Many people who contributed to our last readership poll left comments for us to examine. This provided fantastic feedback, even though there's not much we can do about some of the things people raised. But there is a lot we can do, and here are editor Hitch's answers to the issues most commonly raised.
More depth in articles. Comparative reviews of older light aircraft that most recreational pilots buy/use. Encourage readers to submit articles on their own flying habits and experience.
Agreed! In the past couple of years we've run features comparing the C150 and J-160, C172SP and Piper Archer III, and the A36 Bonanza and C210. They do make for great reading and are fantastic fun to do as well. We're always on the lookout for something else like this, but it has to be viable for us to do it and the aeroplanes have to be available. Noted, and I will start work on the next one soonest I can put it together. As for flying habits and experience, we used to have a column called My Story that ran for many years, but in the end we were struggling to get good material. I can see that would probably continue to be a problem.
Include flight simulators and drones.
We have done some work on home sims in the recent past, but in terms of general aviation, there's not much we can do without being repetitive. We did have a home sims column for many years, but again it rated poorly. When I ask around the airports who uses home sims, I don't find too many pillots that do. I have a home sim myself and have found it very useful in the past for practising forced landing and approaches to unfamiliar airports, but I'm rarely on it nowadays for fun.For certified sims for training, we've looked at the Redbird, Elite iGate and CKAS sims recently. I have a cunning plan for a future feature if I can find a willing subject company. Keep a look out for it. As for drones, there is a bit every now and then (March-April 2018), but we deliberately stay away. Yaffa Media has a magazine called Drone in its stable, and we leave it up to them. If you want Drone stuff, you can check out the mag here.
I would like to see more articles around small aero clubs and schools and how they survive and prosper.
... then you will enjoy May-June when it hits the streets! We've done an in-depth examination of how the most successful aero clubs manage to keep their doors open.
More interviews with flying schools CP CFI and instructors these boys and gals are at the coal face and have their finger on the pulse and an eye on cash flow.
The hardest person to get time with at any flying school is the CFI or CP! Most of our contacts are usually willing to help where they can, but their schedules most often deny them the chance to do so. Regardless, some do go well out of their way to help. We have a feature planned for the middle of this year that will need a lot of feedback from CFIs and I suspect we'll be taking our goodwill to the limit! However, you won't get them to talk about cash flow (not that they want to anyway)!
Stop the continual negative comments regarding CASA.
I have an agreement with CASA that goes like this: if they do something I like, I will say so. If they do something I don't like, I'll say that too.There is a lot of improvement still needed at Aviation House, but it seems to be making very little difference to the aviation community. I have applauded CASA over the Basic Class 2 and the VFR ADS-B initiatives, but will agree that I come out most strongly when I have something to beat them with. So this is what I hope will happen in the future: my comments will become more and more positive as they start to get things right and we see a genuine reform in their attitudes towards general aviation. If that doesn't happen, you can expect my opinions to continue to reflect reality.
Perhaps a bit more on the recreational side of flying as that is my particular interest, but I appreciate it caters to a wide audience.
We have ramped up our recreational coverage in the past two years. We've introduced the column A Spot of Recreation as a voice for RAAus, created a special Recreational news page on the website and are now doing flight tests on aircraft with MTOWs of 544 kg. Previously, we limited that to 600 kg. One of the things that is holding us back is, being a GA mag primarily, we don't have any recreational experts at hand. If there's anyone out there that is a genuine expert on recreational aviation and can write really well, I'd love to hear from them!
More Destinations!
Shelley Ross does a magnificent job of this and I believe is clearly the best aviation travel writer in Australia. I would love more from Shelley, but she's a very busy lady with her own website and sideline as a flying instructor. I doubt we are going to get more from her. We have used some guest writers in the past who have done a great job, and we would like to hear from any others who have a top destination in mind and can write it up themselves ... and take professional-standard pics!
Jim's South African accidents are good, but why can't we have Australian ones?
We get asked this a lot, and I am sad to have to give the same reply each time: it's not possible. Jim often knows the people involved in the prangs and gets more information than the CAA reports include. His knowledge of the terrain and territory also gives him a better insight to what the pilot might have done better. He can't do that with Australian prangs, so the standard of his analysis would decline. Also, and very importantly, Jim would have to curb his writing style for Australian prangs because the very people involved could read the magazine, which can lead to 100 different types of acrimony. In the end, we'd probably have to stop the series. Right now, we can still learn a lot from the South African prangs because the aeroplanes are the same and so is the sky.
There seems to be an increasing number of aviation events being planned and you have a great opportunity to support these and to have your personnel on site giving away copies of Aust Flying and Flypast to generate real lasting interest in local aviation events. You win, so does the event.
I suspect the reader actually means Flightpath, our sister publication on antiques and warbirds. You are right that there are an increasing number of events being planned, and we're in a position that we can't get to all of them, so we have to pick the ones we're going to support. We recently were a media partner at the Regional Aviation Association of Australia conference last October, and will be at Aviatex in November and Avalon in March next year. We also have had stands at Ausfly/Oz-Kosh/Airventure Australia, but weren't there last year because I personally couldn't make it. That's what it often comes down to: I have to be available to go to the event, and I can't make it to every event planned in Australia.
Please have subscribers sent their edit BEFORE they are sent to newsagents. The mag appears in newsagents weeks before I receive my copy! Very annoying and I wonder if I should cancel my subscription as I am worse off.
If we could do something about this, we would! The newsagent copies and the subscription copies both leave the printer at once. The newagent copies go via Gordon and Gotch who is probably the fastest magazine distribution company in Australia. The subscription copies go out via Australia Post, who is probably the slowest magazine distribution company in Australia. Speed costs money, and the cost of sending the subscription copies out faster would make them significantly dearer. Hence, the cover price on the newsagent shelves is higher than that of subscription.
There were many more comments given to us, and each one has gone to the publisher to be considered, even the ones that just said "keep up the good work." We appreciate your time and input. It will help us make Australian Flying a better magazine.