Shackleton WR963 at Coventry, return to flight!!!

[XPLUMBER]

Great news, unfortunately I will be at RIAT, so wish you and the Team all the best for this wonderful project.

[hunterxf382]

Just a quick reminder to you all about this Saturday's special celebration event at Coventry!!!

£15 special reduced price to come and see us celebrate 25 years in preservation of our Avro Shackleton WR963...

Gates open 10am

Full Ground Run 2pm

Day finishes 5pm

Tours of our aircraft will be available during the day, and our neighbouring Nimrod is also being opened up by our friends who look after her too!

Chance to meet our team, and of course members of Number 8 Sqn Royal Air Force who are also bringing along some momentos to sell...

Our own freshly refurbished shop will be open - offering a range of our own merchandise and rare model kits which all go towards our fund-raising of course....

Click here for online booking:

http://www.avroshackleton.co.uk/latest-news.html

[hunterxf382]

A quick post to get the word out on an event being planned for 10th September which needs the word spreading as soon as possible!

More info on this will be shared once confirmed, and of course there are other SPT updates coming very soon with regards recent work and the results of our 25th anniversary event....

Keep an eye out too on our website which is undergong a transformation as I type following the addition of another web editor Aaron

Wheels At Coventry Poster by Pete Buckingham, on Flickr

http://www.avroshackleton.co.uk

[hunterxf382]

Hello everyone, due to safety concerns arising from the forecast adverse weather conditions due on Saturday, the Shackleton Preservation Trust have decided to cancel WR963's engine run this weekend. This run will be moved now to Monday 29th (bank holiday Monday) at 2pm. Entry as always is by the West gate CV8 3AZ We are sorry for any inconvenience caused and thank you all for your support.

The Chairman

[hunterxf382]

Due to unforeseen administrative circumstances, the Shackleton Preservation Trust has been forced to cancel the programmed public engine run on Bank Holiday Monday, and the Wheels event on the 10th of September. Unfortunately, we are also unable to allow public access to the aircraft at this time. We ask for your patience while we work through this situation, and we will update you all as soon as we possibly can. As I have said above, it is an administrative situation, and is not due to any form of incident.I appreciate many of you will have made plans to attend either or both of these events, and on behalf of the Shackleton Preservation Trust, I hope you will accept our apologies to you all for this very short notice.
Druid Petrie
Trustee
Shackleton Preservation Trust

[Sylar]

From Facebook

A statement from Dave Woods,
Chairman of Trustees - Shackleton Preservation Trust (reg charity no 1020951)
Legal owner of Avro Shackleton WR963/G-SKTN

I first got involved with Shackleton WR963 in late 2008 just after ownership had been taken back by Mike Collet following the failed attempt by ASCET to return her to flight. The aircraft had three engines present at that time, and numerous systems damaged or non-functioning.

My first job was to remove the front spinner from the No3 engine which I managed without breaking anything, then shortly after as WR963 looked in a bit of a state the decision was taken to repaint her. The then Chairman (John Cubberley)knew well of my modeling skills and asked me to head up the painting team which I was happy to do, I just approached it like a big Airfix kit. The final painting was completed over the course of five days and has lasted well since.

Over time I established a good working relationship with the managemaent at Coventry and Mike Collet in partiicular as we are both northern boys . When the SPT Chair's health took a turn and he decided it was time for him to step down I was invited to join the board of Trustees and later to become Chairman, this job involved steering the activities of the Trust in maintaining and operating WR963 on behalf of Air Atlantique, and raising enough money for the project to be self sufficient.

Mike must have been impressed as in 2011 he asked me to take over the running of Air Atlantique's "Airbase", who would turn down that opportuity? Not me - so I said "Yes please!", and we did rather well at it. Then in 2012 it was decided that the whole of CAF would be moved to a new facility in Cornwall. Mike at that time realised that moving the Shackleton and Nimrod was really not an option, so on being called to the office one day he offered the Shackleton to me.

Had I declined WR963 would have gone up for auction, and YES this would have also included the scrap man. What would you do, buy the aircraft that by now you have worked on for a number of years, or say "No thank you," in the knowledge that she could be turned into scrap? It was bit of a no brainer for me really, so I bought it - out of my own pocket I might add.

Some of you may ask why I bought it myself and not on behalf of the Trust, that is simple, at that time the Trust did not want the liability that may have come with the purchase (indeed there were howls of horror from the other Trustees when I proposed handing it over to the Trust), as this may well have included insurances and parking fees which are substantial for an aircraft of the Shackletons size and the Trust just did not have the funds to cover this.

