SC 034Mmm, try saying that HHA at Scampton Hawker Hunter Aviation
OOPs.:o
I totaly forgot the Hunters at Exeter too.:o
Surely though, if the MOD thought there would be any advantage of having the Vulcan available for Defence training etc, they wouldve expressed an interest by now, thats unless they are just waiting till it all does go belly up and then step in, but then given the defence budget, I wouldve thought that to be a complete no go.
SC 034In reality, the only succesful private operator of military jet aircraft is Thunder City, but would they have any interest in such a huge aircraft as a Vulcan?
The only bonus would be that of having the extra seats available for joyrides, but then the rather big disadvantage is the extra operating costs involved for such a large aircraft, training up service personel and spares availability.
Its an alternative to the states and probably a far more viable option given Thunder Citys enthusiasm for Military Aircraft.
SC 034This is the kind of thing that makes people simply laugh at fora such as this, the smell of the full english wafting down the corridor is from the Airfield diner, that is an entirely seperate entity form T.V.O.C. and is just one of the various bussiness that have offices in the Building!
A good example of having facts correct before making disparaging comments perhaps?
Maybe that comment should be aimed directly at the writer of the article for not having made that point clear?
I, probably like a fair few that read that article would not have been aware that the TVOC share a building with other businesses.
Infact, that comment made by the writer of that article has probably added more fuel to the fire about the ‘ money wasting’ of the project by using such mis-guiding comments.
Whilst there may be points in that article which are not true or are misleading, there is one good point, its probably one of the more informative press releases about TVOC for a while.
Its true to say that the TVOC managment/PR gurus have totaly missed the baot regarding releasing information regarding their activities.
Had Dr Phlemming been more public friendly from the start, maybe he would not have to retort to
” I do know that the criticism is based on an awful lot of ignorance and an awful lot of misinformation so I don’t really take much notice of it.”
Maybe if the good Dr had been more forthcoming with actual information, he would not have left himself so wide open to the barrage of abuse that he has recieved?
The way it stands, the engineering team, the lottery fund, the general public that have willingly donated whatever coppers they could afford to and the big tin triangle have all been grossly let down by the mis-management of funds and pee poor PR of the TVOC hierachy.
Excuse the poor spelling, but I have to say that I am greatly annoyed that this project has recieved and squandered not only a huge amount of funding, but also an enormous amount of public goodwill and willingness to see a project succeed.
Private groups could only wish for a mere glimse of what TVOC have wasted, and they would have more than likely succeded with their projects!
SC 034At the end of the day, it looks as if someone either got their sums wrong or greatly overestimated the income that could be generated from flying a Vulcan. How this happened and how the figures got through a lottery application is a question that someone will no doubt have to come up with an answer. This will be very interesting.
Quoting Plemming himself from the Airshow feature
“We have an engineering team we need to keep the aircraft airworthy and to fly her. Insurance costs upwards of nearly £20,000 a month. Hangarage again, is a significant cost. So the idea that we’ll fly the aircraft and pay off everything at the end of the year doesn’t work.”
Err so just run that one by me then, just exactly HOW did they envisage keeping the old girl in the air? Magic beans?
I also was impressed ( not ) by the interviewers
“I’m sitting in the boardroom of The Vulcan Operating Company, the smell of Full Englishes wafting down the corridor from the canteen a couple of doors along. “
Hardly gives the impression of a sinking ship doing its best to stay afloat now does it?
Is Phlemming going onto a carrear in politics after the Vulcan fiasco, as thats the sort of behaviour of a political type, milk things for all their worth when theyre good, then when they are truly ruined, just shrug yer shoulders and walk away.
SC 034I like postfades pictures as each one is like a story in its self.
Its not just the capture of the aircraft, its the groundcrew/aircrew/passengers along with the various bits of ground kit/bystanders etc.
OK, its nice to see a photo of an aircraft, but its far more interesting to see an aircraft in an every day type senario.
And theres no need for any arty farty/wierd angle pictures either, they are all spot on IMO.
SC 034That is exactly what I have been doing in the hangar from Sept 2006 to June 2008 when she dissappeared away to the airshow cct and I was, IMHO, very successful because I and my Sunday team of volunteers raised over £50K for the project… how much have you detractors raised in that time???
😡
Im not knocking what youve done, I was merely stating that from how Ive seen things through this forum and a couple of others, the lightning guys seem to be more, shall we say public orientated.
Maybe I just missed what was going on regarding to hanger visits.
Nobody can knock the feat of the Vulcan flying after all this time, it just seems a great shame that due to either financial management/mis-management, she is constantly under the threat of disapearing from the sky once more.
