Giving money does give you a vested interest though. You’ve paid for the fuel just like everybody else, as have people who bought Lottery tickets. Likewise, VTTS publicise the Vulcan as “The People’s Aeroplane” – so it seems entirely reasonable to explain their actions to the people who are paying them. It’s a line I’ve heard more and more over recent weeks – it’s the People’s Aeroplane – when it suits.

Nope, still can’t work out why you believe giving a contribution to the charity means you think you have an entitlement on how they operate the aeroplane. You and lots of others have given them money. They then buy fuel with the money, but you, personally, have not ‘paid for’ the fuel. Nor have you paid the salaries, or the hangerage or the insurance etc.

WH904, you said earlier it is just semantics, but that is not how any charity that I am aware of works. The aviation charities I suport are SVAS and The Blenheim Society. I would not expect either to stick to the letter of any planned movement that I wanted to see just because I gave them some money at the beginning of the year. I give them the money and trust they will use it wisely. If I ever thought that they were not ( and the apparent attitude of the Shuttleworth Trust towards the SVAS last year almost made me stop giving to them but I think this has now been resolved/clarified to my satisfaction) I wouln’t contribute again.

You clearly disagree with the way they have been operating and are disappointed that your contributions have not led to them fulfilling your expectations. I have always been wary of their approach, and essentially agree with your opinion on their basic attitude and all of the begging, as has been documented on previous posts over the years. But I didn’t expect them to follow anything but their own approach in the first place, Therefore I didn’t give them anything. Do I think they did anything yesterday for anything other than operational reasons? Definitely not.

Well, I am genuinely sorry about your disappointment but will it change anything? Probably not I’m afraid.

I know this is slightly off topic, but I think relevant. I have only been to the USA once, 20 years ago. I spent 6 weeks driving from LA to Vancouver Island through California, Oregon and Washington state and into British Columbia. I visited as many National Parks as I could along the way, including Joshua tree, Death Valley, Sequoia, Yosemite etc.
I should say straight away that, almost without exception, I found the Americans helpful, polite and friendly.

But It was a real eye opener that my first contact with the Alamo hire car attendant was ‘Oh, you are from England. Your first rule of driving here is that if you get stopped by the police or state troopers, don’t get out -you must hold your hands visible on the steering wheel, only open the door when asked. Otherwise they might shoot you’

Spoke volumes.

All true UK rugby fans should surely be hoping for a Wales victory as well?!

Bristol did fit the Merlin to the Beaufighter but only, I believe, when there was some doubt about the supply of Bristol Hercules engines being adequate to meet wartime demand.

And since the Merlins were less powerful, it made the single engined performance marginal IIRC. However, the ‘power eggs’ designed for the Beaufighter II were adapted for the Lancaster I think?

Yes, but some are better equipped to withstand the effects of “all in this together”

£12 billion welfare cuts ?

We could easily meet that if we removed 12 billion from foreign aid.

Who is better equipped, the people living in B&B accommodation, those on incapacity benefit, who?

Foreign Aid is a seperate strand of govt. spending. Please stop linking It to everything, it gets very boring.

Nearly half of the UK’s benefits bill is spent on the State Pension-roughly £80 bn. Other age related benefits such as winter fuel allowance cost about £3 bn. They can’t cut the pensions bill as they have said it will rise under the ‘triple lock’ at least at the rate of inflation. Since they have to make £12 bn welfare cuts, where else are they going to ‘ask’ pensionable age citizens to ‘contribute’ to austerity? By all the measures, pensioners whether on State Pension Benefit or contributory workplace pensions have done least badly through the recession.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying this ring fencing of pensions is wrong, far from it, but as Call Me Dave once said, we are all in this together.

So those who have paid for it can see it

Nobody has “paid” for it, if you have given money to VTTS then you have contributed to it’s running costs. A subtle but important difference.

Because the HLF gave so much money, following your argument, everyone who ever bought a lottery ticket has part ownership of the thing, which I am sure is not what VTTS would believe.

Since I neither contributed nor bought a lottery ticket I don’t have any sense of ownership. Nor, therefore, am I one of the “countless others”

Edit: I am sure others will say that since I have made no contribution my opinion doesn’t matter. But is still my opinion. If you believe what the Trust has said*, IF the airport does get locked down because the Police, for whatever reason, decide it is not safe and it is the ‘fault’ of the aircraft’s presence, then the financial implications may mean their plans for future preservation are scuppered. Some may say this is scaremongering….. are people willing to take that chance?

*they have played the finance card a number of times, crying wolf?

Even forgetting the Tin Triangle, this was one of the best shows for a couple of years for me. Seeing the Bristol Scout display for quite a few minutes and the Blackburn flight were the highlights for me, and my Father and his friend who was there for the first time thought these and the other WW1 aircraft were the stars. He was mightily impressed by the variety of the aircraft, thoroughly enjoyed the access to the aircraft at the beginning and thought the Edwardians were amazing.

He did remark that he thought about 1/3 of the crowd left immediately after the TT and how they had missed a treat by departing so early, having said that at least it made getting out of the carpark a little easier-about 15 mins for us. Excellent organisation by The Collection.

So at 83 years old another enthusiast for OW has emerged.

The only complaint about the whole experience was ruining the Fauvel display with overly loud music- it did nothing to enhance the display- on previous occasions you could hear a pin drop in the crowd and hear the passage of the glider through the air.

Edit: I should say they both enjoyed the TT display, although my Dad thought it ‘a bit loud’