The Quiet Man of Air Racing

John Penney finally speaks out in 2003...on the course, and off. Penney, The Rare Bear crew and Lyle Shelton are relieved after a high-risk decision.

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High Five!

Response 1:

Hi John!:  

Your Letter to the Editor should be up. Let me check the links because I've been changing the pages and giving the site a new look.  I'm going to be pissed at myself if that one fell out of the loop.  That was a good response and I want it up there as long as the Case is underway.  We're looking at another year minimum of coverage.   

I am hoping that more people will follow your example and feel free to dissent.   As for additional postings, Mr. Sagar sent some a while back but didn't identify them until later (to someone else) as Letters to the Editor.  Those will be going up shortly with rebuttal, along with some other comments in support of the rebuttal by Mr. Sagar's own hand.  

Feel free to continue commenting here and on the side of RARA or whomever you support.  We want to get some discussion and debate going in Air Racing without folks having their messages quashed.  Rebuttals are okay from an Editor in my book, but not the downright pulling of the message.  We are limited with what we can do in the area of Free Speech in regards to Message Boards, but Letters to the Editor is a whole 'nother matter. 

That's why I want to stick with the old school Letters to the Editor column.   Checking at this time on your response...if any link has broken or if it has disappeared because I did something stupid, I'll get it right back up and notify you immediately.  I want that one up to stay....    

Also, did anyone hassle you over that message?  Or did I cause you upset with my response?  Neither is my intent.  I want people to stop being afraid of talking and giving an opinion. 

If anyone fears anything from me, it's that I talk too much!

BRDB!!! (= Best Regards DA BEAR!!!)

Response 2:

Hi John:  

Got it figured out.

Your link was down on the page at:   www.silverstatenews.com/extra.html   I had reassigned the link to make space on the page for newer stories. 

The link is in a section called "Links to previous stories" and is in the third column from the left, fourth column down.   However, because of the recent activity, I'm reassigning the link to the home page at:   www.silverstatenews.com  

...because I want to see if we can get some debate going.  Literally, the response I have from you and the response I have from Steve Carter are all that I've received since reporting the Water Works Scandal in November, other than some attaboys that had nothing of substance to them other than "great job" and all that.  

I want letters to the Editor to have substance, so I really do appreciate those other letters and those I keep near and dear to me, but both you and Carter had substance to your Letters in regards to the issues.  Those are the ones I want to post. 

By ridding the column of anything that is essentially addressing my "vanity," we stick to the issues.  Carter's was an attaboy, but it was critical of the Press at the same time.  So it went up.  Yours was dissent, it went up.  

Will post your current e-mail with this as a response.  I look forward to hearing from you soon.  The only way balance here will be attained however, is if people on both sides of the issue write.  

BRDB!!!

Response 3

Hi John:  

This is to update you in regards for your call for "balance" at SSNS.   As I mentioned yesterday, Sagar indicated he had sent some e-mails as "Letters to the Editor."  Unfortunately, he never informed me of that but did inform the Plaintiffs in the Water Works Scandal.  I have received those exchanges and posted them, plus I just posted Mr. Sagar's remarks in his "Sour Grapes" E-mails.  

http://www.silverstatenews.com/extra/Noble_Journalist/second_installment.htm  

Mr. Sagar's remarks to Plaintiffs and his e-mails to me will be rebutted later.  I want the readers to take their time going through them, before I rebut them.  Any rebuttal would be a distraction from the materials at hand.  I expect to start rebuttal in a week.  

BRDB!!! (= Best Regards DA BEAR!!!)

Hi Steve!:

You're very welcome!

I agree that Las Vegas is the future of Air Racing. However, Reno likewise, is the future of Air Racing, if we can keep that event in town and alive.

What we are seeking to do (Parties independent of each other, working towards the same goal...) is end corruption and misconduct by Officials (leadership) in the Reno Air Racing Association and the Airport Authority of Washoe County. AAWC appear to be listening and tonight, we received the IRS Form 990 package directly from RARA via Dave Wilbern. Hopefully, these are harbingers of a brighter future.

At SSNS, I'm seeing subtle changes. I'm keeping up the defiant stance, but SSNS will be less critical if both organizations start changing their ways, start being both Air Racer and Consumer oriented, and stop throwing obstacles in the way of Sponsorship of the racers and Uncensored, Uninfluenced Reporting by the Press Corps.

My belief is that the Reno National Championship Air Races are the Grandaddy event in Air Racing, and should remain as the premier event of Air Racing in the U.S.

I would like to see Las Vegas develop a "World Championship Air Races" to complement, rather than compete with, the Reno Air Races.

One event should not muscle out the other. Both should work together and help improve each other's event without simultaneously competing with each other in that, Air Racing is in the most fragile state it has ever been in it's nearly 100 year history (Centennial: August 2009).

However, if the current leadership of the Reno Air Races believes that continued fear and intimidation of the racers, fans, sponsors and Press, is the way to achieve dominance in The World's Fastest Motorsport when it comes to event promotion, they are most seriously in error. Fragility not withstanding, RARA will get hammered!

The selling off of the racecourse lands belonging to the Community, which makes RARA and the Reno Air Races possible, violated Fiduciary Trust and thoroughly endangers the future of Air Racing in Reno. Banning John Parker from the Reno Air Races and trying to blame the danger then and now faced by the Reno Air Races, was cowardly. Parker did nothing wrong. Lying to the Press was a big mistake -- if you lie to me, you lie to my readers. If you lie at all, you're in the wrong covering up some wrong you did.

