Silver State News: What is John Parker and American Air Racing’s position on this matter? We played the tape for you as to what Mike Houghton had to say. I see discrepancies between what he had to say and the letter that he wrote. What are your feelings on his opinion. Is this a Tenant Rights issue? Is this something you’ve done as a racer? Do you even know what the charges are against you?

John Parker: "No I don’t. (Laughs) Charges. I don’t know that they’re charges. It’s just what -- as Mr. Houghton says – exactly what does he say? That what I do is not in the best interests of RARA. Well, he indicated though that he’s discussed that with me. I did listen for one hour on one meeting about how Mr. Houghton – it started out with that the Executive Committee had to answer some questions to Krys Bart, the Executive Director of the Airport Authority -- and every time that there was a Tenant issue that came up, my name, in his words, popped up. Now, there was never any relationship between a Tenant issue, my name popping up and anything that they had to say and associated with the Airport Authority, i.e., Krys Bart.

In this same meeting, Mr. Houghton went on about how he gives all the Tenants passes and that RARA does not have to do that. Well, that was one issue that he talked about – how he gave the Tenants passes and he didn’t have to do that. Another comment that he made in that meeting was that if I wished to use their event – RARA’s event – to promote American Air Racing, pay them something for it. And those are really the three items that I can remember that had any significant impact. The deal was that there are a lot of Tenant issues associated with access to the properties during the Air Races, use of the Airport during the Air Races and – well, access and Airport use – that are not really an issue between RARA and the Tenants, it’s between the Airport Authority and the Tenants. However, RARA has to answer – be responsible to the Tenants – and cannot deny Tenants access to their property, whether they issue them tickets or not. So, if they don’t want to issue them tickets, don’t issue tickets, but they still cannot deny access of Tenants to their property. That’s basic Real Estate Law. They know it – it’s also in their contract with the Airport Authority.

The issue associated with the closure of the Airport at night – it’s in RARA’s best interest that they do that. And they’ve got the power to go to the Airport Authority and have the Airport Authority and tell Skip (Polak – the Airport Manager for Reno-Stead Airport) to close the Airport and it’s his idea. And so, Skip says ‘the Airport’s closed – it’s my idea.’

The third issue about using the Air Races to promote American Air Racing – ‘pay us for it.’ I really don’t understand what he’s talking about, other than maybe it’s a shakedown for money. Now, when we go to any place that’s public, it is for the purposes of promoting American Air Racing; to show them the quality of work that we can do; the performance that we can generate from a particular product; and exposure. So, the Reno Air Races is no different than any other Air Show that we’ve gone to for any particular reasons, whether it be to carry photographers for Air to Air work; just to promote our business, as we do in Oshkosh; or promote our business as we do here. And it’s no different than any other place that we go to, and we don’t pay those other places."

Silver State News: In fact, don’t you pay entry fees – shouldn’t those entry fees be covering the payment? I mean, I know you come in with sponsors on your airplane.

John Parker: "Yeah, that’s part of our job. We have a fan base associated with what we can do in terms of performance, whether it be speed, climb, Air Show work or business projections. Building aircraft, building aircraft. We come in, we pay for the racing events if we’re participants in a particular event; whether it be the R.A.C.E. events, whether it be the CAFÉ foundation, or if it is here at Reno…the Reno Air Races. We pay an entry fee just like the other competitors. We are the same as any other competitor. We have a fan base based on the product we’re using, i.e., Thunder Mustang, Glasairs, Lancairs; also based on the engines that we use with the Thunder Mustang – Ryan Falconer – RFI (Ryan Falconer Industries). It helps us in our performance improvements because of what we can do against other competitors. Snap On tools obviously are interested in getting their name in front of the public because their local distributor – he gets the credit for the tool sales.

Hartzell Propeller advertises. This last year, they advertised they were the one, two, three winners. Hartzell Propellers were on the one, two, three finishing airplanes, last year. Hartzell Propeller will never come in as a sponsor of the Reno Air Races because of this ‘invitational’ thing. They cannot sponsor an airplane or a participant and then have their sponsored airplane or propeller subject to the whim of an organization, where they can throw you out even after they’ve accepted your entry. The owner of Hartzell Propeller is a T-6 enthusiast and will possibly be here during the Reno Air Races, because they are expecting a top finisher to finish with a Hartzell propeller. Now, that’s not just us, of course. Greenamyer has a Hartzell propeller; I think that Jon Sharp also has Hartzell as a sponsor; and I’ve forgotten the guy’s name out of Las Vegas who has the other Legacy that they have a turbocharger on. Of course, a lot of other aircraft do have Hartzell propellers. For instance, the Glasair – the 300 Glasair – has a Hartzell propeller, but that’s a hand-made propeller. These newer propellers that Hartzell are coming out with are machine made and they are much better propellers than some of the older Hartzell propellers."

Silver State News: The Rules I see you in possession of are dated May 13, 2003, as far as the revision goes. I was introduced to a new set of Rules dated July 11, 2003. The difference between the two Rules as it relates to this case is the addition of an "Item F" as to whom Reno can invite or not invite that is not in your Rules – that Item F. Are you aware of any new addition to the Rules being issued – has the Sport Class notified you of the Rules change?

John Parker: "No they haven’t and the Rules of Competition that I have came with the entry package for 2003. They came with that entry package and also include those Rules of Competition, as well as entry forms, as well as a waiver to be signed that you’re not going to sue them if you die. But those particular Rules of Competition – those are the ones I received with the entry package."

Silver State News: Do you have any word of any other Class member seeing or receiving the July 11^th revised edition to the Rules?

