The only flying Vulcan needs help!!!!

[SUBARMAN]

Some of you may have seen the Vulcan fly last year. You might be glad you did, because seeing it fly again might not be possible unless funding is forthcoming.

Please read this letter from the Chief Executive of the Vulcan Operating Company and consider the issues raise and whether there is any way you can help.

Visit the website www.vulcantothesky.org

Appeal Funding Crisis - Urgent

Our 50th Birthday Appeal to our loyal supporters and the millions who saw us fly this summer was for cash for two key reasons:

· To bolster our depleted reserves, now down to critical levels, to cover daily costs such as rent, wages, insurance;
· To commission and begin work on the Winter Service and life extension modifications to ensure we can deliver the 2010 Birthday Season.

From the small size of the mailbags arriving at Bruntingthorpe, it appears that XH558’s 50th Birthday Appeal has been badly affected by the various postal delays – we are significantly behind where we need to be to reach our £400,000 target by Christmas.

So far, we have received less than £30,000 in donations from 800 donors, from a mailing that went out to 35,000 people. This is a far lower response rate than ever previously experienced.

The total so far amounts to less than 10% of what we need before Christmas! Not only will we not be able to begin the time-critical engineering work, we are looking at the serious prospect of having to shut down the operation. This is now a serious and imminent threat.

With the major proportion of our known and planned funding of £1.6million coming in during the air show season, we have to rely on the Appeal to survive through the winter months

With the desperately slow progress we are currently making, we are finding it more and more difficult to cover our monthly base costs, let alone commit to the work that we need to have done to make it to the 2009 season.

I have to admit that I am now much more nervous about XH558’s future; it seems that unless we can mobilise significantly more support, the day of reckoning may not be far away.

This would be devastating to all those who have fought long and hard over the years to realise the dream. Our goal is so small in comparison to other funding needs, so we must try every avenue in which to succeed.

Our strategy remains to reach out to all those who saw XH558 last year, especially the huge numbers – 1.5 million – that attended the “free” airshows, and ask for their help in supporting XH558, whilst also trying to attract fresh support from others yet to be touched by “The Vulcan Effect”!

We need your help with this effort – which is why we have chosen to call the 50th Birthday Appeal a “staged appeal”.

We need you to act as the secondary stage of our campaign! We have released the primary – the 50th Birthday Appeal itself. We now need you to multiply the effectiveness of the Appeal many-fold in a chain-reaction, by taking the Appeal out to everywhere and anywhere.

Contact your local newspapers and radio stations, put up the posters, post on your blogs, email your friends and colleagues, link back to us from Websites you run – all will be valuable in taking out our message.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments, if you run into problems or have new ideas, or if you need posters and leaflets: give the office a call on 0116 247 8145.

We continue to work on leads and contacts in the hope of getting some widespread National coverage soon that will make the difference – it is hoped we can achieve this before it is too late.

My wife Suzanne and I were in London last Sunday for the Remembrance Day commemorations at the Cenotaph. It was a truly emotional experience, and a huge reminder of how much we all owe those who have served, and are serving, in our Armed Services.

It was also a strong reminder of XH558’s role in “Honouring the Past”, in particular those thousands of service personnel who supported the RAF’s “V-Force” in its strategic deterrent capacity in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In John Milton’s words, “they also serve who only stand and wait”: never more true than in the case of the V-Force personnel who were on standby for so many years. We must keep XH558 flying to ensure that this message is not forgotten.


Kind regards

Robert Pleming
Chief Executive

So, what can SES do as a group to help?

Would it be possible to arrange a sponsored event of some kind?

Arrange Collections at meets?

You know I don't mind putting in the mileage for something like this. How about a Scooby Convoy, to take in all the sites of Vulcans in the country Starting in Southend and then also meeting up with local scooby clubs along the way?

[SUBARMAN]

Ideas a-coming from the Worzel. Excellent.

The Vulcan Trust did a sponsored trip to visit all the Vulcans (15) in the country in 24 hours in 2009, called the Vulcan Scramble, using a logo-ed up Subaru Legacy funnily enough. Scotland to Southend!!! Obviously this involved gaining access to military installations to visit the Gate Keepers, and to museums. However, there are the three that are in flying or taxi-ing condition that would be more accessible hopefully.

I am not sure what we could do as a Club at short notice. If they get through the current crisis, then some sort of sponsored car event would be most excellent!!

That would be a most excellent Vulcan / Subaru extravaganza old bean.

[Gonza]

I'll be up for a mission!!

Washout ready to deploy...

What what what and chip cheerio what!

Delta wings a dawn, heading north in a flat four burble type fashion.

[Steve_PPP]

i'd love to come along if something was organised, my old man took me to a couple of airshows in the 80s when the vulcan was flying and i loved it.

still haven't seen it in the air since!

Spiffing good show what!

Did somebody mention , logo-ed up Legacy

Got to get the "Big Gun" involved what what.

[SUBARMAN]

Here is the Legacy in question.

[SUBARMAN]

Originally Posted by Steve_PPP

i'd love to come along if something was organised, my old man took me to a couple of airshows in the 80s when the vulcan was flying and i loved it.

still haven't seen it in the air since!

FUNDING PLEA!

Get your spare cash out, Steve, if you want to see it fly next year. Visit the website and donate a few quid. It all helps. They have had this proble in 2008 and 2009 and only just got there by the skin of their teeth. They are amazing people who care for this aircraft and they deserve our support.

You will of course be invited to any Vulcan happenings that I know about. With your tripod antics you can take photos of the cockpit from outside the plane.

I will get onto the website this afternoon and pledge some dosh for sure.

Lets get this plan into action, obviously we would be better waiting for some more clement weather, unless time constraints dictated we needed to get our arses in gear and get the funds collected.

So, arise Air Vice Marshall Simpleton........... your wingmen await your rousing rallying call.

What what what what!

[SUBARMAN]

Ha Ha! If only Simpleton was able to post on this forum!

Donated a nice Purple Lady to the fund.

Come on peeps, get you wads out for the Vulcan.

Keith, PM me Simpletons details (inc password) and the e-mail address that you have there. I maight be able to "cheat" it through for you.

I love being a naughty scarecrow.

[SUBARMAN]

You are a good man Steve and fully deserve your chocks.