Sport Aviation Mag Jan. 2010

[dewhitaker]

Congratulations to forum member Andrew King for the story about the 1932 Pitcairn autogiro.

Looks to me like EAA has done a nice job with the new format of the magazine.

[baldeagle27]

Re: Sport Aviation Mag Jan. 2010

Thanks David, it's a fun aircraft, but not as relaxing as a Taylorcraft

[VictorBravo]

Re: Sport Aviation Mag Jan. 2010

Is it just me, or did Sport Aviation "dumb down" their magazine as part of the new face lift? I see a lot more white space on the pages... a few pages look like they have far too much white space that could have been used for something else.

I'm all for a good old fashioned face lift now and then (I came from Hollywood, it's in our DNA), but if they adjusted the content downward to appeal to the unwashed masses at the expense of the educated, I'd be upset. I love EAA and I am awestruck by how much they've done for aviation... but not every one of their decisions along the way has been brilliant.

Adding a new magazine or a new section for newbies is a great idea. Lowering the level of the content across the entire magazine is not IMHO. Raise the newbies up to the level of the hardcore addicts instead of the other way around. Someone tell me I'm wrong about this...

[Tom Baker]

Re: Sport Aviation Mag Jan. 2010

no bill you are not wrong it has become just another flying book. they need to go back 30 yrs.to be good. tom baker

[Robert Lees]

Re: Sport Aviation Mag Jan. 2010

I hardly read the EAA "Flagship" magazine any more. The only one I get in addition is the VAA magazine, which I like and read from cover to cover. (all the other EAA publications don't interest me at all).

The UK has 5 or 6 monthly magazines which are a lot better, and I subscribe to a couple of those.

[Dick Huish]

Re: Sport Aviation Mag Jan. 2010

If you want to see some really great reading you should see my collection of EAA magazines. My collections staart with the Jan 1956 and goes to the fall of 1998 and is almost complete. The first two years are the original Experimenter before they changed to Sport Avaition. I left the EAA in the fall of 1998. Went to Oshkosh 23 years straight. Dick

[baldeagle27]

Re: Sport Aviation Mag Jan. 2010

Is it just me, or did Sport Aviation "dumb down" their magazine as part of the new face lift? I see a lot more white space on the pages... a few pages look like they have far too much white space that could have been used for something else.

I'm all for a good old fashioned face lift now and then (I came from Hollywood, it's in our DNA), but if they adjusted the content downward to appeal to the unwashed masses at the expense of the educated, I'd be upset. I love EAA and I am awestruck by how much they've done for aviation... but not every one of their decisions along the way has been brilliant.

Adding a new magazine or a new section for newbies is a great idea. Lowering the level of the content across the entire magazine is not IMHO. Raise the newbies up to the level of the hardcore addicts instead of the other way around. Someone tell me I'm wrong about this...

What, you didn't like my article...???

I'm a member but only get the Vintage Airplane hardcopy. I read Sport Aviation online, nice that they offer that option now. I know some of the editorial staff from both, and their jobs are not always easy.




-

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Sport Aviation Mag Jan. 2010

New format does not work for me.... Oh well , I plan to drop out soon anyhow ; I now know how Dick feels....

[Rick Hadley]

Re: Sport Aviation Mag Jan. 2010

Hmmm, I thought the new Sport Aviation was the best magazine I've seen in years. I'm still not through reading it and normally I don't spend more than 30 minutes with ANY magazine before it gets tossed on the recycle pile. I only subscribe to Flying for Martha Lunken's column and "I Learned About Flying". GA is free, but about all I really read there is Deb McFarland's column. The insurance discounts alone make both the EAA and AOPA memberships basically "freebies", but I never really cared much for either magazine until the new Sport Av came out.

[MNJoe]

Re: Sport Aviation Mag Jan. 2010

I'm 46 and just got my 20 year pin from AOPA, while I might not agree with how they spend the members money, just ask Robert Lee what kind of flying freedoms they have in Europe!!! I agree with others Flying Magazine is the worst when it comes to reporting news unless you want to read about three month old news , however the editorials are usually good.