John Parker: "I don’t know. I don’t know if anybody else has."

Silver State News: "Outside Sport Class also. I would include them."

John Parker: "No one that I know of. July 18^th was the deadline for entering this year’s event and the Rules of Competition I have came to me prior to – at least two weeks prior to that date – and I filled out the entries for myself and Lou Dodd; Lou Dodd signed his entry for the 300, and I then subsequently took them over – hand carried them over to RARA prior to the 18^th, anywhere from two to ten days prior to that deadline entry.

Now, that was the 18^th, and you’re saying these changes of Rules were dated when?"

Silver State News: July 11^th. So the packages went out…they had to go out with the main revision, July 11^th revision. I’m not even certain if the Classes would have received them by July 18^th. But the point I bring up is that this revision comes up without your knowledge, all right…you should have been notified, the Sport Class should have been notified. They may have, but have they notified the competitors (?). Under the rules of racing, you have a right to protest. Have you been advised of your right to protest the fact that this new Rule is being used to exclude you out of the races -- you weren’t notified, etc.? Even that it’s right?

John Parker: "No. I wasn’t even notified that they had this change in the Rules, because I wasn’t notified ever that there was a later version of the 2003 Rules that were made up. I can see a possibility here in terms of they came up with – apparently on the 23^rd – that they were going to throw me out. So, how far back could they go to make this Rule change (?), because they sent out these packages say like on the 11^th, for instance – did they send out any of those packages that had the earlier Rules in them after a particular date, so they could probably back date that -- easily back date the decision to add that rule – prior to the date that they sent me a letter or wrote a letter saying I was disinvited.

Now, the letter came here but I did not get the letter until I returned from Oshkosh, which was August 5^th – 4^th or 5^th – so I didn’t know about it until that time, at which time I sat there and said ‘How in the hell can they do this?’ So I wrote the Executive Committee a letter saying ‘Could we have a meeting so that you could tell me exactly what it is that you had heard?’ Roughly the 15^th, I got a call from Mike Houghton that says ‘the Executive Committee has told me to talk to you. Can you make it tomorrow at nine o’clock?’ It was words to that effect, and I said ‘yes.’ So, ‘tomorrow at nine o’clock,’ was I think the 15^th or Friday, and I go into this meeting and I sit down and Mike says I asked for this meeting so what do I want to say? Well, I started out with, ‘The question is, just exactly what is it that you have heard that causes you to generate this kind of personal attack on me?’

And that’s when we go into this hour of Mike Houghton listing all these so-called complaints that he has which, are not really complaints against me, other than, if I want to use this racing event to promote American Air Racing, pay them something for it; anytime the Executive Committee has to answer a question to the Airport Authority about Tenants issues, my name pops up – John Parker’s name pops up; and I’ve just gone over these other three issues here, associated with closing the Airport at night. He indicated that they agree with that position and that they want it that way and that I am ‘Don Quixote riding towards the windmill’ on that particular issue, which I may be, because they’ve got the ability to go back to Skip and say ‘Hey Skip, close the Airport,’ and Skip: ‘Oh, yeah, well, it’s a good idea’."

Silver State News: And you’re claiming they have this ability through the Airport Authority of Washoe County – just going from them (RARA) to his bosses (AAWC) down to him?

John Parker: "That’s true and, the deal is, is that they can rationalize it all day long, about the ramp being full of airplanes and things like that. Well, at other airports, they don’t have big ramps; at other airports, that would be grass or dirt. It’s just that this airport and the Federal government put in a helluva lot of money, not only originally, but recently, to maintain that ramp out there. Any other airport, it would be – like I said, grass or dirt – as you easily see, at any other Air Show you go to, (they’re) parking airplanes all over the place, but the taxiways and the runways are still operational. They even have these great big lights out here to light the entire ramp – we kind of call them the ‘Rich Bennett Memorial Erections,’ because they’ve got them out here, but they don’t turn them on except at Air Race time – Rich Bennett was a previous Airport Manager at this airport, and he went downtown to try and get Executive Director’s position, but he wasn’t qualified to do that so they booted him.

So, anyway, if you compare the activity at this event with just about any other Air Show of any type, shape size or purpose, they do not have the justification to shut down the Airport for the reasons they’re stating. It is a misuse of a Public asset and if you compare the pylons that they claim are a hazard to Aviation to any other situation that is similar to pylons, and/or cranes and/or trees, as Grass Valley (California) is, they have at Grass Valley they have that BLM land to the north, with trees, that they put great big light posts up against, and these trees go as high as 200 feet in some places. Well, on the south side of the Airport, they have trees that line the hangar and the runway area and since this is private property, they went through and made all the private owners of these trees cut them to 75 feet maximum height, so now they have these trees only 75 feet lining the runway, which are closer to the runway than the Home Pylon is here. So, since it was the landowner’s expense to cut the trees, is it okay? ‘You have to cut them to 75 feet (laughs) – now it’s safe.’ (Laughs)

It’s not uncommon that obstacles are placed in Airports in approach zones next to runways at various airports throughout this country, for a lot of purposes. Cranes for construction work. In a lot of cases they’re building a building and the crane to build it may be three times as high. It’s not uncommon to have a 75 foot crane next to the runway that’s doing some sort of construction work. Now, what happens at these airports – take LAX, for example – that raises the approach minimums, it doesn’t close the runway, it doesn’t close the Airport, it doesn’t close anything; but it does in some cases, raise the landing weather minimums for that particular runway. Now, I contend that the pylons they have out here would raise the minimums, however, the weather minimums at this Airport are so high anyway, that it would really have no affect on the weather minimums, because they’re so much higher than the obstacle anyway.

