Vulcan to the Sky

Just checked on the TVOC website to see how to honour my pledge and there is nothing. So, I check the forum and find a post saying don't send you pledges in as they haven't decided how to collect them yet. Followed by a number of posts saying too late I've sent a cheque.

How could they have put this all in motion without a plan to collect the money?! Their wages this month are paid for by donation from two businesses, they don't have time to waste and the longer they leave it the less chance they have of getting pledges honoured. Strike whilst the iron is hot!

I'll be very happy to see the Vulcan flying for another season but the 'management' of the project is a complete joke.
 
^^Gord^^ said:
Yes, people employed by the Vulcan Operating Company are paid including Chief Exec Dr Rober Pleming. They were also employing a marketing firm for at least 12 months (what a waste that was!).

They've never released the accounts so we don't know where the money is going and in what proportion (my main gripe with TVOC). I'd love to know what Dr Pleming is paid and what he does to justify his money.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for paying the engineers. The project is too big to work purely on people donating time and relying on companies / RAF donating man power.
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Now that makes me uneasy....
 
^^Gord^^ said:
The Vulcan, the Victor and the Valiant.

It's the Vulcan that appeals to most though. It was the one that did the display circuit years ago and was the one that was involved in the amazing Black Buck missions.
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Yup. '558 is the only one that will fly again.

Valiant - 1 survivor - was cut up to transport it.

Victor - Multiple survivors - but spares are harder to get than they are for a Lancaster. They were run to the absolute end of their life.

Vulcan - there's spares *all the RAF had - 60 tons iirc* and the expertise is there - the current crew chief *Smiler* was a member of the RAF team who supported the Vulcan when she was still in the RAF. Albeit, he was younger, thinner and had hair back then. ;)
 
^^Gord^^ said:
I'll be very happy to see the Vulcan flying for another season but the 'management' of the project is a complete joke.
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I'd second that, the poeple runing this seem to be a right unch of muppets, I'd love to get my hands on the full accounts! Sadly it seems giving them money is the only way to keep the old beauty flying.
 
a1ex2001 said:
I'd second that, the poeple runing this seem to be a right unch of muppets, I'd love to get my hands on the full accounts! Sadly it seems giving them money is the only way to keep the old beauty flying.
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I've got the same view, as much as I would like some big changes on how they operate you have to still give them money otherwise we will lose the only flying Vulcan.

I have found some accounts info, will post more when I'm home.
 
^^Gord^^ said:
Let me just say that I'm not saying they are up to anything dodgy. I would like them to be more transparent with the finances so I know it's all being used in the best way.
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It's the old no smoke without fire argument, if there is nothing dodgy going on then why are they not fully transparent?

Like you say it's probably nothing it's just the secrecy and the sometimes shambolic appearence of the project raises peoples suspicion, oh and the truly shocking amature web site they cobbled together.
 
Yup, the website is aweful. I've know people have offered to redesign it or help improve the current one. They never accept the help. I have no idea how they will attract a sponsor when they are greeted with that!

There are a lot of small things they could do to improve both people's view of them and the chance of getting a corp sponsor yet they don't seem to listen.
 
Better website and the ability to donate easier would go a LONG way to helping the project in this day and age...

A simple, clean, accessible website and the ability to donate via mobile phone text/credit wouldn't go amiss.
 
^^Gord^^ said:
I have found some accounts info, will post more when I'm home.
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Back home now, the iPhone is great but it's not ideal for long posts!

Here is the link http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk...ccounts/Ends48\0001101948_ac_20070731_e_c.pdf

That's the accounts for 2007.

Highlights:

£1.3 million owed to Marshall Aerospace as of Nov 07. Amount to be paid each year will be 33% of any surplus generated. Any amount left outstanding when the Vulcan is retired will be written off. Reading further in the document they state that on July 07 Marshalls were owed £976,428 so the debt was / is increasing.

£100,000 owed to C Walton Ltd (the owner of Bruntingthorpe, so in effect their landlord) is subject to ongoing discussions.

This next bit I had to quote....

The Trust's website www.vulcantotheskv.com continues to be updated to provide news and pictorial evidence of the
progress, and for the "e-donate" funding stream. The website continues to be well received, as it now enables
supporters to communicate with each other and the Trust through an online forum.
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:D

Trust has employed the services of a Public Relations company, Rock Kitchen Harris, of Leicester.

Operating budget for FY2008-9 is.....

£620,000 - Staff costs (more comment on that below)
£320,000 - OEM costs and Marshall Aerospace activity
£250,000 - Fuel (50 hours of flying)
£180,000 - Third party costs to operate the Vulcan such as insurance

Which I calculate to be £1.37m pa. Although they state they aim to raise £2m pa.

Back to the wages, it's not very easy to pick out what the state is as the amounts aren't broken down and there is the Vulcan To The Sky Trust and Vulcan To The Sky Enterprises Limited as well as consultancy.

It's stated that none of the Trust board members receive any remuneration or benefits for being on the board.

The wage bill for 2006 was £486,110 and for 2007 it was £735,012 The number of employees for 2006 was 23 and also for 2007 was 23. It's also stated that no employee earned over £60k. I'm assuming there has been a change of staff and the 23 employees aren't the same employees with a large pay rise! Although, no explanation is made for this large change.

Dr Pleming is also a director of RW Pleming Consulting Limited and was paid £38,141 for consultancy and expenses for 2007. In 2006 the figure was a whopping £91,760!!!
 
One of the issues people have had with TVOC is the lack of communication, especially with club supporters and the public in general.
However, some of the club members who are now on the committee have assured us that changes ARE going to happen NOW with the way things are run.

As a club member and regular visitor to the forums I can safely say that a whole load of plans and ideas are being put into place by various people, so we hopefully don't have to endure another last gasp 'pledgeathon' every year.
It seems that the people at the top have finally realised that the only way forward is to be much more open and not cut-off the people who are effectively keeping 558 in the air. That's US!

Like everyone else, we'll have to wait and see, but the project can't survive especially given the current recession if the structure and business plan doesn't dramatically change.

As far as pledges go, don't worry, you will be contacted shortly about honouring your pledge. Its all in hand. :)

Here's to seeing (and hearing) XH558 at an airshow soon. :cool:
 
That's good news and very refreshing to hear. As you can tell from my posts I'm not a fan of how the project has been handled to date and would welcome a change, especially if the Trust started to listen to aviation community at last.
 
Yeah its a great plane so see... unfortunatly it couldn't make it for the show near me due to some paperwork screwup or something.

They seriously need to work on the project management, communications, etc. if they want it to survive tho, even making donations is harder than it needs to be and tbh I wouldn't donate due to some decidedly dodgy goings on. Shame the plane deserves better than this.
 
Good to hear she is getting some display time in. Not displaying at Waddington and Yeovilton was very bad for her chances to attracting more money from the public and attracting a big sponsor.

Thankfully she took to the air for both days at RIAT.......

Vulcan-B2-XH558-display-photo-1.jpg
 
Stretch said:
I saw one at Lowestoft air show last year. It was an awesome sight, but I think it's going to be hard to find £1.6m a year, every year, if that's what's need to keep it flying. Especially at the moment.
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I saw it t at Lowestoft Air Show yesterday, I posted some piccies in the Photography forum.
 
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