Michael WolfeChannel 2 News
After attending a hearing in Washington, D.C. over the future of air race safety in the U.S., the head of the Reno Air Racing Association says he thinks the National Transportation Safety Board learned a lot.
"I believe they got some outstanding presentations from a number of the experts in the aviation community that are involved in the shows and air racing so yeah I think it was very positive," says Mike Houghton, president & CEO of the Reno Air Racing Association.
Houghton says the NTSB will likely make a final decision from what it learned at Tuesday's meeting in two to three months after reviewing the minutes and written comments.
As for the future of the Reno Air Races, he says the association is working on collecting the permits for this year's event and is going to sit down with the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority next week. "That'll be a time for us both to discuss the relationship and we'll talk about how things move forward from there but we feel very positive about it."
Until then, Houghton says the Air Racing Association is getting ready for its 49th year scheduled for September 12-16th.
"We are working through all the steps that are necessary to acquire the needed permits to operate the event. We are talking to sponsors, talking to our fans and selling tickets and those are all the things we normally do and we're moving forward with that."
This one-of-a-kind event brings an estimated $85-million into our local economy.