You take the San Diego Lindbergh Field in terms of obstacles (laughs). There was a time not long ago they had the Convair 990s and they went from New York to San Diego all the time, and so they called that the ‘El Cortez fleet.’ And the reason is (laughs), is because (laughs) the approach to the Lindbergh Air Field – if you were on the glide path – you could look straight across right into the Restaurant level of the El Cortez Hotel, which was an obstacle in the approach zone which did not close the runway or the airport."

Silver State News: So, you’re indicating that there’s actually airfields out there with more dangerous situations that don’t close the airport as a result?

John Parker: "Oh, definitely. It is definitely, ‘that’s the case.’ The case here associated with well, -- ‘you can’t fly in because the ramp is full of airplanes’ – well, in other airports, that would be rock or grass, taxiways are still there, and anybody else would not be taxiing on the rock or grass anyway. The difference being – this being an ex-Air Force base – it’s got that ramp and the government has maintained that ramp for the benefit of who? Do they need that big ramp out there, if so, for? And why? If you look at the land use, they have what they call this west end development here – all these hangars out here – if you look at it from the standpoint of these taxiways just went out to the taxiway, there’d be a helluva lot of land out there for development, but why do they not do that? That’s a question to be asked of somebody, somewhere, somehow."

Silver State News: Now, going back to Item F, this new Item in the July 11^th revision, and their changed position yesterday – according to Houghton, he’s claiming it’s now not a Tenant issue, interference with Tenant Rights or undermining the Airport Authority of Washoe County – now they’re claiming it’s an Air Race issue where you’re damaging the integrity of either Air Racing or the racing event. The problem is, it conflicts with the letter – which makes it clear that it was a Tenant’s Rights dispute – therefore, the application of the Rule would seem to me, to be wrong just the same; in the first place, you’ve not been notified of the Rule – the Rules change – the Rule change has to take place 60 days – with 60 days notice to the Racing Classes – the dating of the document shows July 11^th, where the four days of competition begin on the 11^th of September, which is 60 days (correction – 62 days), but it seems to me also that the competition begins in Qualifications a week earlier, which means that it’s outside the 60 day period (note: 59 days) and is not enforceable yet. Also, the issue of "protest." If they enforce a Rule against you, you have a right to protest; you have a right to representation by the Class on the position. You’re not getting any representation that I can see, so what is your position in regards to this Rule, noting of course, in the letter, it said tenants issues, then the Rules change on the 11^th, then the letter was July 23^rd. (Note: First application of the new Rule twelve days later, provided the document was not back dated and the Rule imposed after the sending of the letter...).

You would think that they would mention the Air Race integrity issue in the letter?

John Parker: "You’d think so. Does that surprise you? Does that surprise you at all?"

Silver State News: No. Unfortunately, it doesn’t.

John Parker: "It doesn’t surprise me either. So, it’s a situation where RARA will make up a Rule to justify a previous decision and they don’t care. They don’t care about their own integrity and all these things that you can come up with, are just outside of presenting a lie. So, all these things that you say – I didn’t do this, I couldn’t do this, I didn’t have the opportunity – does that surprise you at all?"

Silver State News: From RARA, an event organization, a Corporation – like I’ve dealt with in the past, as far as Union politics go – it doesn’t surprise me. What does surprise me, is when it starts getting into the "Good Ol’ Boy" stuff. All right. The Sport Class is supposed to be representing you. They’re indicating this is a dispute between you and Reno, and Tenants Rights were discussed at that time; now Reno’s saying that it’s an Air Race issue, a violation of the Rules."

John Parker: "They changed their position to answer the question."

Silver State News: RARA does that, but what about the Sport Class of Air Racing – why are they not representing you?

John Parker: "They have been told it’s not a Class issue. Mike Jones tells me that it is not a Class issue."

Silver State News: Okay, RARA yesterday made it a Class issue by indicating that there was a change to the Rules – you violated the Rules.

John Parker: "What Rule?"

Silver State News: "Item F" – the new Rule in the July 11^th revision.

John Parker: "The invitational type thing."

Silver State News: No, not (just) the invitational…they did not have this Rule previously in the May issue, where if you do something to harm Air Racing or the Air Race event, they don’t have to invite you. On July 11^th they had the Rule in their revision, if that Rule existed at that time.

John Parker: "If it did at that time."

Silver State News: The problem is, July 23^rd, they sent the letter banning you; made no mention of this Rule that was supposedly existed at that time…

John Parker: "Well, does that surprise you one little bit? That doesn’t surprise me. They’re making up the Rules as they go along. Changes the position. Is it a Tenant issue? You talk to the Tenants: ‘No, it’s not a tenant issue, it’s a racing issue.’ If you talk to the racers, ‘No, it’s not a racing issue, it’s a tenant issue.’ If you talk to the Houghton, it’s between them and Mr. Parker. Will he say what the issue is? He will not say what the issue is. Now, I’ve mentioned before, I’ve spoken out about access and the Airport. Been loud and clear on those issues, and that is the only bitch they can really come up with. Now, there have been a lot of times where I’ve had to speak with them about, ‘Hey, you’re infringing on my lease," and they back off. Now, if they’re pissed about that, what do they expect me to do? You know, I negotiated this lease with the Airport Authority, not really knowing where we’re going from all this – it started in the early nineties – and not knowing where business was going to take us at that time. It’s not in the lease that the Stead Airport is a 24 hour a day General Aviation Airport, no ifs ands or buts. There may be some closures due to an airplane crash or something like that; there’s also these other sponsor issues associated with, okay, the Air Force does have the right to come back and take over the Airport." (Recording interrupted for business.)

