“Strega”, a 500 mph-capable modified P-51 Mustang raceplane takes off during the 2014 Reno Air … [+]
At the end of the annual Reno National Championship Air Races this September, a 60-year tradition of closed-course pylon air racing will end in northern Nevada and with it an invaluable piece of American tradition. The hope is that air racing may carry on elsewhere but it’s a tough ask.
A fortnight ago, the Reno Air Racing Association (RARA) announced that 2023 will be the final year that the Reno-Stead Airport (north of the City of Reno) will host the National Championship Air Races from September 13-17.
The end of the six-decade event came with a decision by the Reno Tahoe Airport Authority (RTAA) – which runs Reno-Stead Airport where the Races have been held since 1964 – not to renew a contract with RARA to hold the event based on concerns including “rapid area development, public safety and the impact on the Reno-Stead Airport and its surrounding areas.”
“They gave a variety of reasons,” RARA COO, Tony Logoteta, told me. “Concerns about public safety and area-development around the airport to possible future plans for development on the airfield to concerns about the BLM [Bureau of Land Management] on site. At the end of the day, it was a mix of everything and they decided, ‘Let’s do this on our terms.”
Logoteta noted that the present on-airport development in the southwest corner of the property does not interfere with the race or spectator operations. The BLM operates a tanker base on Reno-Stead, supporting aerial firefighting operations from the airport. The base operates 24/7 year-long except for the week of the air races, at which time the fire tanker operation relocates to another airport.
It’s worth pointing out that the large single and multi-engine chemical payload-carrying tankers that BLM operates from Reno-Stead fly – by necessity – in all kinds of weather conditions including low-visibility smoke conditions to fight nearby wild-fires.
Stead-Reno Airport, the home of the Reno Air Races since 1966. The Reno Tahoe Airport Authority sees … [+]
Yet the concerns the RTAA expressed regarding safety-of-flight over developing areas around the airport by far lighter, less volatile race aircraft appear not to apply to BLM operations which take place with high frequency over extended periods depending on the fire season. In the last several years, the threat of fire in the region has obviously been high. Ironically, the recent precipitation in the California-Nevada area will likely make fire risk low for the final year of the Air Races.
RTAA spokesperson, Nicolle Staten, stressed that “safety has been and always will be our highest priority” but did not offer an explanation as to why RTAA is not considering ending its contract with BLM whose more consistent operations from Stead are arguably a statistically greater threat to off-airport safety than the once-a-year air races.
Ms. Staten said the RTAA is concerned that moving the fire tankers away from Stead during the races, as has been the practice for many years, increases the risk to public safety. Yet in the decades that firefighting operations have been in place at the airport there have been no reported examples of fires that were unreachable or experienced longer response times as a consequence of fire tanker aircraft moving away from the field for several days each year.
A busy day and a ramp full of BLM firefighting aircraft at Reno-Stead in 2017.
In any case, it appears the firefighting aircraft move nearby. According to RTAA, “When the aircraft relocate during the National Championship Air Races, BLM then sends them to the bases that will best support their anticipated operations.”
Hence the Airport Authority’s concerns about over-flight safety related to encroachment seem more convenient than based on actual data. In the 60 years the Races have been held 22 pilots/participants have died in competition crashes and airshow accidents according to the Reno Gazette Journal. The crash of racer, Jimmy Leeward’s P-51 Mustang in 2011 resulted in his death and the fatalities of 10 spectators.
But in entire run of the Races at Reno-Stead there have been no reported off-airport deaths, or even injuries, as a result of air racing/practice/airshow activities. The facts would suggest that desire to develop nearby land on and off the facility is what has driven the RTAA decision – not safety.
Regarding development activity, RTAA did not offer any information on permitted or permit-pending real estate development around or on Reno-Stead Airport. Staten said that, “I know that there is definitely anticipated development for sure. I would not be able to speak to any contracts we have for that development right now.”
RTAA held a public board of trustees meeting regarding its contract with RARA on March 9. The agenda for the meeting, including a notice of possible action to execute a one-year 2023 Special Event License and a one-year 2024 Special Event License with Reno Air Racing Association was posted at the RTAA offices and online. But according to the Airport Authority’s spokesperson, there is no record of public attendance at the meeting.
While RTAA did jointly communicate news of the end of the contract with RARA to the media on March 9, it apparently did not issue a release or communicate with the media regarding a February 9 board meeting at which the renewal or non-renewal of the Races’ contract was brought up. Thus, as happens in so many situations nationwide, the public was not made aware of a pending decision regarding the matter in advance.
That alone is meaningful context for the public reaction to the ending of the Reno Air Races at Reno-Stead. “We have had feedback,” Ms. Staten said. “We do see things on social media. There have been mixed reviews. There have been people that feel very nostalgic about this event and who are very saddened by the news. there are also some comments we’ve seen where people do feel that public safety is also a concern. Again, there have been a lot of mixed reviews.”
