Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

USS Hornet blog

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Originally posted by Gun Grape View Post
    Is this the Retired Airdale Navy Capt you mentioned a few years ago? If so, You would think he would have more skin in the game.
    He took over near the end of 2017. There have been no financial funny stuff under his watch. He is the one who fired off most all hired by Raposselli. Some staff have been moved down to PT status. It seems to others that he has just lost focus if you will such as letting insurance lapse. That is a big deal.

    Comment


    • Did they get the insurance reinstated? If not, are you guys open while it's lapsed?

      Comment


      • How has attendance been holding up? On the Website it mentions that Hornet had some 80,000 guests back in 2014 (last report posted). Is management trying to make a bigger Pie. It appears past "leadership" was just eating more of the pie? Other than volunteers are any of management still there after twenty plus years?

        Comment


        • Insurance reinstated.

          The Live Aboard program is robust and is definitely the cash cow for the Hornet on weekends at the moment. Come summer time, with school out, it does even better as the overnight numbers are quite large. I know the Hornet ran a small profit in the years of 2012, 2013, 2104, and 2015. During some of those later years Randall Ramian was CEO and we were steady. Unfortunately, being Navy Reserve he was called up and left the ship in 2015. It was then that Rapposelli was hired by Ray Fortney, the now new Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and things went downhill. She created positions which were unnecessary for the museum and our finances. Why do we need a paid historian? Anyway she is gone but that was only half the problem.

          As for ship board management there are none from the beginning other than our Director of Aircraft and I guess you could say volunteers, Rich Thom, who has no say over financial decisions. He commutes down every other week from Reno. I believe two trustees are also original. Frankly speaking the volunteers could do a better job running the day to day operations with an accountant who handles legal stuff like contracts. None of us believe in fluff but believe in the basics. You make money, you save some, and plow some back into the actual ship and not into new staff. You would think that is so obvious it would be a no brainer...

          Comment


          • I'd rather start a new thread but I'm not allowed to. Anyway, R/V Petrel did it again. They found USS WASP CV-7! https://www.facebook.com/rvpetrel/

            Comment


            • Holy cow the site is lightning fast today. WTH happened. Shots of work in restoring Fwd Aux. All ducting being put back up, fans, checked and some repairs as needed. Only one small section left but two blowers are i use and if there are any flies on the 3rd deck they are going to be sucked down to 5th deck. The fans are that strong and this is only two of them
              Attached Files
              Last edited by tbm3fan; 31 May 19,, 04:35.

              Comment


              • Oh, and another nest again. I never get tired of the view from up top.
                Attached Files

                Comment


                • Did two articles for Curbside Classics on our FM-2 Wildcat

                  http://www.curbsideclassic.com/ramps...n-f4f-wildcat/

                  http://www.curbsideclassic.com/ramps...t-restoration/

                  Comment


                  • In the documentary Apollo 11 there is quite a bit of footage from the Hornet. E-1 and a slew of SH-3D, and the recovery of Apollo 11 and Old 66
                    Last edited by Dazed; 07 Jun 19,, 01:19.

                    Comment


                    • Busy day down on the Hornet this past July 20th for the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11. Close to a paid crowd of 2700 people on board to view exhibits and listen to those who were there. The Navy Seal diver who opened the hatch, the Navy Flight Surgeon and Pres. Nixon's Naval aide were there to talk. On the 24th, the day the Hornet picked up the astronauts, there was another talk and it seems a surprise visit by the last man to walk on the moon.
                      Attached Files

                      Comment


                      • I spent the day in front of the SH-3 with Joe putting stamps into the Hornet discount passport. All ages around the world seem to smile when they got their Snoopy stamp. We also had people associated with the Recovery Team signing the inside of the SH-3 hatch. The fellow signing is our last moon walker.
                        Attached Files

                        Comment


                        • This will be interesting. The event runs from the 26-28th and I'll be down all day the 27th to paint. In the meantime I will get shots of this course from the bird's eye view high up in the Island. Apparently of six figure rental fee for this.

                          https://sf.funcheap.com/jeep-obstacl...rrier-alameda/

                          Comment


                          • Forget about those shots.
                            Attached Files

                            Comment


                            • After that event we had Porsche rent the flight deck for a commercial. They needed to practice early in the morning in the parking lot, originally aircraft parking, in order to learn how fast they could go and then stop before ending up in the bay. Naturally the base private security drove by and stopped them for not having a permit. That took a couple of hours and they finally practiced.

                              Comment


                              • Now for the work being done. Here the bomb elevator had an issue with the counter weight for the cover making it quite hard to lift. So one of our volunteers, who does know how to weld, works on fixing the issue.
                                Attached Files

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X