Silver State News: (John and I are in his office looking over the two Rules packets of May 13^th and July 11^th, 2003…) Going back to my question, I look at the date here, here’s your set of Rules right in front of you, May 13^th, 2003, that’s sent out with the invitation package. That’s the Rules I’m going by, he (Houghton) tells me there’s new Rules, July 11^th, he brings them in, he shows me the Rules. Big difference. Item F is added. (We look at the same section in the two Rules and compare…)

John Parker: (Looking at Rules) "And that is…"

Silver State News: "Yeah. They’re here. There’s an "E" here but no "F." (May 13^th package). Okay. These Rules are sent out with your package, this is what you’re (original argument is) based on. All right. There’s a Rule in existence that says July 11^th, that you have no notification over. To me, you have a protest right on that.

John Parker: "Okay…"

Silver State News: The fact that it is a Rule and there are protest procedures if you feel that the Rule is being improperly applied – you have no notification of that. Sport Class nor the Reno Air Races have informed you of any notification procedure. In fact, the Reno Air Races say it’s "non-negotiable," which is in conflict with both the Reno Air Race and Sport Class Rules as I’ve read them.

John Parker: "Well."

Silver State News: Where is your Sport Class representation? The Sport Class is supposed to represent you on this issue.

John Parker: "Absolutely none."

Silver State News: There’s been absolutely none!? Do you expect any?

John Parker: "No."

Silver State News: Do you have a right to expect any?

John Parker: "Well, yeah!"

Silver State News: Okay.

John Parker: "I do, but, do I expect any – and the deal it, here’s protest –"

Silver State News: (Reading the Rules under Protests…) You have the right to protest, here in Item A, "…is vested in competitors and principle owners only…except that the Contest Committee may always institute a protest by virtue of its authority even when no protest has been filed.

John Parker: "Who do you register one of these things with (a protest)?"

Silver State News: Well, that’s the good question – I would register it myself if I followed the protocol. I would complain to the Sport Class…there’s supposed to be a Committee…

John Parker: "When the Contest Committee finally shows up and you register that protest with the Contest Committee, you’re already into Qualifications."

Silver State News: Yeah, well the whole thing is, the event (the Reno Air Races) hasn’t occurred yet, you’re not violating any Rules of the event – your stuff is off season – I’m looking at Item F here…"the Contest Committee will convene to deal with any issue under its jurisdiction as soon as practicable." All right, there’s Rules changes under their jurisdiction. It’s questionable whether it is enforceable or not due to time limits. No notification of you…

John Parker: "The deal in the language – we were just saying -- to go by this, to go by anything, you go by the later revision of the Rules…you go by that…and if they don’t like it, they’ll change that. And so, this business of well, you’re going to protest? Well, protest to who? Contest Committee? Where’s the Contest Committee? Where is one?"

Silver State News: It won’t show up until the race day.

John Parker: "Exactly."

Silver State News: So you have to protest to your Class. The Class rules – (the Class) issues a protest.

John Parker: "Well, that’s true they do."

Silver State News: But you’ve been notified that you don’t have a right to protest (i.e., "This decision is non-negotiable…" – RARA).

John Parker: "Well, I’ve been notified that whatever it is, it’s non-negotiable and I guess it was ‘negotiable’ in so much as, when I wrote them a letter saying ‘Hey, what’s the story here?,’ that had to be some sort of negotiations. So, that meeting with Houghton had to be some sort of negotiations. Well, that meeting with Houghton didn’t go well for me, primarily because when he said a lot of things that he said, I didn’t respond to a lot of the things he said, primarily because I did not want to harden his position. For instance, when he said, when you want to use our event to promote your business, pay us something for it. Well, two questions obviously come up – "How much do you want?" The other question is: ‘Is this a shake down for money’?"

Silver State News: Which brings us to Dodd then…

John Parker: "I didn’t mention this thing in terms of…well, if they come off the position with me, they had to come off the position with Dodd. Primarily, the airplanes would be in. I, as it says there, as a ‘pilot, alternate pilot or race plane owner’. So, if I owned all of them, they’d all be out…"

Silver State News: "That is the issue. Under Item F, this new rule that you don’t have yet…"

John Parker: "Well, according to this letter that Houghton sent me, and you know, they come up with changing it to ‘invitational,’ when it’s clear -- they changed it to ‘invitational;’ they tell you or they tell everybody that it has always been ‘invitational’ – well, they have thrown other pilots out, that’s true, but it’s usually been…in fact, I cannot think of an instance when its not some sort of a Class issue with the airplane or pilot qualification, or something they did here like bust the deadline or fly too low, or do something like that. Now, that's a racing issue, and they disqualify, which it covers here in the Rules. They throw you out if you do some of these things, like fly too low, cross the deadline, violate provisions of the waiver…other issues like that. Yeah, they’ve thrown people out because they’ve done that, but they have not – that I know of – thrown anybody out because it’s an ‘invitational’ nature."

Silver State News: Or the "integrity of the event" issue?

John Parker: "Or the ‘integrity of the event’ issue. And I really don’t understand what they’re talking about when they say the ‘integrity of the event.’ Have I hurt them? What have I…? How have I hurt them? Even if I bitch about access; even if I tell them they are ‘Jeep Nazis;’ even if I…how does that hurt? How does that hurt? It doesn’t hurt the event because these so-called ‘security people,’ and all these other people – the "bus people,’ the ticket sellers, the food vendors – all receive the same kind of venting on a large variety or number of issues. For instance, like right here, when the lines for the buses – to take them back to the hotels – there’s not enough buses, then they vent on ‘not enough buses.’ How can I hurt them? Hey, I don’t know how. Even if I wanted to, how could I? I know that they are being hurt by a certain number of people who are not coming to the event, because I am not included. Well, they’re hurt, now just how bad -- which may be infinitesimally small – compared to what it is, but one loss…the sale of a ticket…when you can identify something that you do, it has to be very clear as to what you are doing…to justify the loss of gross receipts. And apparently they don’t care."