Joe

[Larry Lyons]

Re: Sport Aviation Mag Jan. 2010

At this point I agree with Rick, although I have not got through the entire new Sport Aviation mag. (too much time goofing off here!) But I do love Martha L at Flying! Not only is she beautiful and smart but can carry herself as one of the guys. Not many women can do that with style and aplomb. Larry

[VictorBravo]

Re: Sport Aviation Mag Jan. 2010

What, you didn't like my article...???

I know some of the editorial staff from both, and their jobs are not always easy.

-

Mr. King,

My comments were not directed at any particular article or author at all, and I apologize for any inference that way because of the thread subject. Honest. I liked your article and I'm awestruck by the aircraft. I'm as jealous and thrilled about your flying the Pitcairn as anyone else is. Growing up around the Old Rhinebeck scene... I'd even trade you some of my own childhood for that

My comments were based on the cover-to-cover look and feel of the new version. Not your article or anyone else's specifically. I'm not even saying it's all terrible, I'm only saying that it would be terrible if a decision had been made to "dumb down" the EAA flagship magazine, or lower any of its journalistic or literary standards.

I find several mis-spellings and typographical errors in Sport Aviation all the time, which is just not right. I write a monthly newsletter for our local EAA chapter, and I know personally how hard it is to copy-edit every word. My own newsletter has typos that occasionally slip through the cracks, because I'm a one-man operation trying to crank out an entire finished newsletter in one day as a freebie.

So yes, I know first-hand that the job of a magazine editor is not easy. But hitting the spellcheck key in Word is NOT a substitute for the Editor paying attention !

There are plenty of minor spelling and grammar issues when people write informally, such as this newsgroup. My own posts here are admittedly littered with typos from my hands moving too fast.

But for a professional, paid, for-profit, glossy flagship magazine to have frequent mis-spellings or shoddy grammar is not acceptable and it does mean that the copy-editor or someone in the editorial room is not doing their job.

I personally love EAA, and am very thankful for what they do. The good far outweighs the bad on all levels. I am sorry that anyone feels like they want to leave, because if anything will save GA it will be EAA, AOPA and similar organizations.

All that being said, I will say this with absolute sincerity: There is a very disturbing trend in the world today, where we are shifting more and more to style over substance, celebrity over integrity, concept over content, and a thousand other little sound bites about "dumbing down" the entire world.. My original comment was simply that the magazine APPEARED to be lowering it's "aim" a little, and if this is indeed the trend for Sport Aviation then I say with all my heart that something worthwhile will have been lost by doing that.

[resojames]

Re: Sport Aviation Mag Jan. 2010

I was a EAA member for 25 years and built 5 aircraft- 3 from plans, designed one and 1 from a kit. The EAA used to be about homebuilt aircraft and the ingenious things that the builders were doing. I used to go to Oshkosh and just be awed by the things people were doing and building. I learned a hell of a lot from EAA resources. Somewhere along the line the EAA got to worrying about increasing membership and making obsene amounts of money. To achieve this goal they had to abandon their core membership and dumb it down to the average pilot wanna-be level. Anybody that has any of the Mags from the 50s, 60s and 70s knows what I am talking about. Now it (both the Mag and the EAA)is about store bought aircraft, avionics glass panels and kit aircraft that a monkey could build. Just not interesting enough for me to be a member anymore. What started out as a labor of love for Paul Poberezny has turned into a money cow for a lot of people at the headquarters who now run things. I guess that is just the natural evolution of such things.

Andy

[barnstmr]

Re: Sport Aviation Mag Jan. 2010

Andy...
Your observation is right on.

[wlas]

Re: Sport Aviation Mag Jan. 2010

Andrew...I just read your article and you did a great job, I don't care what they say about Sport Aviation, I like it.