The thugs at the Awards Banquet for me was the final straw and I've been hammering RARA ever since, and the AAWC along with it.

I will not be fooled by subtle changes. Major changes are required at RARA. They (RARA/AAWC) need to be thinking about the future of the event and improving it, to include, a year-round operational, purpose-built Air Racing site.

Thus, to put it bluntly, I'm surprised the folks at AAWC aren't listening to Sam Dehne these days. Sam is flamboyant, a little eccentric in approach, but he's a smart man who knows his stuff.

Sam's a former US Air Force pilot in B-52 Stratofortresses and a Pan Am Airbus A300B pilot. He is sharp as a whip when it comes to Aviation matters, and Sam has pointed out previously that there is land available to move the Reno-Tahoe International Airport to in order to expand and cut down on noise and safety problems near the downtown Reno area.

Well, frankly, I don't see Reno-Tahoe making that move -- not enough demand at this time -- but if there's enough land for a new International Airport where Sam proposes, perhaps it's adequate land for a new purpose-built, Air Racing site? One of a permanent nature.

Without adequate communication between RARA, the AAWC and the Community, issues like these will stagnate and simple solutions will be harder to reach.

I say to RARA, knock off the lying, reach out to the Public, the Air Racers, the Fans, Businesses and the Sponsors -- not to mention the Press Corps -- and communications will return and solutions will soon be at hand.

The days of the Good Ol' Boyz are over, as are most assuredly, the days of the "Air Race Nazis." There is no future in Machiavellian leadership.

If RARA sees that change is necessary and inevitable, the situation will improve. If RARA fails to change, the leadership there is a done deal.

"Toast," if you will.

In the paraphrased words of the late, great Peter Finch, in the movie "Network:"

"The people are 'Mad as Hell,' and they're not going to take it anymore!"

As for the competition between Reno and Las Vegas -- it's one thing to be a bully, but quite another to be a "Big Brother" and let your "Wimp" kid brother ride your coat tails!

Or, since Reno is the Grandaddy of all Air Racing events, Las Vegas should consider helping the old geezer across the street! <G> If the old geezer won't cooperate, "it's the rest home for him!" (Got all that, Mikey H!?)

The time is now for brotherhood between both cities in that, Las Vegas would not really care about Air Racing were it not for the successes of Reno (40 years + and still going...we hope). Reno cannot survive without Air Racing expanding to another venue, and of the other venues that have potential, Las Vegas is presently our greatest hope.

Unlike promoters before him, Bob Avery has carefully planned his establishment of Air Racing at Las Vegas to include a half-decade of organizing, promoting, marketing and practicing via the annual Aviation Nation Air Show at Nellis AFB. SSNS believes fully that this planning will lead to total success on his part. Total!

Both cities can benefit from each other's efforts to promote the proposed National and International Air Racing Circuits. The future of Air Racing is in working together to reorganize the Sport.

Until corruption and misconduct are expelled from Air Racing, there will be no healthy attempt at organization. Corruption and Misconduct are nothing more than cancers -- and as they grow, so much closer comes the death of the patient.

Steve, I must con you into writing for me some time!

Bearz are patient creatures. We will wait.

Best Regards,

Mark S. "Bear" Daniels
Editor
Silver State News Service
www.silverstatenews.com

Spoke with a dinner friend this evening who is attending the Air Race "Pylon School" this weekend.

He says that the Air Races treated him very well, and found their people, as well as the pilots he flew with in the T-6 class, to be wonderful and accommodating (in particular to a "rookie").  

Thought you should know this.

He is a new potential race pilot and is very excited about qualifying. Not sure if he thinks he is ready for this year, but he represents a very important  "new blood" element for Air Racing's future.  

He is a good friend who will do some wonderful things with/for the sport in the near future. When he called me today he was more excited than I have heard him in some time about his accomplishments this weekend.  

John Saxon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello Again, John!:

I appreciate your writing!

SSNS has been hearing about some hard drving AT-6 pilots out at Reno-Stead from Scotty Germain's Warbird Aero Press site. Scotty has posted four groups of photos from this past weekend's PRS at his site.

This is the kind of news we should share with the whole world, so here's your letter. I'm at the SpaceShipOne Launch tomorrow. Tell your friend about us and if he'd like to write and describe his experiences, we will definitely post it. We'll give him a headline at the top. I'm sure Scotty would do the same over at his site if your friend is nervous about the controversies I have underway here.

Our readers would certainly like to know more about him, his experiences with the AT-6, his first hand thoughts about PRS and anything else he'd care to share.

Anyhow, if he's shy about writing, let him know that using a "nom de plume" is perfectly acceptable here and I'm sure Scotty would be okay with that as well.

My friend, the late Jim Bender, Publisher/Editor of Aircraft Illustrated, used to play with a "nom de plume" of "Harry LeChat." It seems his friend owned a cat by the name of "Harry," so they added the French Name LeChat for Harry LeChat (Harry "The Cat") and published him several times over as an author with Jim doing the Ghost Writing.

Jim didn't like to fill his magazine with his own name -- he said it took the spotlight off the contributing writers -- so he found a way around the problem using the nom de plume.

Well, now that the cat is out of the bag, there goes that idea! <G> They're too smart here...I'd never get away with Bill De Bear! : (

Best Regards,

Mark S. "Bear" Daniels
Editor
Silver State News Service
Golden State News Service

Championship Smiles

You should see them after the Champagne!

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