Silver State News: Now, going back to Dodd, what is the point in banning your airplanes? Do you think that they’re trying to make some kind of financial statement against you? Denying you funds or something?

John Parker: "Oh, sure. It’s a personal attack…it’s a personal attack to hurt me any way they can. As far as the tenants issues are concerned, I’d still be on the side of the tenants, because that’s what I am. I am the only Tenant and participant, so that’s why I’m being singled out here. If they could, they’d probably attack the other tenants any way that they could. They can’t, since there’s no other way that they can, really. In terms of, as I mentioned before – the famous Bill Eck recording – I mention that as to describe an attitude that RARA has in how it deals with not only Tenants, but the Public too, with the participants, or the product that they sell. The participants or the product that they sell (note: Team Sponsors products). The attitude at how they deal with them. One other thing associated with how at, at a lot of Tenant meetings, they have their mouthpiece, Dave Wilburn; he’d go on for a very long time about how RARA is a part of the community, is a tenant with like, just the rest of them, they want to be a part of the community and all, and they want to get along with all the community. A lot of verbiage associated with how RARA is a good guy and not doing a whole lot of…you know, ‘we’re just one of the Tenants here.’

And the only memory that they’ve had on the Air Show act out here in front, they refer to as the ‘Wall of Fire.’ Well, that ‘Wall of Fire’ generates a tremendous shock wave that runs throughout this community that RARA wants to be a part of, and that shock wave would do a lot of damage. Not really done any damage here (at American Air Racing), other than maybe knocked some buckets of rivets off the table, or knocked some things down off the wall or stuff like that; but over in this other area over here, it’s done some major damage, like knocking the hangar doors off the tracks, its stuffed dents into hangar doors that make them inoperative, it’s knocked some things off that have fallen down and hit airplanes and things like that. So, there was a tenant who had to get an injunction against RARA to knock off that ‘Wall of Fire,’ and they got it knocked off on Saturday so they didn’t have it on Sunday, because it was doing damage back in the Tenant property; back in this Tenant area that they (RARA) want to get along with.

Well, last year, they stood up and said, ‘Okay, we’re not going to have the "Wall of Fire" anymore, and the reason we’re not going to have it is because our insurance company will not insure us if we have that "Wall of Fire." Well, the tenants are all happy. ‘Hey, they’re not having that "Wall of Fire". Buildings don’t get blown down.’ Well, they’re not having that "Wall of Fire," or that not paying to have that "Wall of Fire" show out there, because they can’t get insurance – not because it causes property damage to this tenant community that they want to get along with! They don’t voluntarily say ‘we’re not having that because it’s harmful to our neighbors;’ it’s because they can’t get insurance.

I got to thinking, if you run that the other way – what could they get insurance for? Could they get insurance for weapons of mass destruction out there on the ramp? Well, it tells me that maybe they would have anything that they could get insurance for, whether it harmed their tenant neighbors or not. And so, actually I’m telling you this, because it illustrates an attitude. It doesn’t really solve any problem or it’s not an issue because it’s not going to be an issue anymore, because they’re not going to have a "Wall of Fire." Now, everybody is glad they’re not having that, for whatever reason they’re say no, they’re not going to have it, but – thankful for the not having it – but they’re reason for not having hey, hangar door falls over, kills a tenant, the insurance takes care of it. If a hangar door falls over and hits a paying customer or a ticket purchasing customer, that may be a different issue, or the insurance will take care of it so they won’t care. So, somebody that has that attitude, it doesn’t surprise me one little bit that they’re going to attack anybody that they can, and it is harming me more because American Air Racing is one of the few professional racing teams, especially in the Sport division. Almost without exception, everybody else that is entering the Sport Division, is doing it because they enjoy it or it is fun.

In a lot of cases, in the Unlimiteds, they enter every year just on momentum. They’ve got this investment and they’ve got this momentum. The Sanders boys, hey, what do they do with this event? They use this event to promote their business. They’re Sea Fury experts, which I congratulate them for. They’re good – they are good. They’re Sea Fury Experts…where is a good place to display a Sea Fury? Because that’s a high performing airplane. The Reno Air Races are a good place to display it and promote their Sea Fury remanufacturing business. They have other things that they do as well – like we do. They build airplanes, they build smoke generators. So, we are no different than the Sanders, other than the fact that we’re tenants on the same airport with RARA; the Sanders are not.

Of course there’s other people in the Unlimiteds that do this, you know, just on momentum and for the fun of it. Art Vance being the pinnacle of the person who does it for the fun of it, because he’s the President of the Unlimited Division, plus he enters his airplane at a lucrative Air Show. He’s not a racer (Vance no longer flies for the Rogers-Stolzer Air Racing Team; he will not be in competition), he’s just flying at an Air Show and takes his money home. He doesn’t prepare for this event. He’s not competitive and he doesn’t try to be, he just goes out to be a show. And this is the difference between him and me, or him and the Sanders, because the Sanders will come with maybe a non-competitive airplane, to show off the Sea Fury, and then they do come with some pretty competitive airplanes, and so that’s the best of two worlds for them."

