Sep 24, 2010 by Ian Homer. Posted to category: General
A message from Robert Pleming
Dear Supporters,
With three more hugely popular displays now completed – at the Jersey Airshow RAF Leuchars and Bristol Filton - we are approaching the end of another successful air display season for XH558. Based on the spectator numbers provided to us, we estimate that XH558 has been seen by over 1.5million people at the 17 venues she has visited around the UK.
This means that we are also approaching the last of our major revenue-earning flying activities. With currently no other major new funding sources clearly identified, we need to take some decisive actions to ensure that XH558 achieves her destiny of flying in the Diamond Jubilee year.
The Trust’s cash position as we move into the autumn is now very tight. Let the figures speak for themselves. As of 31st August, our income for the ten months since the start of our financial year (1st November 2009) was £1,966,917 against the plan of £2,441,492, a shortfall of over £474,000. Our costs though were lower than expected, at £1,880,915, against the plan of £2,160,760, a difference of £380,000, this despite having completed all the planned engineering investment. Further detail on how these figures are made up maybe seen on the accompanying pie charts.
http://www.vulcantothesky.org/how-to-help/financials.html
We have of course been monitoring how well we have performed over the past year. As regards things that have not gone as well as hoped, our late start in July to the UK air display season, owing to an overrun of our engineering programme, meant that disappointingly XH558 missed a number of profitable air displays in June.
Despite investing heavily in an advertising campaign in various media, we haven’t yet seen any significant return – this is a major concern as we currently don’t know why. Restricted as XH558 currently is to flying in Visual Meteorological Conditions, the loss of the displays over the Bournemouth and Shoreham air display weekend due to poor weather hit us hard, with the loss of over £46,000 in net income.
Certain things we have been forced to delay until 2011, for example the internet-based competition “Ticket to Ride” for a fast taxi in XH558 has had to be held over due to Gambling Commission constraints. Something, certainly in ours sights for next season!
Our Annual Appeal has so far raised £46,296 in the two months it has been running, but this is only about 18% of the £125,000 per month rate needed to reach our target.
On a more positive side, we have had a number of significant successes. XH558’s technical serviceability this year has remained high, largely due to the diligent attentions of our engineering team, so we have been able to satisfy a very high percentage of our air display bookings this year.
Our engineering organisation has now gained some of the formal technical approvals from the CAA necessary to undertake maintenance and rectification activities independent from our Engineering Authority, Marshall Aerospace. This in turn will lead to reduced costs.
The winter servicing programme included the successful embodiment of two fatigue life extension modifications to XH558’s wings. For one of these modifications, it was the first time the modification had been made to a flying Vulcan, the only other time being to the Vulcan Fatigue Test Specimen at Woodford in the 1960s!
The engineering programme this year has actually come in under budget, which confirms that we are managing to keep our costs under control..
Despite a yet more exciting display this year, our aircrew have modified the way they are flying XH558 so as to reduce the rate of consumption of the airframe’s fatigue life by over 30%, thus delaying the inevitable end of her flying career.
On fund-raising and communication to our supporters, the new-look website and email newsletters appear to have gone down well. The 50th Birthday Card signing page has now notched up over 10,500 signatures, each one with a touching comment or message of good wishes for XH558 – a stunning success!
We have re-organised our merchandise and web store, and this part of our activities is now making a significant return for the Trust, with revenues of nearly £60,000 over the past two months.
The Trust’s hospitality presence at Farnborough this year, while pricey, has produced a number of new and significant corporate sponsorship and philanthropy leads, which we are of course continuing to pursue as vigorously as possible, but it is currently impossible to foretell whether any of these will prove fruitful before we finally run out of money.
We know that we need to tell the world about our current situation - yet again – so a new media campaign will commence on Monday with the crisis messages as strong as we can make them. Our website will now be updated with the current status of our activities so that we can all monitor our progress.
We will of course be making it absolutely clear that it would amount to a national travesty if XH558 were not available to be able to fly down the Mall on 4th June 2012 in celebration of Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, mirroring the Concorde flypast performed on the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.
So how else can we reach out to the British Public?
Over the next few weeks, we will tell you about our plan for the future, taking us through exciting opportunities with XH558, past her expected remaining flying life to planned retirement, and the construction of a lasting legacy to the days when Britain led the world in aviation, by means of an Academy of Engineering Excellence. With a very strong story to tell, it is hoped that we can capture the support of a wide audience.
We now look forward with mixed feeling to the last planned public sortie of XH558’s 2010 flying season, to participate in the “Help for Heroes” fly-in at Coventry Airport on 26th September, hoping that it will not turn out to be the final public appearance of her second flying career.
There is one final sortie currently planned, on Wednesday 29th September, when XH558 flies with the Blades aerobatic team at Sywell, who will be carrying the winners of this year’s Children in Need competition.
On the subject of competitions, you now have just hours left in our Raffle and Auction - aimed at releasing two additional seats on the Blades aircraft alongside XH558 on this flight. In mid October, we will also Auction off on ebay many items of memorabilia and parts, all aimed at raising funds. Look out for news in forthcoming newsletters by making sure you are subscribed to our e-mail list from the “Sign-up”button of the Home Page.
One further thought, about the extended Vulcan to the Sky team, including our eleven employees, the aircrew, volunteers, Club members and those who support XH558 in companies round the UK. All members of this extended team have worked extremely hard, firstly to return XH558 to the air, and since then to keep XH558 flying for the public. On behalf of all of you who are reading this, I would like to pay tribute to this unique team’s unstinting efforts in making real the vision of a flying XH558.
We have a huge fight on our hands to keep XH558 funded. If we fail, we’ll lose a treasured national icon forever. With the current commemorations of the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain in mind, I’m counting on you to join the rest of the team in fighting the battle for XH558, the Spirit of Great Britain.
Robert Pleming
Vulcan to the Sky Trust
