Warbird Information Exchange

All kidding aside, it would be great (and a smart move both financially and politically) for the Navy to auction off the surplus SBDs. Imagine them doing that one or two a year for the next decade. With such a slow process, it would keep the interest and the prices up, while slowing populating the market with SBD airframes that would be potential fliers. The Navy museum would end up with some great 6-figure funds to use to continue restoring the rare airframes they have in their collection, and/or would have the ability to farm out some of those restorations to professionals to speed up the process. Talk about a win-win!

kevin

_________________
FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!

IMO....broadly speaking to all and not pointing at anyone.....some folks on Warbirds need to acknowledge the fact that some warbird-related topics can't be honestly discussed without recognizing the additional fact that politics influences the outcome(s) of warbird interests. Sticking our heads in the sand to avoid it will not make it go away. In my humble and respectful opinion, this particular thread is a great example of how a political event (sequestration) will affect, in this case, warbird museums and the aircraft in them. The ongoing MIA project I'm involved with could be greatly affected by the looming sequestration. Sadly, I like others, have seen a few legitimate and interesting warbird threads here get squashed because politics was an element of the main thread topic and someone got nervous or didn't want their feelings hurt. IMO....if you can't find it in yourself to look past a factual political element of a thread and adultly focus and contribute to the thread topic, IGNORE THE THREAD AND MOVE ON TO ANOTHER ONE! I applaude the mods for letting this interesting thread go on! With that long dormant opinion off my chest....I'll hop off the soapbox.

WRT museums.....if the sequestration does happen and museums become in jeopardy, does anyone think privatizing some of these museums is far off? Maybe forming a partnership with private, for-profit entities? Selling off historical assests (i.e. aircraft) may help with short-term funding but I think a long term funding strategy is where the answer will be. One idea being looked at in my case is allowing a private entity take possesion of a warbird for a given period of time. The entity will fund everything, rebuild, upkeep, ops, insurance, etc for X number of years and the govt will still own it. That could take the tax burden off the taxpayers and keep a plane flying.

CNBC this morning - ratling off all the things that are to be cut, said the FAA would have to close 100 control towers at smaller airports. Obviously don't understand the flying community very well. Is there any way we could get two sequestrations?

_________________
Rob C

Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. “

– Michael Crichton

On the radio a little bit ago I heard of list of things that maybe cut in sequestration. There are now questions that it may not be as dire as advertised. It's "only" a $50 billion cut and does not decrease the overall spending level taking place. So...hopefully/maybe the museums will not take too bad of a hit and keep the doors open for all of us.

I wonder though if it will postpone the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum expansion of the new hangar that is supposed to house the transports like the C-17, C-5, C-141 as well as the Presidential planes.

Sequestration is a reduction in the rate of budget growth. Nothing is being cut unless you speak in Washingtonese.

I thought that was largely being covered by private/corporate donations, hence the fundraising campaign. I've been told that the NMUSAF is operated by the privately-funded Foundation. I'm not sure how much of their actual funding comes from the Gov't.

SN

1. Threats to cut Blue Angels/Thunderbirds rest of season
2. Already no Air Force demos with F-15, F-16, A-10
3. Heritage flights canceled
4. Threats to cancel all military base air shows.

It's that use it or lose it budget mentality. So BDK is right. They're losing the extra money they thought they were going to be allowed to spend.

David

As to Warner Robins...
Back when Newt shut down the gubment, the museum was kept open by the foundation. The civil service side got, what amounted to, a paid vacation (They were paid later for the time furloughed.) while we on the foundation side got to work. Granted, none of the restoration side was foundation; nor, did they allow volunteers to work that side at that time.

WR has always had the mission of portraying the USAF and other military elements located at RAFB and its associated satellite bases. The EE Lightning was tenuous as it was stationed at the old USAAF Depot that was there during WWII. So, most of the aircraft will represent ones that were, at some point in history, associated with RAFB. Now that the Marine Reserve Cobras are stationed there, I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually got one of them too.

These moves are planned well in advance and try to maintain their mission aircraft for the museum. Ken Emory has done an outstanding job.

_________________
Cheers!

Lance Jones

Heard on local news today that in Orlando, the G.A. airport ; Orlando Exec, would be losing it's tower. The field used to be Herndon and was a military base back during WW2. It is currently a very busy airport. If they plan on closing the tower it would really throw a monkey wrench in the day to day opertaions here.