Silver State News: You basically have two different faces, though, you have those that are here for fun -- I’m sorry, I’ll add a third – those that are here for business and also those that are here for the issue of speed and competition. But a professional organization; you’re the only professional racing team that’s trying to do this to make money -- that’s based on Stead – there are lessors here, you’re the only tenant though. There’s a couple of other racers here leasing space here...

John Parker: "A few others…"

Silver State News: …as a matter of fact…yeah.

John Parker: "There’s several, actually. There’s several and I don’t know them all, but I do know that Lyle Shelton’s Rare Bear Team is just right over here; Birch (Entriken) the Formula One person; there’s a couple of biplane people I believe."

Silver State News: There’s some Formula Ones off to the hangars over here by RARA; one from Sweden, or something like that.

John Parker: "Yeah. I think there’s…I’m pretty sure there’s two and possibly three Formula One, probably sub-lessors, in this community right here. Now, they may keep their airplanes here, but I don’t think they live in Reno. I don’t think any of them live in Reno but they keep their airplanes here."

Silver State News: You’re trying to operate a business. You mentioned an injunction earlier…where one person had to stop RARA by an injunction. Are you planning any legal action at this time in this matter?

John Parker: "We don’t really plan any legal action. There’s several ‘backfire’ issues associated with that and we could probably get an injunction that would put us back in the races, but the deal is – the backfire on that is – then they’d go into these other issues, these other things they would do, to throw me out. If they want me out, you know, I’ll be out. If I get an injunction, I’m back in, but then – like I mentioned before – they’d say something: ‘Well, that tire is worn, the airplane’s unairworthy, you’re out!’ Or something about the airplane or I took off too soon, not in your time frame or – ‘too late, not in your time frame; so that broke the rules, you’re out!’ -- ‘You flew too low, you’re out!’ Whether I flew too low or not, that doesn’t make any difference, they’d just say you did, and then, even if that different work, there’d be obviously a tremendous credibility issue with the timing and/or or pylon cuts or just never-ending harassment that would throw you out through intimidation.

It’s sort of like RARA wanting the Airport closed. You know, it’s never been NOTAM’d closed before; it’s never been officially closed before; but they effectively close it through intimidation. You tell everybody it’s closed; or they tell everybody that they expect it to be closed; so therefore, they throw that out so that everyone thinks it’s closed. And the same thing about this ‘invitational’ thing, is that – oh, it’s ‘invitational!?’

‘It has always been invitational!’

No, it hasn’t always been invitational, but now it is, because they change the Rules to suit themselves. And so, that part would never go away. That’s one of the very good reasons as to why we’re not looking at legal action. The other issue about legal action is that it would draw in the Airport Authority, and in drawing in the Airport Authority, that would just delay things for months, and so even if the final decision would be, ‘Okay, you’re back in…’ that’s months after the event."

Silver State News: Well, it’s been pointed out that an injunction could provide immediate relief, reinstate you to these races and then settle the matter after the races during the off season.

John Parker: "Well, that’s absolutely true, but the injunction would put me in, but as I just described – okay, that would put me in, but then there’d be something else. Just exactly like I described it: ‘You’re tire’s too flat, so you’re outta here with it,’ or anything. It would just be a never-ending situation associated with that, and would that surprise you?"

Silver State News: As for me, the way things are in Air Racing right now – right now, I don’t see the Sport Class being organized well enough to represent you. It would not surprise me, then. There’s any number of factors.

John Parker: "The deal is, is whether they represent me or not, or another lawyer represent me or just anything represent me, the accusation. The Contest Committee says you flew too low, so you’re out. What representation can you use against something like that? You know the Class saying…what is the Class going to say? Well, we’re not going to race. No, the Class is not going to say that because that would not be in the Class’ best interest, and I would not ask them to do that. I would not ask them to do that.

Well, anyway, as far as immediate injunction or relief, we’re not anticipating that because it just opens up this other can or worms that’s just: ‘When are you going to stop beating your wife?’ And that’s going to go on forever, I’m very sure. As I pointed out, we are a professional racing team. We have a business plan."

Silver State News: Your business is named for "American Air Racing."

John Parker: "Well, it’s been that way for thirty years. The name has been the same, even though – in some cases -- we were in Real Estate, in Equipment leasing and other forms of business. The name has been the same, even though there have been sections in the business that had nothing to do with racing. The racing team part of it is a small part of American Air Racing. It’s ramped up this last couple weeks because we’ve been preparing for the event all year long, establishing the sponsor and the fan base, showing people what we could do for them in terms of getting their name in front of the public, for instance, Snap On, Hartzell and RFI (Ryan Falconer Industries). RFI realizes that there’s not a direct payback for them with the Reno Air Races, because they deal in engines that are completely different from the type that are used in any of the Classes in this event.

Back to the business plan associated with the racing aspect, as I explained before, that the business plan is so tenable that it will hinge on discrimination and personal attacks, then it’s not a valid business plan and we just won’t continue with that same plan, and we will modify the plan so that we will go into other venues (i.e., other than Reno), for instance – the Bruce Bohannon business plan – using that as a business model to promote American Air Racing in terms of its performance capabilities. I guess…did I make my point there?"

Silver State News: Yeah, you’re talking about going into different events beyond closed-course Pylon racing at Reno; you’re talking about other venues. Like R.A.C.E. was one of the ones you mentioned?

John Parker: "Well, R.A.C.E., CAFÉ, the upcoming possibility that there would be a Las Vegas type of race, but we would be going to the Las Vegas Air Show (Aviation Nation 2003, featuring Unlimited Class and International Formula One demonstration races, at Nellis AFB, Nevada, promoted by Bob Avery’s "World of Wings" [WoW]…) to support the Air Show as well as American Air Racing."

