First Casualty Of New Ins. Rules..

Anyway, my membership number (allocated five years ago) is 10208. I added a couple of thousand to cover new memberships. Obviously, this makes a few slightly dodgy assumptions, like all members renew their membership (on time!) every year, which although they clearly should is not necessarily the case. Perhaps somone in the know could provide the exact number to make other letters more accurate.

That almost certainley means you were the 10,208th person that joined the supporters club, membership numbers being consecutive. That doesn’t mean there are that many members currently paid up… :rolleyes:

A motor club I am a member of has about 200 paid up members, but the most recent allocated membership number was 3100 and something…… 😉

Just wondering about this new regulation, what will it mean for the operators of, say a Harvard, Tiger Moth or the weekend pilot flying his 152/172 etc.?

T J

Looking at Sally B’s web-site I see it’s been updated since this morning with several replies to Elly’s letter none of which gave much hope.

I’m another one who’ll be writing to my MP, once known, and will be visting Sally B stand at Duxford on Saturday to join the supporters club. At £25 a year another 1,000 members would cover the cost of insurance being quoted.

Please feel free to copy and paste as required!

Dear Tom Wise,

I am writting to request your support in a major issue that is about to affect the UK preservation of flying vintage aircraft. Under new European insurance legislation (see link), there is a significant increase in the amount it will cost to operate vintage aircraft such as the UK’s last flying example of the B-17 bomber, as they are being classified alongside commercial airliners. Having used these historic aircraft to free our so called European friends, they now seem intent on grounding them. This weekend see’s the celebration of VE day at Duxford airshow in Cambridgeshire, and the B-17 has been withdrawn from flying at this event as a direct result of the increased costs. Surely this should not be the case?

I would welcome your support on this issue, as would the many thousands of individuals who attend airshows around the UK. Airshows are not as popular in Europe, as here in the UK, so how can they understand the needs of the UK? An excemption to this European law is required, before its to late.

http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2004/l_138/l_13820040430en00010006.pdf

Who is Tom Wise?

SallyB-17 Insurance premiums and liability

Well there is a surprise. 🙂

The lead story on BBC Look East in 15 minutes time, with onboard aerial footage in the preview, that looks like it was recorded today.

Mark

Have the likes of France with regards to cars got horsepower tax? Which is why practically everyone drives a diesel & you never see supercars? I know, why don’t the EU bring the same thing out for aircraft? Then we can just go & watch microlights!

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the comments. Got both bits of info from my Sally B supporters club membership card (always carried in my wallet), which has (eek!) just expired at the end of April 05. Where’s my cheque book?

Anyway, my membership number (allocated five years ago) is 10208. I added a couple of thousand to cover new memberships. Obviously, this makes a few slightly dodgy assumptions, like all members renew their membership (on time!) every year, which although they clearly should is not necessarily the case. Perhaps somone in the know could provide the exact number to make other letters more accurate.

The card says on it “USAAF WWII Memorial Flight”.

If, like me, you discover your membership to this very worthy cause has lapsed – renew it today.

Stuart

Just e-mailed all seven (!) of my MEPs. I agree that mass identical e-mails are not as good as individually written letters but not everyone has the time to compose one. However, sending something is better than nothing so if anybody would like to cut/paste/amend/borrow some or all of my attempt below then feel free. In fact my e-mail is an amended version of Darren’s, so just change the wording around a bit or add and delete some bits and it will appear original enough (old trick learned in school!).

Stuart

Dear……..

I am writing to request your support in a major issue that is about to affect the UK preservation of a very important flying vintage aircraft.

New European insurance legislation (see link) regarding minimum insurance requirements for large aircraft, unfortunately classifies the UK’s last flying example of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, known as Sally B, in the same category as commercial airliners. This has had the direct result of grounding the aircraft due to the insurance premium rising 500%.

Sally B is the flagship of the Imperial War Museum and the USAAF memorial flight and flies in tribute to the 30,000 US airmen who died in the second world war flying from British airfields. The aircraft is operated by a group of volunteers and funded by charitable donations. This weekend’s Duxford airshow sees the beginning of this year’s 60th anniversary commemorations of VE day. Sally B has been withdrawn from flying at this and all other events and is grounded until further notice due to the increased premiums.

An exemption to this European law exists for “state aircraft and certain other aircraft” (see link). The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster bomber operated by the RAF as a memorial to the British airmen qualifies for the exemption as a state owned aircraft and is funded by the MoD. In order for Sally B to continue to carry out her very important role for future generations as a flying memorial to the US airmen, an exemption as “certain other aircraft” needs to be obtained.

Myself, the 12,000 or so other members of the Sally B supporters club, the hundreds of thousands of airshow spectators and of course the 30,000 US airmen whose memorial aircraft is threatened, need as much help as possible in raising awareness of Sally B’s plight and to lobby the authorities to gain the necessary exemption. Anything that you can do to help the cause would be greatly appreciated.

http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en…0en00010006.pdf

Yours sincerely,

……..

