nice to meet you today rich, did you take any pics? i think its about time i got a project thread on the go for 963 🙂

Ben, it was good to finally meet you too.

Yes, I did get a few pictures with my little camera, I’m trying to get them on photobucket now. Start a thread, and I’ll put them in there when I’ve uploaded them. Lets see if we can’t raise 963’s public profile a little?

I’ll have a better camera with me next time.

Regards,

Ric

That’s an Aichi Seaplane, identified some time ago.

John

More info please?

The fact it has curved leading edges, and aircraft such as the Seiran don’t, would lead me to say otherwise. The wing shape looks much more like a clipped wing Spit, given that the holes in the top surfaces are where you’d likely find cannon bays.

Original pic

Compare this:

Rather than this:

Regards,

Ric

This is excellent news, someone is very generous indeed and I join in thanking them wholeheartedly 🙂

I think you will find it is. This is the relevent sentence which you may have missed:

They have several weeks of servicing together with further modification work held over from the restoration), all of which HAS to be done before she can fly again.

No, I quoted that sentence. I know the servicing has to be done before… it can hardly be done during flight now can it? But nowhere has operating costs, or the crew costs, or any of the stuff that appeared in those lovely pi charts that were kicking around a while back been mentioned. Just the idea of playing businesses.

I was under the impression this project was supposed to be on a business footing from the start?

Don’t put your wallets away yet, gents…

I fart in the general direction of your criticisms. The fund raising will continue throught the year so that the over-optimistic begging bowl is less likely to poke its head out of the gutter at the end of the year. VTTS are getting better at managing the situation, if you think otherwise, if you think ‘how hard can it be?’
You do it.

I suppose my Dad smells of elderberries too now?! 😀

Its too late to be getting better. It should have got better a long time ago, preferably before the Waddington appearance turned into the PR disaster it was.

I suppose you know all these superb fund raising methods, to stir the public up to give the money that didn’t happen this time around. Maybe an appeal for her to take part in the upcoming Malvinas grudge match?

I predict another begging session, Daily Mail campaign etc, before Waddington 2010.

As to How hard can it be? Very hard. Me do it? Maybe, but not with a Vulcan.

Plough,

I’ve been on those forums. I’ve read the statements. A five year old with a crayola could easily write a business plan similar to theirs.

Business plan by Johnny (age 5)

1. Raise money
2. Fly the big aeroplane

Add a little pi chart at the bottom with no relation to reality, and you’re sorted.

Substitute the word ‘clear’ for ‘vague’ in your post and you’re more or less on the mark. There’s no point in operating with no shows booked. Is it on the list for Waddington? No. Cosford? No. Farnborough? No.

This is all assuming they have the money, of course. If the pi chart is to be believed then there’s a £1m shortfall for the coming year. That’s assuming that the money raised is going straight into the programme for things up front and not paying off any arrears.

“Technically” she didn’t need to be at Waddington at all last year then. If it’s not there for flying, there’s no point as XM607 has got the ground side of things covered.

As for 2008, the weather was good on the Sunday, but 558 had broken.

It was better than 2007, and better than Saturday morning, when pretty much everything was on the ground. I didn’t say ‘fine’, I said ‘good’.

One inaccessible Vulcan is much the same as another. So the arguments pointless. Up until a couple of years ago 607 was always positioned between the hangars on the airshow days.

If you want to see XM607 closer, go for a wander down the A15 like everbody else does. she was still there when I went to Bracebridge Heath last week. She’s not on a plinth either, she’s on her own little Vulcan shaped pad. To say your location states you are in Lincoln, I would have thought you would have known that.

Plough,

Okay, I’ll rephrase…. the weather was good enough. You were the one that decided it was the weather that stopped her, now you seem to have remembered what everybody else knew, that it was broken. Again.

2008 was okay, in the grand scheme of things. Saturday afternoon made the show. If you couldn’t do both days, that’s not my fault. If you wanted rain, 2007 was rain…

This is a plinth

When is a plinth not a plinth? When it’s a levelling pad. You don’t want to find her on the A15 one morning.

It’s got axle stands. So what? Are you seriously suggesting that they park an aircraft for a long time in one place, without any form of securing? You can’t do that as long term it will kill the tyres, or she will do something totally unexpected like ending up sat on her bum…

607 isn’t inaccessible. There’s plenty of people been close up to it, obviously just not you. It’s why she has a nice little brass plaque at the side of her for those that get close up.

You seriously think that at any point during any day you can get closer to 558? Here’s news for you… currently both aircarft are kept on active airfields so the accessibility is just the same. Why do you think the tours around 558’s hangar are specially arranged? 558 was accessible at Waddo for about 25 minutes while they dragged her through an annoyed, disppointed crowd.

As for having a wander… funny how the Police never bother moving on all those in the viewing area then on Airshow day? Not to mention the vast amounts of people walking into the airshow from nearby.

558’s poor serviceability comes from the fact that everybody seems to take five or six flypasts on one flight as an event to artificially raise it’s service level. It’s not poor, but it’s not exactly as outstanding as made out.