Things were working well as they were, so I saw no reason for things to change so WR963 continued to be maintained and operated by the SPT as Mike had set up and all were happy with that arrangement. A few months later when Nimrod XV232 failed to sell, the transport cost was found to be atronomically high, and the aircraft was deteriorating rapidly, Mike asked me as Chairman to take it under the wing of the Trust on the same arrangement as WR963 had enjoyed, in that the aircraft would still belong to Mike but we - the Trust - would maintain and operate it. This the Trustees were happy to do as it would give us a nice little collection in its own right when all the other aircraft had departed, we would still have Shackleton, Nimrod and Shackleton Mk1 nose all together.

Time passed and we had highs and lows, members of the crew came and went as they do, then came 2015 and the Vulcan To The Sky day. The week before this saw WR963 up on jacks to change the brakes on both wheels to allow us to taxy on the day, it was a damn near run thing but we did it in front of the biggest crowd seen at Coventry in many years. We followed this up in April 2016 with a taxy run with paying passengers onboard, the first time this has been done EVER!!

The Trust at that time was solvent with plenty of cash in the bank, what I didnt know was that things were about to change and I'm afraid to say not for the better. WR963 became unservicable and remains so to this day.

Where did it go wrong?

At the beginning of the year I asked the crew to hit all the usual sites with messages pushing the hangar Fund and the names on the bomb bay doors, they didnt want to do it, why? They were worried that it may be seen that we were spamming people. Thinking I may be pushing too hard and with my wife's failing health taking more of my time, I decided, wrongly, to let them run things largely their way. Things fell away further and faster than anticipated.

A small group of the newer members for whatever reason felt that they needed to have private meetings to which the Chair and members they didn't favour were not invited. The whole thing degenerated into a Saturday morning "boys and their toy" club and not a group of like minded people with a common goal. Things I asked of them as Chairman of the Trustees of SPT in an attempt to try and halt the decline were ignored.

Little to nothing has been done with the Heritage Lottery Fund Application which would have given the trust £70,0000 development funding , the "Friends of WR963" has been run down and ignored with no updates and newsletters since the first one under the new Membership Secretary, so that is another source of funding gone.

The result? Since the middle of May we have had just £338 in donations.

There can be no doubt that the unservicability this year, little to no income from events (such as monthly public engine runs) combined with the huge expenditures has killed SPT. If we didnt have the Kickstarter funds the Trust would be out of funds completely now. The majority of the newer members treat this as if it is of no concern, the only idea that was brought up to raise funds is to scrap Nimrod XV232, I have to tell you that as long as I draw breath as Chairman I will not allow this.

To add to my stress level, this year new untrained members of crew have been put in positions on board the aircraft for private "test" runs when I wasn't on site. Not only is this poor behaviour from a safety point of view, it equates to some £3000 used in fuel this year alone for private - not public - "test" runs. Given I am the culpable person in that my name is on ALL the insurances, if there had been an incident and someone was injured or killed I would be facing criminal charges despite being 100 miles away at the time.

Speaking as the owner of the aircraft would you allow this to continue? I am no longer willing to let this happen so I have with the greatest reluctance removed ALL the insurances on the aircraft.

The SPT is now so divided that I doubt it can ever be brought back together. Weighing up all the above I feel I have had no choice but to call time on the work on WR963, and look to her preservation for future generations above all else.

As such I have to say that that brilliant dream of flight for the Shackleton is now gone.

Kind regards to all

Avro Shackleton WR963

[redeye11]

Very, very disappointed to have read this, but fully understand Mr Woods position. Initially I was very dubious about the whole exercise of getting her
back in the air, but I became quite enthusiastic as positive reports started coming through re her health, and in fact I responded to their request for
donations towards hangarage costs for the NDT testing. Not expected, but in return I received a nice certificate recording my donation. What a shame at this
outcome.

[paddyboy]

That man has been treated disgracefully, IMHO

John: every word you have said is totally correct, with one exception: 'Winter' should be supplanted by 'Early Autumn'

Sad Paddyboy

[tg13]

So what really happened then and I see Hunterxf382 has gone quiet. The reason I ask is that there is always two sides and it seems he has nothing to reply with?

[hunterxf382]

I'm devastated in all fairness, hence no additonal comments

[Satan1274]

For those who don't know this project has been abandoned due to lack of funding and managerial issues.The current owner of the aircraft will retain ownership but see's no prospect of further work,ground runs etc. being carried outA great pity!

[Satan1274]

Apologies for duplicating what had already been published.No sooner had I posted and all the info.popped up on my screen Arrrgghhh

[wokka]

Most organisations have disputes as to the direction being taken, but there seems to be more to this story. To me it seems odd that private test runs were being done without knowledge of the owner. Unless the committee gets to vote for that to happen and the owner has only a single vote, then it would appear strange. In the circumstances cutting off the group seems a reasonable action. Has their been any formal reply from the group? Until then we have to assume guilty as charged. What a disaster for vintage aviation.

[tg13]

There's a very interesting story regarding the support vehicle and it's usage,one of many that has come to light

[Sylar]

Which is what?

Cheers

Shane