So if rumours are true, you are looking at nearly a 20th of the total budget required to be raised, simply to pay the wages of one person who flying wise probably does less than 50 hrs in the year and 50% of it on staff costs…………. that’s obscene

Now for some reason they farm off the Crew wages from the other staff, that, looks like an exercise in trying to hide the real aircrew staff costs……..

But looking at just the Aircrew and “operating costs” fuel,Hotels etc????. and the staff costs….. you are looking at nearly £800,000 odd of a budget of £1,998,000 which is nearly half of the budget for operation of just ONE AIRCRAFT, Just on staff costs……..

Also as the Maintenance is carried out and certified by Marshalls and that is already appears to be on the pie chart, who is getting paid?……. As a lot of the engineers and volunteers work for free, It must disgust them to learn that they are collecting all that money for one person.

Talk about a honey pot, if the rumours are correct.

I wish they would be honest and post their true wages and break it down.

Those rumours are totally untrue!! – FACT

AND bear in mind the Chief Pilot turned down a job with Thomas Cook [I think it was] purely to ensure 558 HAD a display pilot to fly her last season

But are there not TWO crews? and if he is on over £100,000 which is what the strong rumours suggest, a 1st Officer at Thomas Cook will be on the region of £50K assuming that is what he would have joined as.

Most other Historical flying companies the Chief Pilot as indeed do all the other pilots have real jobs during the week and do their display flying etc for free and the love of it on weekends.

Is there a faction here that thinks highly skilled pilots should be flying for free to amuse the great British public?

If so, why?

Why not, every other display crews tend too, as do the majority of the highly skilled engineers that work on it I believe, I am not against costs been covered etc but for a charitable organisation it does seem obscene that a twentieth of the funds raised for this thing through constant begging is simply going to pay one man if those rumours are true.

There are at least 7 aircrew so that would be costs of about £31K or so each (assuming each paid the same, but it really doesn’t matter), from which PAYE, NI and employer’s NI will be deducted leaving take home pay for each person at around the £21.5K mark.

I’m sure you’ll agree this is a pretty poor wage for aircrew.

Ok lets assume that the Chief Pilot, the one full time Aircrew staff is not being paid the disgusting figure the rumours are saying he is, then 21K take home does not sound a lot until you think………

Aircraft flies 50 hours per year

2 crews equates to 25 hours per year, throw in continuation training etc and be really generous and call it a month…….. Yup I will work for a take home of £21,000 for a months work……. Where do I sign up?????

Why do they not just come clean and let people see exactly what they are paying out and to who before they jump on the Begging bandwagon again…..

Charity begins at home and in this case the rumours seem to back that up, I can see no other reason to split the Aircrew wages off from the main and bury them in the operating costs slice of the pie, unless it is simply to hide the staggering amount that is being paid out to staff on this one Aircraft Gravy Train.

As I said if these rumours are unfounded and not true I will gladly remove them, but until someone from the Vulcan trust catagorically state they are unfounded I would like to know the truth, as I think a lot of those that give their time for free and money also would.

I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt the chief pilot nor any of the crew get paid anywhere near £100,000!! And had any of you “experts” botherd to do a little research other than dirt digging you would be aware that the C.A.A. require full time employed engineers.

Of course the CAA require full time Engineers but as the maintainance is the responsibility of Marshalls, surely the full time Engineers you are talking about are employed by them as they hold the approvals for the aircraft and NOT the the Vulcan Trust, hence their wages will be in the portion paid to Marshalls, Indeed did the press releases last year or so state they were hoping to take on a full time engineer who would have to be approved by Marshalls to work under their auspices to alleviate some of the problems such as the UC door problem at Brize where the Aircraft could not fly till an Engineer from MARSHALLS cleared it…….. I do do this for a living you know Bubbles as a Chief Engineer so please do not try to blow a smoke screen in my direction. Fair enough, you may have a Chief Engineer on board that liases with Marshalls and industry etc, but most will be employed through Marshalls I would have thought, as they are the ones contracted to carry out the work.

I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt the chief pilot nor any of the crew get paid anywhere near £100,000!!

Not what I heard, perhaps if they came clean as they did in the accounts in 2005 and stated how many members of staff are on a renumeration of say £40 to 50K then and answer the questions if the crew are being paid and how much….

As said in these financial times paying a crew £220,000 no matter how it is split up where it is the norm with vintage aircraft to fly them for the honour and priviledge is obscene, splitting that per crew member (7) and allowing the equation of 5 hours per 1 flying is not as mentioned £70 odd pound per hour, but £140 as there are two crews… or roughly a take home wage of £21,000 for under 1 months work…
Though as we know that figure is wide of the mark when you take into the Chief Pilots rumoured wage.

It really is a shame, I enjoy watching the Vulcan and used to enjoy seeing them whilst I served in the RAF, but this has taken an edge off it for me and left a foul taste in my mouth as nearly 50% of what is collected seems destined for a few individuals, and not to the Aircraft itself.

If the Vulcan returns to a static role, the Lottery will have effectively wasted the money they invested in the aircraft (with the exception of the pleasure the people who saw it recived during the planes airshow career).

Was always the plan

I have it on good authority that the sale of the Bessoneau to the party in New Zealand is still going ahead.

Hopefully that is to a certain Lord of the Rings director and his WW1 Collection, may not be in the UK, but it will be in good hands and will no doubt have money and love thrown at it 🙂 and will be saved for future generations… Something that sadly appears to be lacking in the UK.

What you have heard is miles away from what is actually true.

Well as we do not know your involvement I am afraid I will take that with a pinch of salt.

As a Charity and as it is being funded by public funds, perhaps they should simply refute the claims and come clean as to their wage expenditure, especially the rumoured disgusting ones paid to the Aircrew, therefore allowing everyone to see what is being spent and where.

End of the day if you have nothing to hide, show it, either on here or on their website, an accurate pie chart such as the ambigious ones already posted would show the breakdown of staff costs, to not do this infers the rumours are true and they are hiding it from those that fund the project…..

And that sadly is costing them dear in contributions to their appeal, who would give money to something that is rumoured to be simply going to pay sky high wages first, and to do what we all care about second……

Simple isn’t it…….. seems far to far over their heads though, I have wondered what the tabloid newspapers would make of it… no doubt they would be able to finally get an answer as to the wage bills rumoured or not…

They do like a good story, especially one being funded by donations and a Charity to boot.

Sad as I may seem I often thought the HAS’s at RAF Bruggen would have made nice houses when I was stationed there, add a 2nd floor in them, remove the doors and add a full height and width glass wall in their place with entrance, then cut through the sides in areas and add large windows to the sloping sides… It would last an eternity and I reckon the sheer thickness of the structure it would be well insulated.

And don’t forget the ones stored in the Uk’s Area 2 ( we could not afford the full 51 version) :p