SC 034I also ment to write that TBLOCATV ( Throwing bucket loads of cash at the vulcan) wouldve done a good thing by taking a leaf out of the LPG guys books.
They frequently update everyone with whats happening, without the aid of their own expensive website/forum.
They are all volunteers, raise funds without using the ” we have a month to raise xxxxxx million pounds or the gas axe is coming” scaremongery tactics of a certain establishment.
They are more than easily aproachable through numerous forums, they are transparent regarding their funding etc, they actualy tell you whats going on, they dont hide themselves behind a shroud of secrecy, their fund raising unlike that of the Vulcans is done in a ” we’ll let you see the aircraft you love, all we ask is a small donation from you” win/win manner.
IMO it wouldnt have mattered if it was a spitfire, a Lanc or a chinese box kite that TVOC was refurbishing for flight, it would appear that what ever funds where being thrown at this project, management would always end up saying, ” sadly its not enough”.
SC 034Whether it fails or not, this project has paved the way for future return to flight projects within the complex category. If it fails, we must look in detail at why it failed and how we do better next time.
If it fails, its not through any fault of the aircraft, the engineering team or those that have dug deeply into their pockets to give whatever coppers they could or couldnt afford.
The buck or should that be ‘ delta’ :rolleyes: stops firmly at the hands of those supposedly ‘ managing’ the project.
SC 034To me, this is something that does not quite add up, and mathematics was never my strong point
Quoting the BBC news item:
“The operational phase, actually taking to the air, has running costs of about £1.6m per year – insurance alone costs £180,000. “
but earlier in the article it said:
” it could be permanently grounded if the project does not raise another £1m by the end of January. “
Forgive my accountancy skills, but how come they need to raise such a high amount of their annual costs, so early in the year? Or is it due to their financial year starting at a different time?
SC 034My Grandparents used to live on the hill leading up to Hensbarrow ( sp) beacon, just outside of Roche.
Looking out of their front room window you could see the beacon/hilltop and one of the main runway ‘ homing’ beacons.
As such, aircraft spotting was great fun, just look out of the window and enjoy all the fun of plane spotting and from the comfort of indoors.
Sadly the RAF adopted a new approach route in the late 80’s and after that aircraft sightings went down by around 99%, but you could always go out in the back yard at night and hear all the different aircraft taxying/taking off.
SC 034Just managed to dig out my old 3822 Air Cadets log book and the list of ‘ historic/museum worthy ‘ aircraft Ive flown in are:
Chipmunk
WP896
WP929
WB560
WP420
WP920
WP833
WK642
Wessex
XR520 ( 22 Sqdn )
XT179 ( 84 Sqdn )
DH-Rapide
NF876
Flew in a DC3, my first actual flight, from Jersey to Exeter in about ’75 ( as my mum refused to go on the ferry for the return trip, due to the extremely rough crossing we had on the way out) dont remember the aircraft serial/airline as I was only 5 at the time.
Done many hours on B/A Tri-stars too, but are they classed as ‘ museum’ pieces now?
SC 034Soundtracks realy hack me off!
How many times have you seen a Bell jet-ranger helicopter, or any other turbo jet engined helicopter come to that, take off on screen…….to the sound of a piston engined ‘copter?
SC 034I know it’s tempting to talk of what should be done to then IF caught(and I must admit there have been some pretty good suggestions:dev2: ) but perhaps it would be more worthwhile to look at ways future thiefts can be discouraged/prevented? I’m thinking along the lines of security systems such as movement activated CCTV cameras. I know this sounds expensive but some systems are around at less than £100. I have seen Cameras used for monitering on high ground crash sites and they do take some pretty good shots.
Garry.
CCTV is a waste of time.
I have it installed at work and reccently had a lockable storage container broken into and items stolen from it. I had clear footage of the 2 toss pots responsible, a very clear shot of their very striking car, but as the cameras did not take an exact image of the cars registration ( 2 index numbers did not show clear enough for a positive identification) the police told me that no further action could be taken!:eek:
Whats the bloody point?:confused:
SC 034Just caught a glimse of her airborne on sky news, brought a lump to my throat and gave me goosebumps.:D
A huge great big well done to everyone involved in getting her back in the sky…where she belongs.
SC 034It’ll be some theiving Pikey scumballs on a ‘scrap’ run.
Hangings far too good for them……slow death by irate aircraft fans is far more suitable.
Round here some of the cheeky buggas took a tour round the local car sales plots and hacked off all the catalytic converters from the brand new cars for scrap!
Its a sad sign of the times, but nothings safe.:(
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