Whether you want to call it 'cuts' or 'reduction in growth' is semantics depending on which side of the debate you are on.

I can tell you how the sequestration IS playing out in the DoD, particularly from the USN side of things:

The Navy's share of the 'reduction in budget growth' is $4 Billion.

The Navy (and other services) began FY 13 operating under a CR (as we have for the past few years) expecting that Congress and POTUS would eventually work something out. Consequently, in order to meet the operational requirements dictated by the President and Congress, the Navy spent their Q1 and Q2 funds accordingly. The Navy's operating budget is about $1 Billion per month, so in order to meet expected requirements for Q3/Q4, the Navy would need $6 Billion. Because the sequestration kicks in mid-fiscal year, that means the Navy has to take the $4 Billion reduction all out of Q3/4 funding, so if sequestration does happen, we basically have $2 Bill left to meet $6 Bill in requirements. The real kicker of all this is that the way the sequestration is imposed means the reduction all comes out of our operating money. R&D, future acquisiton programs, pay and benefits which make up a HUGE portion of the Navy's overall budget will not be touched at all.

So, essentially the cuts/reductions while small in the big picture, will have the most painful effect possible while at the same time not doing a blessed thing to address the pork and wasteful spending that has spread throughout the federal budget like cancer.

To give you an idea of how painful these seemingly small reductions will be, in order to operate within the $2 Billion that will be left for FY13, the Navy has cancelled all major ship and aircraft availabilities scheduled for the rest of this year and shifted them into FY14. Due to the operating requirements of the last several years (again imposed by the President and Congress) ship deployments have been averaging 8 more months (pre-9/11 deployments were 6 months) and dwell time between deployments has been reduced. The material condition of the fleet and aircraft has significantly suffered, so delaying shipyard periods right now is the worst time to do so. The Navy has asked to reduce the number of ships in the fleet in order to take better care of what we have and that has been DENIED by Congress.

Now for the cascading effects of this approach; because of the cancellation/delay of shipyard periods, BAE Systems (operates shipyards in San Diego and Norfolk) will be forced to lay off 3500 skilled shipyard workers. They simply can't afford to keep them on the payroll with no work to do for 6 months or more. While BAE will eventually get the contracts back, most of those skilled workers will have gotten jobs elsewhere to feed their families, so many of those 3500 workers will not be there to hire back. And now the shipyard has to hire and train new workers which will set back the time required to fix the ships, potentially reduce the quality of the work and likely drive the price of those contracts up.

Hopefully folks can see why musuems and airshows are not a huge priority for the DoD right now.

You can blame whoever you want for this mess (that's all Congress seems to be doing right now), but the reality of the sequester is exactly what I detailed above. The only thing that will change is that IF at some point the President and Congress work things out and retro-actively give us the money back, we will be able to 'buy' back some of the scheduled items that have been cut....and that will likely end up costing us more to reschedule then if we had kept them as scheduled in the first place.

It is easy for someone listening to a talking head on the radio or TV to say that there are no cuts and the sequester will have minimal impact, but for those who are directly effected (I am currently assigned to a ship whose entire schedule and drydock availability has already been affected by this mess) it is a bit more than rhetoric. It is quite possibly the most damaging and inept way I have ever seen to reduce or control spending.

This is the truth.
This is actually a good thing, and not the end of the world some politicians would have us believe.
Then again those are the same politicians who have not passed a budget in what 3-4 years?

You just need to join the Free Stuff Army. Easier for the Dems to buy their votes. My personal budget takes a hit too. I have no money or time left to fly. Politicians go for the "cuts" that seem to make the most impact on the uninformed. When did the Feds pay most of the salary form my local police, fire,Ems, and schools?

This country is resilient enough to survive this economy. I've read that if this comes into effect anywhere between 100,000 to 130,000 jobs will be lost in the FAA alone. If this happens I can see "user fees" coming to the forefront. I think most people have become numb to these deadlines as it seems to always be resolved in the midnight hour. The Constitution clearly says, "provide for the common defense". If it does happen and museums do shut down, so what...its not forever and at worst they collect alittle more dust. There are much larger problems to be dealt with.

jim

_________________
www.spiritof44.com