Silver State News: They seemed wide-open to that; they called you and invited you.

John Parker: "Oh, yeah, they were very generous in their offer and we’re going to do everything we can to do what I just said here – promote not only Jon Sharp, but the Mesquite project, because we’ll be down there in Mesquite on roughly the 1^st, I think it is, weather dependent – everything being weather dependent of course – to promote the Mesquite project and the new airport that they’re planning down there, and us. We’ll be there to show potential customers what we can do for them – and that’s show the quality of our work and the quality of our presentation at these Air Shows."

Silver State News: Now, you’re looking at your business plan going into the black. That it is a viable business plan. That Air Racing is a business – a profitable business. Where do you go from here? Right now, you indicated in one of your documents that you’d never race at Reno again. Now, we have spoken since and you’ve changed your position, you’d be willing to race at Reno in particular, but they would have to pay "show money."

John Parker: "The deal is, this issue – personal attack – is like I was saying, the business plan that is so tenuous on a personal attack as RARA puts out on me or the whim of this particular promoter, the deal is that I cannot put together a business plan that justifies expenditures to prepare for the Reno Air Races, so therefore, I’m not going to prepare for the Reno Air Races – the Reno Air Races – by making any expenditures for that. So therefore, that means, when you don’t prepare for something, you don’t do it. So this is where the ‘never race at Reno again’ comes from, because you cannot have this business plan that is subject to the whim of an issue that they say won’t be made public."

Silver State News: So, what kind of changes do you think need to be made within the Reno Air Races and the Reno Air Racing Association to end this type of…what to me is nonsense?

John Parker: "Primarily attitude. Primarily attitude. And as I have described the attitude before, in the famous Bill Eck tape recording…"

Silver State News: How did that recording come about?

John Parker: "It’s not my recording. It just happened. It’s somebody else’s. It’s a guy who’s a customer. He comes here, donates corn for the Barbeque, he helps out with parts, he’s part of what we refer to as the crew that’s here…"

Silver State News: He’s volunteer crew.

John Parker: "Yeah, he’s the ‘Captain of Clean.’ He is very good on that. And as you know, you can fly an airplane for two seconds and it’s dirty as heck. And so, he is the ‘Captain of Clean’ and his responsibility is to…and he has a lot of help…and he handles that. So, the airplane comes back, goes through the clean process, and things like the spinner is shiny, the dirt is off the struts, a little wax here and there and get all the oil off, because as we know, if oil’s not dripping out of this thing, it’s empty. So, the deal is, that’s his tape – and he has that tape; I sure hope he still has that tape – and as I mentioned, you asked ‘What has to change?,’ and I said ‘attitude,’ as described by this tape and as described by this "Wall of Fire" out here. And then, you hear that ‘Jeep Nazis’ thing. Well, I hear it too. I don’t say that, but a lot of people do, so I am not singled out, or I’m not just unique in letting other people know that there is an attitude problem over at the RARA hangar. Most people know that.

A change of that attitude would probably bring in a more prosperous business plan for RARA in terms of, not only the number of participants, the quality of the participants and the gate return, in terms of, the number of people that come to Reno for this event. In their business plan, that change of attitude would help. That change of attitude – well, there’s another tenant over here has a copy of a letter to a photographer who put together a bunch of pictures at Fred Whistle’s request, acting as a member of the Board of Directors for the Reno Air Races. Asked this photographer for these photographs of L-39s, and for a very nice little folder of photographs, he charged like $150.00. He sent them a bill for $150.00. He got a letter back from Mike Houghton saying all the photographs taken at the Reno Air Races are properties of the Reno Air Races, and because he dared charge them for these pictures – just for the printing of the pictures, not even for the pictures themselves – that he would no longer be issued Press Credentials here at the Reno Air Races.

That also, I would say, describes an ‘attitude’ – an attitude that is not business friendly. And when it comes to, for instance, Press Credentials or something like that, if the guy, or the reporter, or the photographer or anything, has any, even half-way legitimate connection with any kind of two-bit rag from Wobegon, Wisconsin – Lake Wobegon, Wisconsin – or, some of the most God-forsaken places in the World that you can think of, if they have any kind of Press relationship there, give them a Press Pass, get them in here, get them writing something.

It’s like (Henry) Ford said: ‘I don’t care what they talk about, I don’t care what they say about Fords, just as long as they’re saying something." Anyway, just get any kind of photographer or Press person of any kind, writing something even if it’s published in God-forsaken, God knows where, World. And that generates interest for the event, as does Oshkosh. Oshkosh, if you’ve got any kind of credentials, they give you a Press pass, so that you’re talking about AirVenture in any place in the World. So, eliminating any kind of Press person is not in their best interest.

Other things too, in terms of people here in town. Tenants. Anything out there. I have a semi-inside information that the tickets for the wristbands that they put out -- somewhere in the neighborhood of forty dollars a thousand; it costs them forty dollars a thousand for whatever the retail value that thousand tickets is – anyway, give free tickets to just large groups, even from a lot of the citizens here in Reno, because you’ll find that a very large percentage of the Reno citizens have never been to the Reno Air Races. Give them out to the citizens here in Reno. Those people who get the free ticket wouldn’t be coming anyway, so if you give them a ticket – whether they use it; if they use it, fine, if they don’t use it, they wouldn’t have been coming anyway. If you can get somebody that wouldn’t be coming anyway out here, they would at least be taking advantage of the vendors. RARA gets their kick off the vendors, so RARA would make money by getting people in here for free, by the increase in the gross of the vendors. So, they’re not losing a dime; they’re even actually making money or would be, if they gave away these tickets to the specific groups of just the regular citizen living in ’Citizen Neighborhood’ here in Reno. And that percentage of Reno citizens that have not been to the Reno Air Races is very high. I think it’s in ninety percent, so RARA has got a long way to go just to say that they are maximizing their gate receipts and/or receipts period."

