Gentlemen,
If you have ever dealt with the MOD on a standard mini contract you will know the twisted road to be followed. Tender docs are issued with a 16 day deadline to have the bid and full movement with disposal plan included, you then wait. If your bid was successful then you are notified and get your invoice which has a 30 day settlement term. Pay, get a receipt and then arrange a handover date. Then and only then can you go anywhere near the aircraft, subject to clearance by Health and Safety and procedure documents. Then you are allowed a massive 28 days to move a Shackleton up a 34′ wide road!. Meanwhile, as you are starting from a standing start, you need to get the organisation together so probably a community group while the charity application is going through. Oh, and start fundraising and getting good media coverage while at the same time open negotiations with the County council to get a great new secure home for the aircraft where it can still be on display to the public without crippling costs. Of course these things just take a couple of phone calls and it’s all done – NOT! This project is going forward and perhaps we aren’t putting every last detail in the public arena, but maybe, just maybe the details haven’t quite been officially formalised yet to make a public announcement. PLEASE NOTE that this fundraising is NOT paying off the private funds, it’s going to the project. The private funds will be paid back, interest free, once we have got all areas covered and when sufficient funding is in place. If you would like to know more or assist then we would love to hear from you. We can be contacted at [email]wl795@outlook.com[/email], Facebook, Twitter, by post to “Save Our Shackleton”, Kingsley Village, Fraddon, Cornwall, TR9 6NA or even telephone Gary on 07967 813605 and you get the correct answer rather than supposition.
I’ve phoned Gary several times, and he has been in contact with me and our Trustees, so I’m pretty sure I know what is going on as at 25th of this month; though if things have changed substantially since I’m happy to be corrected. We also have had close links with the CAS and WL795 for rather longer than you have, within the last 18 months or so to include several conversations with the OC, the engineering officer, talking with the BBMF that did the airframe survey and sending down valuable spares.
As for the ins and outs of working with MOD and Shackletons – I work with one professionally and one as part of a charity. Fancy telling me how to suck eggs again, or are we done here?
Regarding the funding angle, you may want to clear up the discrepancies between your Twitter, Facebook and Crowdfunder, as at least one of them says that the private funding has to be paid back and that is why you are raising funds. I’m interested to know how an organisation that will be a charity is going to pay back a loan for private funding – I was under the impression the Charities Commission weren’t keen on renumeration? Its a minefield..
Nobody’s really asking for every last detail – they are asking for some detail, and other than “We’re saving Rosalie!” you’re not coming up with much. To put it bluntly, any information is better than none! You’re going to have enough ‘last details’ on your hands later with the disassembly and move that you’re going to badly need the people on here and others further afield to help. More importantly though, if you want funding now, you have to be prepared to tell people what’s happening rather than what you would like to happen. People aren’t going to put funding into something they think is a lost cause, and lack of a visible plan (however tentative) makes it seem that way. The ‘Black Mike’ incident has put a lot of people off crowdfunding projects to save aircraft at the 11th hour.
As for assistance, why don’t you guys start the outreach rather than waiting for people to find you? For instance – there’s at least three groups out there in the UK that have moved a Shackleton, get in contact. Come up to Coventry and crawl all over WR963 so you know what you’re looking at and for – she’s the only other readily accessible AEW/MR2 in the country. Scour the 16 tons of manufacturers data in the archive we have. Look at the AP’s. Photocopy stuff. Measure stuff. Hand out your info while we do an engine run to drag the interested public in the gate, and let the world know there’s one more out there in severe danger.
The clock is ticking – you don’t have the time to be doing daft stuff like re-posting Top Gear links and the St Mawgan heritage trail on Facebook again.
Regards,
Rich W
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