Letter from the CEO of CARV (Maker of the ARV Griffin)
Richard Craig
the ARV Griffin) at his request, to RAH. Recently CARV has come under
attack on this newsgroup by an individual identifying themselves as
Patrick Fynn, for reasons only known to that individual.. This letter
is a direct response to the allegations made against CARV by that
individual.
As mentioned in the following letter, over a dozen ARV Griffin
customers/builders attended a workshop in Edmonton this past January.
Everyone in attendance was impressed with all aspects of the ARV
Griffin, including flight characteristics, performance, and
construction. Even after a discussion lead by the principles of CARV
disclosing the ongoing legal and financial status of the company, not
one customer canceled their order. I, as a customer, as well as the
other Griffin builders that I am in contact with, have every confidence
in CARV, and their kit plane, the ARV Griffin.
Dick Craig
ARV Griffin #37 in progress
List Manager, ARV Griffin Builders List
______________________________________________________________________
June 4, 1999
Dear Richard Craig
I would like to provide some information to you, as a valued customer,
regarding certain allegations that have been circulated on the net by
person or persons unknown. As with most deceptions, the issues
identified are a perversion of the truth and create damage by innuendo.
FACT:
Dave Marsden has been removed from position of General Manager of CARV
by the Board of directors of Canada Air RV as of July 1998. This is a
matter of public record. . We are confident that CARV has acted to
protect all our customers’ interests’ and provide a safe, reliable
product that is not only simple to build but also meets the high quality
standards our customers expect and deserve.
FACT:
It is true that a "Statement of Claim" was filed against CARV by IARV.
This dispute relates to contract fulfillment issues and timeliness in
meeting it. We contend that we are paid up in full, if not prepaid in
our contract with IARV.
FACT:
The “termination” of the manufacturing rights and the “$2 million”
dollar figure are part of the litigation. We strongly believe that
court action would be more damaging and costly to IARV as well as Dave
Marsden than to CARV. It is our intent to continue to manage this
litigation and reduce the effect of any damage it is intended to cause
our company. We believe that steps taken by CARV have been in the best
interest of our customers.
FACT:
We are not “hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to suppliers”. The
only debt that is “several years old” is one that was contested by our
company due to what we considered “price gouging” and is not being
pursued by the supplier.
FACT:
We admit that circumstances - mostly in finalizing the design - have
placed CARV in a less than enviable financial position. Our meeting in
Edmonton, this winter, with over a dozen customers from Canada and the
United States was provided in order to explain this situation. The
result was that not one customer felt compelled to cancel their order.
We are confident (as our customers’ are) that your trust in us will not
be misplaced.
FACT:
It is true that we have discontinued our advertisement contract with
KITPLANES magazine. We will be paying the outstanding owing. Our
present focus, however, is to place our advertising with a company that
has agreed to provide a better value for our advertising dollars. We
have therefore made alternate arrangements with Custom Planes, a
recreational aviation publication, that is taking the industry by storm
and one that has a strong reputation in this industry.
FACT:
CARV has initiated an audit for 1998 through an independent accounting
firm in preparation for a potential vend in to ARV Corp. - an existing
junior capital pool (JCP) - subject to approvals of the Alberta Stock
Exchange and the Alberta Securities Commission. ARV Corp. represents a
corporate strategy that is being undertaken to finance expansion of
CARV. We are confident that we will meet the requirements but our
ultimate success in the endevour does not dictate the success or failure
of the private company. ARV Corp. has, as its option, the ability to
accept other vends in opportunities which it has chosen not to take to
this date.
FACT:
We are here. Our doors are open and we are producing one of the best
recreational aircraft’s available in the market today. Our recent trip
to ‘Sun & Fun’ was an unqualified success and we expect to be here for a
long time. Some exciting new developments and strategic alliances are
ongoing and shall be announced as they are finalized.
We have not ascertained the identity of a couple of ghosts that made an
attack on our company. We have been informed that neither, a guest-book
entry in our home page using the e-mail name of
"jonathan...@hotmail.com" nor has a person using the name "Patrick
Fynn" made any personal contact with our company or any of our
customers.
We would like to speak with the person or persons using the net to
contact CARV customers in a manner that appears intended to disrupt our
operations. Anyone knowing how to contact the person or persons using
these addresses is advised to contact Canada Air RV Inc. immediately, as
this is a dangerous game being played that affects not only our company
but also the welfare of our customers.
On a more positive note, we wish to thank our marketing and sales team
for the great job they have been doing in answering questions from
customers and people who have been asking about the misinformation
campaign that was waged against us. Sheri Kalki and Bill Crampton have
been commended by customers for doing a super job making sure the
correct information is being communicated and so do we.
Jon Moores and Eric Robinson have continued, with the guys on the
production side, getting kits out to people. We appreciate them rising
to the challenge presented by backorders. They have been cleaning up
all the drawings for production; and have put in place an improved parts
inventory system that is connected with our accounting system. We are
confident that this will improve the overall efficiency in meeting our
customers needs. I have had the able assistance of Dale Alton in
meeting some challenges that we continue to face with IARV
Bud Zeits and Art Breier have been somewhat busy with Hangar 11. We are
very pleased that CARV associates and investors decided to buy the
70,000 sq. ft hangar which we alongside a number of other companies are
conducting our operations.
I would be in remiss in not mentioning Dick Craig, a builder that is
running the Griffin builder’s page on the net. We all want to express
our appreciation for the work he is doing out of the goodness of his
heart. Finally we also wish to thank our loyal customers who have lived
through some of the birth pangs our company has experienced.
We will continue to afford the best possible protection to our customers
and our company. We have not and will not use this forum to address our
legal dispute with IARV. We are contacting all of our customers
individually and wish to assure you that we will answer all your
questions and provide full details to the level you require.
If you require further information on this matter please do not hesitate
to call.
Canada Air RV Inc.
Dennis Lawrence, CEO
Phone: (780) 944 - 9210