“Mandatory insurance should not be required for State aircraft and certain other types of aircraft”.

Instead of trying to get it defined as “certain” other aircraft, could the BBMF be approached as a form of sponsoring authority making it a “state” aircraft.

sorry if that sounds a bit daft, just trying to think around the problem.

Interesting that Elly has clearly stated, after the effect of the insurance increase has been known about and quantified, that ‘Sally B will fly this year’. And yet it will not be appearing this weekend.

I would not be surprised if a conscious decision has been made to delibrately miss the first airshow weekend of the season, including high-profile events at Duxford and Southampton, as a ‘maximum publicity’ exercise.

I wonder what ‘Look East’ will have to say on the matter this evening?

Will they notice, I wonder given the “other” event occurring today?

No offence intended here, but you might want to run that through a spell/grammar-checker. Personally, I think independently written emails and letters are the way to go. Copy and pasted efforts are just going to be ignored.

No offence taken (my spelling is very poor!).Copy and paste is an option for those who can’t think what to write. As a well known supermarket may say, “every little helps”. 🙂

I think that there is a huge amount pf polticking going on concerning this issue. I really do think that the Sally B organisation are being “run up the flagpole” to highlight the POTENTIAL seriousness of the situation – rather than the ACTUAL seiousness.

As I said earlier, lets see how many Continental based large warbirds end up being grounded because of these new “rules”. My hunch is that none of them will.

Please feel free to copy and paste as required!

Dear Tom Wise,

I am writting to request your support in a major issue that is about to affect the UK preservation of flying vintage aircraft. Under new European insurance legislation (see link), there is a significant increase in the amount it will cost to operate vintage aircraft such as the UK’s last flying example of the B-17 bomber, as they are being classified alongside commercial airliners. Having used these historic aircraft to free our so called European friends, they now seem intent on grounding them. This weekend see’s the celebration of VE day at Duxford airshow in Cambridgeshire, and the B-17 has been withdrawn from flying at this event as a direct result of the increased costs. Surely this should not be the case?

I would welcome your support on this issue, as would the many thousands of individuals who attend airshows around the UK. Airshows are not as popular in Europe, as here in the UK, so how can they understand the needs of the UK? An excemption to this European law is required, before its to late.

http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2004/l_138/l_13820040430en00010006.pdf

No offence intended here, but you might want to run that through a spell/grammar-checker. Personally, I think independently written emails and letters are the way to go. Copy and pasted efforts are just going to be ignored.

nicely put.

Please feel free to copy and paste as required!

Dear Tom Wise,

I am writting to request your support in a major issue that is about to affect the UK preservation of flying vintage aircraft. Under new European insurance legislation (see link), there is a significant increase in the amount it will cost to operate vintage aircraft such as the UK’s last flying example of the B-17 bomber, as they are being classified alongside commercial airliners. Having used these historic aircraft to free our so called European friends, they now seem intent on grounding them. This weekend see’s the celebration of VE day at Duxford airshow in Cambridgeshire, and the B-17 has been withdrawn from flying at this event as a direct result of the increased costs. Surely this should not be the case?

I would welcome your support on this issue, as would the many thousands of individuals who attend airshows around the UK. Airshows are not as popular in Europe, as here in the UK, so how can they understand the needs of the UK? An excemption to this European law is required, before its to late.

http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2004/l_138/l_13820040430en00010006.pdf

it really is disgusting how they treat us at least Sally B’s tribute will live on here and for those brave men of the 8th airforce who did there best during the 1940s.

So who makes the decision as to whether or not Sally B would qualify as a “certain other type of aircraft”? The CAA? The insurance company? The government? Some fat Belgian bloke in Brussels? Whoever it is needs a barrage of e-mails to help steer them in the right direction.

Stuart

This is the regulation that is causing the trouble. One interesting point about it is that there’s an exemption in it – “Mandatory insurance should not be required for State aircraft and certain other types of aircraft”. Unless the “certain other types of aircraft” are specifically defined, perhaps it would be possible for the government to specifically exempt certain aircraft – that’s assuming enough attention is drawn to the issue!

nail head contact!!!!

It is this exemption that is being worked out. All is not as bleak as is being made out.

However write to your Euro MP asap please. (I’ve just sent my email)

http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2004/l_138/l_13820040430en00010006.pdf

This is the regulation that is causing the trouble. One interesting point about it is that there’s an exemption in it – “Mandatory insurance should not be required for State aircraft and certain other types of aircraft“. Unless the “certain other types of aircraft” are specifically defined, perhaps it would be possible for the government to specifically exempt certain aircraft – that’s assuming enough attention is drawn to the issue!

So how many have contacted their Euro MP’s then? If not, why not? 🙂

http://www.faxyourmp.com/

Takes about 2 mins to do.

And when the new bunch are in place, do it all over again to the UK MP’s.

Be a pest – you know it makes sense.

JC