Can somebody try and give Richard Branson a ring to ask him to support it!!!!!

Why does everyone keep bringing Branson up????? As has been said many, many times, if he was going to support it, he would have done so long ago.

Supposing that the Vulcan does indeed fly again and the cash is found. How are its running costs going to be covered over a display season…….This will amount to a lot of money……….

Running expenses, which include fuel, salaries, wages, hangar rent, insurance, etc., will be about £1,200,000 a year.

http://www.vulcan558club.com/AGM_Minutes_Extract_Dr_Pleming_Talk_Questions.doc

😮 😮 😮

…so would suspect she will be brought up to taxiable condition….

“Please can we have some more money to reverse the work that we spent the money that you already gave us on!”

Improbable, to say the least.

Perhaps they should ask Brian Bateson for Sandbach Car & Commercial Dismantlers’ phone number.

From XH558 club website:

Dear Members,

1st August, 2006.

This is not an easy letter to write, but I have to inform you, on behalf of the Club Committee, that the project to restore our beloved aircraft, Avro Vulcan XH558, to flying condition, is perilously close to having to be abandoned. This is purely because of lack of finance; nothing else.

You will know that the aircraft went into the hangar at Bruntingthorpe in October, 1999 in the ownership of the Walton Family Company, and considerable numbers of you who were members of the Club from its early days gave or pledged money very generously to finance its stripping and detailed inspection so as to ensure that it was in good condition and capable of being made to fly once again. Dr Robert Pleming came on the scene at this stage and became the guiding light behind the work to convince the Civil Aviation Authority, British Aerospace (as it then was), Rolls Royce, and the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that the project was feasible and should be supported. He also created and submitted the first application to the Heritage Lottery Fund, which, as you know, was rejected. The HLF then assisted Dr Pleming with a second application, which was successful, and £2.7m was granted, this being 66.66% of £4,1m, the other 33.33%, £1,3m, being the matching funding that the HLF required be raised from other sources. You will also realise that a substantial flow of finance, quite apart from the £1,367,000, has always been required, for the HLF have never been able to fund any of the cost of the fund raising campaign itself, nor any salaries or other costs that existed prior to the application being made. This, of course, includes the salary costs of Dr Pleming and the part time staff down in Dorset.

You will also know that it has always been the case that one or more major corporate or private sponsors have been required, for the fund raising capabilities of the Club members and of Felicity’s ‘Friends’ have never been enough to completely fund the project, even with the HLF funding and the free work of the OEMs in refurbishing their components. Even so, we have all done incredibly well, the ‘Buy Time’ initiative producing over £40,000, which was absolutely magnificent. Buy time, though, was all it could do, and did. That sum, though, is small compared with the £1,200,000 still needed to complete the aircraft’s restoration, its ground tests, and its air tests, so that it could be handed back to the Trust sometime in the spring of 2007. Time delays early on, a limitation in what the HLF could provide, and considerable cost over-runs have all contributed to what seems to be a never reducing sum being needed.

I can assure you that behind the scenes discussions that would secure the finance and therefore allow the restoration to continue, are taking place at a very high level, but I have to say that there is no certainty of success. If a major sponsor is not found, then very, very sadly, and with great reluctance, the Trustees have decided that the project will have to cease on 31st August, 2006, as they cannot legally continue beyond that date.

Your committee have met and are determined the story will not end here and we will contact you all in the next few days with plans for the Club can save the Earth’s only flyable Vulcan.

Your Committee

From the VTS website, referring to questions about the 31 August rollout date :

Sorry this should not have been placed on the web site, it was a misunderstanding by myself the club web site manager.

Please ignore it, nothing is happening that day.

I believe you will all be able to see the vulcan at the bruntingthorpe open day.

http://www.tvoc.co.uk/cgi-local/board/ikonboard.cgi?;act=ST;f=1;t=40

All seems chaos and confusion with the public utterances from the VTS brigade.

Nothing new there, then.

The sooner this chaotic misadventure is killed off once and for all, the better.

Ok yeah, getting abit confused with all this 😮

So Oscar’s having a pop at the pilot of the A26 for doing aero’s when he’s not doing them…. :confused:

I think there also seems to be some presumption that the A26 has only ever had one pilot, which I dont know is correct.

When all else fails, read the posts! 😀

The SHF A-26 does fly an aerobatic routine, including half-cubans and barrel rolls, in certain European countries where it is permitted by that country’s equivalent to the CAA. It does not do so in the UK, where its display comes under CAA jurisdiction.

Yesterday evening I raised a glass of Californian Ale to my friend Steve. Although I couldn’t be there in person, my thoughts yesterday were very much of Steve, and of all of you attending his funeral. I’m gratified to see that you all did him proud yesterday, and the choice of a visit to the Red Lion afterwards was extremely apt. The last time that many of us saw Steve was there on the Saturday evening after Legends, an evening filled with humour and banter, as were all the occasions that Steve was present. That’s how I shall remember him.

As others have said, he’ll be with all of us every time we visit Old Warden or Duxford, and every time we see a Chipmunk.

God bless, Steve. See you, mate.

Name the last year any member of the crowd was killed in an airshow accident in the UK!

1952.

A testament to the safety regulations in force.

And more than a little pure luck, in several cases that I’ve been unfortunate enough to witness. 🙁