Current Status of Collings 2020 Aircraft Tour

[Ed Likes]

Does anyone know out in WIX land what is currently taking place with the Collings Foundation and the 2020 Tour with there aircraft. You click on there website, and there is nothing scheduled until March down in Texas. Collings started there tour in January in Florida offering rides as well as ground tours. Then my understanding was the FAA stepped in, and told Collings they can't offer rides at this time in there aircraft. Which hopefully is temporary. It looks like Collings did a couple more Florida stops just offering ground tours.
Now 2-10-20 there is nothing on the schedule for sometime. Are the B-24 and P-51 back at New Symara Florida? Whatever is going on I surely hope things can get settled quickly with the FAA. Our nation will be deprived of Living History. Will look forward to what each of you has to say on my question.

[lucky52]

"Their" there, maybe the FAA is trying to yank a knot in their tail.

[TAdan]

I believe they are back in New Smyrna for additional maintenance. They usually do a smaller tour of Florida then a maintenance break before the national tour, so that all appears normal.

They are still offering flight instruction in the P-51 and P-40 and ground tours of the bombers. P-40 "American Dream" has joined them on a few tour stops in FL. I presume this is because the CF P-40 was still in maintenance.

As far as the national tour, you are correct the calendar is not as filled out as it usually is. Hopefully they'll have the support needed for a full tour. I am eager to see them again.

They do have this message posted, so that's a good sign. I'm sure the unforeseen changes do make things more difficult for them.

https://www.collingsfoundation.org/even ... edom-tour/

Don’t see a city we have normally flown to? Don’t worry, MANY more visits to be added!
The schedule below contains the currently confirmed visits, but there are many more to come around the United States later in the year, so bookmark this page and keep checking back!

Last edited by TAdan on Mon Feb 10, 2020 11:39 am, edited 2 times in total.

[OD/NG]

I don't think any of this is going to be resolved quickly, in my opinion. If the FAA keeps Collings from selling rides until the NTSB investigation is complete, then that means, in effect, the entire tour this year will be scrubbed. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the economics of doing a National Tour cannot "break even" without having the ability the sell rides in the bombers. At best, it would mean that the Foundation would have to rely upon airshow appearances to make any amounts of non-trivial money. Doing ground tours only in their aircraft will not even pay for the gas to fly all of the bombers from location to location across the United States. Doing airshows, historically, is generally not a large money making generator. There is a reason that the entire business model of the Collings Foundation is almost exclusively reliant upon selling rides in their aircraft and not doing airshows. As any casual observer can attest to, the Collings Foundation rarely participates in airshows, unless it is very local to where the aircraft are already flying, or there is a specific reason, such as at Oshkosh, where the Foundation will typically showcase a new restoration to the public for the first time.

So, I see one of two scenarios playing out:

1) The FAA and Collings Foundation come to some kind of mutual agreement to continue the tour with certain conditions stipulated which could satisfy the FAA's concerns. If this plays out, then the Collings Foundation would continue the tour and everything gets restored back to "ops normal".

2) The FAA tells the Collings Foundation that they cannot sell rides in the bombers until after the results of the NTSB investigation are released. The NTSB has been on record as saying that the accident investigation will take sometime between 12 to 18 months to complete. The accident was on October 2, 2019. That means that the earliest the investigation could be complete would be October 2, 2020. Assuming that this happens, that means that it would also take additional time for the FAA to see what the NTSB recommendations of the investigation are and if or whether they would apply those to the Collings Foundation prior to them resuming touring. All of this will take time to implement and get approved by both Collings and the FAA. That means more time, as in several months, at the very least - possibly longer. This would mean that the entire National Tour for this year would be scrubbed and be a huge loss of revenue for the Foundation for 2020.

I don't know how this will play out. I hope for the Collings Foundation that they get this resolved quickly and are able to sell rides again in the bombers. If they are not able to, it will be economically devastating to the Foundation because of the loss of revenue. And all of this is before we even start talking about the multi-millions in lawsuits that will have to be settled as a result of the crash.

I really hope that the Collings Foundation is able to survive the huge economic storm that is coming their way. For their sake, our sake as fans/enthusiasts, and the sake of the "warbird industry", it is in all our collective best interests' that they survive. If they don't, the precedent it sets could impact all warbird operations from this point forward in a very negative way on so many levels. We are already beginning to see the effect of the crash as manifested through the temporary "stand-downs" of the Lone Star B-17 and Movie Memphis Belle B-17. Unfortunately, this will get worse before it gets better.

I recommend that everyone do everything you can to support the Collings foundation and ensure that they survive all of this. If they don't survive this, it will be hugely detrimental for all of us and the planes that we love to see fly.

[phil65]

I wonder if there's a chance they will sell off some of their flying aircraft and concentrate on their museum in Stow Massachusetts, which they just put a lot of money into.

Phil

[WIXerGreg]

Aluminum Overcast's schedule has only one date on it for the year so far also.

[BK]

Aluminum Overcast's schedule has only one date on it for the year so far also.

There are dates (including my hometown) for AO, they just haven't been publicly announced yet. She will be joined by another EAA bomber on tour as well.

[phil65]

B-25...?

Phil