding from some investors to build the hangar enabling 558 to be accessible again.

Reading today's email it says...

"This means we can fulfil our original objectives when we launched the XH558 Survival plan: to hibernate the existing operations and the vital specialist tools, displays, period artefacts and other key assets, and secure Vulcan XH558 and Canberra WK163 in the current storage location."

So basically they've raised enough money to store the thing.

Hope I've misunderstood the situation.

Without wishing to sound like I support what Dr P is doing, I'm pretty sure the 200k was just for the short term and mainly to hibernate the thing. Shocking really. Anyway, I dug out an old VTTS email from 18th Jan and lifted this from it:

======

" Philanthropists offer to match public donations

To hibernate the existing operations, re-home the vital specialist tools, displays, period artefacts and other key assets, and secure Vulcan XH558 and Canberra WK163 in the new storage location, is expected to cost around £200,000 more than the Trust can afford given the cessation of tours and events. Half of this has been promised as matched-funding by a group of philanthropists close to Vulcan to the Sky Trust, against donations from XH558’s supporters and those who believe in retaining Jet-Age aircraft in British skies.

“Every pound donated will effectively be doubled. This is a very generous offer,” says Robert. “The Trust needs these funds urgently to survive. I encourage everyone who shares this vision to do whatever they can to help today.”

With the dramatic cuts implemented today, the Trust needs £100,000 to survive to the end of February, followed by another £100,000 during March, which includes costs associated with finalising plans for the new, purpose-built hangar. With match-funding, that means just £50,000 raised from supporters before February 28th, then a similar amount the month after. "

=============

Crap isn't it?

Edited by z06tim on Wednesday 22 March 06:56

[fatboy69]

It would be interesting to find out exactly how the £200k will be spent.

All on rent for the storage hanger? Spares ? (Oh wait you can't buy spares off the shelf..) Engineers wages? (No because they won't go back).

Deposit for the visitor centre that will never get built???

Safe to say I think that 558 will probably never move under her own power again.

Someone should be very very ashamed of himself these days.

[z06tim]

fatboy69 said:

It would be interesting to find out exactly how the £200k will be spent.

All on rent for the storage hanger? Spares ? (Oh wait you can't buy spares off the shelf..) Engineers wages? (No because they won't go back).

Deposit for the visitor centre that will never get built???

Safe to say I think that 558 will probably never move under her own power again.

Someone should be very very ashamed of himself these days.

I'm sure I read somewhere that some of it was needed to cover redundancy costs.

Because of this i would bet some of it went to some management consultancy (leech) company like PwC or KPMG.

[NDT]

z06tim said:

I'm sure I read somewhere that some of it was needed to cover redundancy costs.

Because of this i would bet some of it went to some management consultancy (leech) company like PwC or KPMG.

Should the consultants work for free then?

[brenflys777]

I used to donate to VTS. I stopped when I became aware that some people managing the project who I thought were volunteer enthusiasts were receiving significant incomes.

It was wonderful to see the Vulcan airborne, but I resent the lack of accountability.