Canberra WK163 Restoration to flight by VTTS

[Angry Turnip]

VTTS deploying the begging bowl yet again-shock! 

[jasT1981]

Maybe Dr Plemming could donate some of his 'earnings' to help. The amount needed is less than his annual take home from VTTS and would still leave him with close to £80k of his annual earning.

[Angry Turnip]

VTTS is a shambles-the ones that did all the hard work and graft,did it for little more than the satisfaction of getting the aircraft flying,while those at the top lined their pockets-disgusting.

[52POSTROC]

Heard tonight that Taff Stone has been let go now too. If funding is not in place by April then they lose the temp hanger they are in now and XH558 goes outside. Only two staff being kept on, bet you can't guess who one of them is....

Was on their Facebook page earlier and noticed they have started censoring negative comments. A whole post was deleted as pretty much every comment left on it was negative.

[jasT1981]

They were reposting only the positive comments to show support last night. My personal favourite.

'We have to keep Thumper going - she's a National Treasure!'

[jasT1981]

Heard tonight that Taff Stone has been let go now too. If funding is not in place by April then they lose the temp hanger they are in now and XH558 goes outside. Only two staff being kept on, bet you can't guess who one of them is....

Yup.. only 2 being kept on it seems. Very dire situation, every engineer gone.

The 2 being kept on are Andrew Edmundson and of course........ Robert Pleming.

From a post elsewhere

A very sad day today folks, made a final visit to see XH558 in hangar three, which you might think was sad enough, but there was more bad news to come... Today was an ideal opportunity to have a chat with one of the engineers, someone that we have known for many years, and when I asked him if he was being kept on, he dropped a bombshell by saying that no one was being kept on, all the engineering team, including Taff Stone were being laid off.

Only two people will remain, possibly on a part time basis, and I think you can guess who they are, yep Robert Pleming and Andrew Edmundson, everyone else....gone. I asked if Taff was there today, he said no, he had left and gone for an interview, I believe he said at Cranwell. When asked if he would go back if asked to by the Trust, he said no, not after the way they had been treated. More info came to light, that 558 will move into hangar one and put into storage, but he said that it will only be allowed to stay there till April, if no new home has been built / found by then, she will be moved and stored outside.

Also spoke to one of the volunteers, again someone we have known for many years, and he told us that all the volunteers will leave at the end of the week, and will only return if a new home is found for 558. At the moment folks, the future to me doesn’t look to bright. If there are no engineers, how are they going to keep her in taxiable condition, something that the Heritage Fund said they had to do when they got the grant, hope they wont want their money back. No one would be drawn into a conversation re WK163, except to say, that the Trust realise now that they made a mistake in buying her..

As I say, to me the future doesnt look to good, no engine runs, no taxi runs, no engineers, no volunteers and no visits for the foreseeable future for members of the public. There is a possibility of course that all of this, and more, may be in tomorrow nights newsletter, we will have to wait with baited breath to see…

In regards to the Canberra, I think the VTTST thought the public would just keep pumping funding to them when XH558 landed for the final time and was a sure thing given the success of 558s return to flight.

[jasT1981]

And into storage the Vulcan goes


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfV57AK0jm8

[jasT1981]

Out of storage now, and charging £110 to view the engine & maintenance testing of XH558. Down from £150.

I dread to think what they will charge for actual fast taxis if that is the cost of an engine test viewing!

[Angry Turnip]

Fleming and a few others have turned the whole Vulcan thing very sour-I would not be surprised if an investigation into how the Lottery money and donations pledged was spent.
I wouldn`t let Fleming and his like near any project of any type again-they are an utter disgrace.

[jasT1981]

Absolutely sickening. VTTS expenditure on wages and salaries were £772,282 for the last financial year. £30,000 alone on computer costs and £50,000 on a non public consultation. The valuation of XH558 dived from £1.25m to £750,000. They are now in a position were the value of the aircraft is actually LESS than what they pay staff. 

http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/DocumentList.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1101948&SubsidiaryNumber=0&DocType=AccountList

All that money, and yet it didn't stop them coming out with the begging bowl and sob stories of needing to raise £200,000 for a hangar all from public donations.