Silver State News: Do you believe that this is a valid National Championship Air Race?

John Parker: "It’s not a ‘National Championship Air Race’ because – if you look at it from several aspects – an ‘invitational,’ no it’s not. What builds up to a National Championship? You have to go through other events throughout either the country or other venues like R.A.C.E., or something like that, in order to come up with any kind of Championship. To come here to compete against just those who are ‘invited,’ so to speak, that doesn’t make you a Champion."

Silver State News: What makes you a Champion (?)...because you’ve been a Champion. Three-time National Champion; second place last year; you may have been able to achieve first place this year.

John Parker: "Well, maybe. Maybe, maybe not. We’re down about sixty-seventy horsepower from where we really wanted to be, so we don’t know. But what makes you a Champion? It’s a long time in the so-called business, whether it be one event; it’s a standing amongst all comers, not just who happens to be there."

Silver State News: In your mind, does this action by the Reno Air Racing Association, show integrity or a lack thereof, and is the Reno Air Racing Association an organization right now that you feel has integrity, or a lack thereof?

John Parker: "Well, because of this action, I guess my opinion hasn’t changed, because I’ve always indicated that their attitude is not that of taking the high moral road. Let’s go over that question again – due to this action, has it changed my opinion of them – no, it hasn’t changed my opinion of them, because I know that they’re capable of this kind of personal attack. This kind of personal attack. And they do it…they just got me this time. It’s going to be somebody else next time. We’ve got Eck doing it to one of our crew members last year. So, without the change of attitude, it’s going to continue. The question is – what would it take to make them (RARA) more successful (?) – I think that was your question – and that was the change of attitude would be the first step. Obviously, with the change of attitude, would come the change of policy that would greatly improve (RARA). This policy of throwing out Press people is contrary to just every business plan you’ve ever seen for any kind of sporting event, so they’re not following a viable business plan and they’re just kind of going on momentum, and that’s the only thing really saving them. And I mentioned that momentum thing before. People who have investments in racing equipment have that investment and they just continue here because of the momentum, not because they love RARA, not because they may like Reno – hey, Reno’s a nice place – we love Reno! But RARA is something that…in order to continue this momentum, is kind of the Devil you have to deal with in order to do anything that you want to do or continue this momentum."

Silver State News: Okay, they (RARA) indicate that you’ve hurt Air Racing and the integrity of this event. What are your feelings on that view? Have you hurt or helped Air Racing in your career?

John Parker: (Laughs) "I can’t see where I’ve hurt it. It would be boastful to say that I have helped it, and so I’m not going to do that, but I believe I have because we are a professional racing team and we kind of show the way in that – we’ve shown that in the divisions we’ve been in (note: Closed course: Unlimited, Sport and International Formula One). Anyway, have I helped it? I’ll let history be that judge. Have I hurt it? I can’t see how."

Silver State News: The last question is how much do you have invested in Air Racing in the time that you’ve been in Air Racing, and how long have you been in Air Racing exactly?

John Parker: "In one capacity or another, since about 1965 or – well -- 1966. How much have I got invested? Well, it’s a heckuva lot of time. The Powder Puff Derby was -- you might say -- a good job for me, because I worked in the Powder Puff Derby, improving the airplanes that a lot of the entrants wanted to compete with. It was difficult to justify a lot of the billing time and stuff like that, because if you put forty hours of work to improve the airplane’s speed by two miles an hour, it’s kind of sometimes hard to get a mile per hour per dollar benefit out of these things, but when you need every mile per hour you can get then you have to spend a lot of money or a lot of time…I’ll put it that way. You have to have time."

Silver State News: If you were to put a figure on it, how much do you think you have invested in Air Racing and how long have you been around?

John Parker: "Well, what is it -- thirty five years?"

Silver State News: Thirty five years in Air Racing – and what would that figure be?

John Parker: "In terms of?"

Silver State News: Money spent.

John Parker: "Gross or expenditures?"

Silver State News: Yeah…are we talking in the millions of dollars?

John Parker: "Yeah."

Silver State News: Five million? Ten million?

John Parker: "No, less than that. Less than that. What we’ve got right here in this building…what have we got? Now, this is not all…"

Silver State News: You’ve got two Thunder Mustangs here and I believe the price on those is $750,000 each? So right there, you’ve got $1.5 million…

John Parker: (Laughs) "Well, they’re not mine, you see. But what we’ve got in terms of investment in the building, investment in parts, investment in what we can do – now, that would be more than just racing – it’s what we can do, because we do props, we do other things; weight and balance, we do maintenance, we have tools and stuff and maintenance. We build custom airplanes for customers that are not interested in racing. We do all these things, we’ve got what – a million and a half within this building that is American Air Racing."

Silver State News: Now, you’re talking about labor, man hours, the aircraft that you have built, the aircraft you donated – you donated one to a museum. How many do you have in museums? Just the one?

John Parker: "Just the one – the one to the EAA Museum. It would be impossible to put a dollar value on that in terms of what has been spent and a considerable amount has been made, too. We’re in an area where we’re kind of like breaking even type of thing – hopefully, in breaking even. The losses associated with the racing aspect sort of make up in doing other things, like in some of the products we sell for Glasairs, Lancairs and the like."

Silver State News: Thank you very much for your time, John. We’ll be back to see you soon.

John Parker: You’re welcome.