Some of the Unlimited class air racers assembled before the Gold Final race in 2014.
Not surprisingly, RARA’s Logoteta says the Races have received an outpouring of public support following the news. He explained that the non-profit 501(C3) organization remained quiet with respect to the pending decision on renewal of the Air Races’ contract out of “respect for the negotiations” with RTAA in hopes of continuing for an additional year or two. “I will say,” he adds, “we are thankful that they did give us one last year. We’re glad that we get to celebrate this thing one more time.”
Logoteta says RARA did speak with various members of the Reno-Tahoe government and business communities about the event’s end. “While there was disappointment, the fact of the matter is that this is Airport Authority property and I don’t think there’s a whole lot that anybody else could do.”
If the above seems like inside baseball on a local event, it isn’t. The Reno Championship Air Races are known worldwide and spectators and competitors from around the globe attend each year.
Full-bore, multi-class air racing – popularly described as “Going to war without bullets” – takes place nowhere else on the planet at present. There have been other air racing events in the U.S. in the past, some of them quite respected, but none has had the attraction and staying power of the annual event in Reno.
Fred Telling, chairman and CEO of the RARA, stressed in the press release relaying the news that the last ten air race events have “attracted more than one million spectators, generated more than $750 million for the local economy and contributed significant aviation related education and outreach to schools and non-profits all around the area.”
“Everybody is very sorry to see this event leave Reno,” Logoteta affirms, “and we’re sorry to see the economic benefit that comes from it leave our community. We’ve been a part of this community for a very long time. I was laughing with someone the other day, at the fact that the first raceplane went up over Stead seven years before I was born.”
According to RARA, some of the local business community has already stated that it will commit additional resources to the Air Races this final year. Among them is at least one of the gaming/casino businesses in town, traditional supporters of the event. Reno has diversified economically and the gaming industry is no longer the economic center it once was.
L-39 Albatross trainers race around the course at Reno in the 500-plus mph jet class.
With that diversification has come growth that could/should have provided a comfortable financial anchor for the event. But even with global businesses like Tesla and its nearby gigafactory in place, that support has not consistently materialized.
The absence of more vigorous support from the aerospace sector has been particularly notable in view of the individual (from engineers to executives to test pilots), cultural and technological connections that firms like Boeing
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The same connections hold for U.S. airlines from among whose pilot ranks have come many past and present race pilots, supporters and spectators. Their absence could be explained by the aversion to risk, and risk by association, that has become a sad feature of corporate culture in America over the last four decades. However, Logoteta reports that there is “some interest” from some unnamed aerospace companies since the announcement.
The Reno event has enjoyed title sponsorship from power equipment maker, Stihl, for the past several years and RARA was poised to announce more limited support from the company this year as its contract had come to an end. The sunset of the event in Reno may actually generate additional interest in title sponsorship.
But there is hope that the National Championship Air Races could take place elsewhere in the U.S. and RARA has begun a process to identify and potentially sign with a new location.
Of course, finding the right spot, with a sufficient airfield, the ability to accommodate an oval race-course up to eight or nine miles in circumference, near enough to population, hotels and other infrastructure to make it an attractive destination for racing is a tough ask.
Air races have formerly been held in California, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio and other sites around the country and RARA is working through the practical possibilities of locations in these and other states. While identifying and securing a site will be difficult, RARA does have a leg-up in having the corporate knowledge of how to run such an event, managing facilities, crowds, the racers, the FAA and insurers. That in-house knowledge (and a loyal core of volunteers) may be the most valuable asset the organization has going forward.
“A new location would be getting something that no one else can deliver,” Logoteta maintains. “It draws attention and it’s worth preserving.”
Priority-one is putting on the best last event in Reno this Fall Logoteta adds and there are already indications that Reno-Stead could see a swelling crowd, meaningful media attention and television coverage for one more lap around the pylons in northern Nevada.
Six ex-WWII fighter-based race airplanes led by a T-33 pace-plane about to break formation and dive … [+]
That would be fitting. The Races are one of the few truly sport-for-sport’s-sake happenings in the world mixing deep aviation heritage with a willingness to embrace technology, adventure and risk seen in similar fashion only in a handful of other events like the Isle of Man TT or the Dakar Rally.
“This is a beautiful piece of Americana here,” Logoteta observes, “a unique event that sees more than 150 airplanes in six classes race on a pylon [delineated] course heads-up against each other. People come from all over the world to see it.”
If fortune smiles, they may be able to go somewhere else after the last Reno Air Races in 2023.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/erictegler/2023/03/22/one-more-lap-around-the-pylonsthe-last-reno-air-races-are-this-fall/