UK flying mags versus US flying mags

[justsomepilot]

For example Flying www.flyingmag.com is $41 for two years including airmail to Europe. This is a vastly more informative mag than anything in the UK, packed with latest products, avionics, instrument flight.

I can see the attraction of the UK mags for the real "grass roots" flyers but so many people complain about the UK mags having poor content.

[Flyin'Dutch']

JSP,

I read any magazine I can lay my hands on.

Different magazines for different reading groups. Even amongst pilots there are different interest groups.

Just to give an indication why we see few 'Flying' type articles over here:

FAA PPL IRs > 50% of PPL population.

JAR PPL IRs < 5% of PPL population.

[172driver]

JSP

couldn't agree more. The UK mags all seem to be stuck in some timewarp ca. 1940. Ah, those lovely warbirds.......

[englishal]

The US AOPA mag is excellent. It has really useful articles and is interesting......................all for about $50 per year membership and is airmailed to the UK.

[High Wing Drifter]

I bought a copy of Flying recently. Found it in a newsagents in Crewe of all places. Some of the articles were superb, but not very many. I would be halfway through reading one only to realise it was an advert. Others had lots of text with no real point to them. The aircraft reviews were OK. The IFR article, well I'm not sure who it was aimed at. It seemed more basic than a Thom book at one level but then would leap to the most extordinary advice that I'm sure would confuse anybody who felt they were getting something out of the easy bit.

All in all, I wasn't convinced we are hard done by over here. This month's Pilot was a good, albeit brief, read.

[DaveW]

JAR PPL IRs < 5% of PPL population.

As many as that? I'm impressed. :ooh:

(I know what you mean, though, FD. Almost none. "<<5%" says it with more feeling)

[AfricanEagle]

I read Flying, a couple of UK mags and a few Italian ones.

The best part of Flying are the columns. Baxter and Len Morgan were magic. Now Lane Wallace and Dick Karl fill in the space they left with stories of flying that I, as a Sunday bimbler on other side of the pond, can identify myself in. The other articles are interesting because they give a view of a very different flying world compared to Europe.

The UK and Italian mags are more near to home and often offer more pratical information for local flights.

The difference is down to the quality of writing. The USA has more pilots and therefore in proportion a wider selection of good pilot writers: European pilots aren't that many to start off with.

AE

[stuartforrest]

I subscribe to Flying from the US and have it mailed and it is cheap as chips and has tons more reading in it. The only annoying thing is that it contain stories and adverts for things we cant use over here such as the Garmin 396.

I often buy UK pilot mags but I always flick through them to see if there is anything worth reading and many times there isnt.

Last year I offered to write a story (free of charge) for one of these mags about me purchasing my Bonanza A36 (http://www.gotoair.com) from Berlin and the trials and tribulations of putting it on the N Reg etc.

The editor of the magazine wrote back saying they were only interested in stories that would appeal to the majority of readers etc etc. I thought it would be interesting for a lot of people what it was like to buy a plane from a foreign country and do all the registration stuff and then fly it back to the UK.

That month they had a three page spread on flying over Castles in the UK. It was total s**te. These editors of UK mags basically put any old rubbish in there.

Has anyone read Loop, the new flying newspaper. Its pretty good and its also free. I hope they keep going because it has more reading than any of the £3.90 glossy mags.

[IO540]

The % of UK PPLs with a current UK/JAA IR is way below 5%, nearer to 1% if anything. From those I've met it's clear most of them are "old" cases who did it under the old 700-hr concession, etc.

The USA is a much better environment for IFR than Europe. They have lots of hard runways and lots of instrument approaches. Over here, one can fly IFR between large airports OK, and the rest of the time it's "DIY letdown time" which understandably a lot of people don't want to do, especially if flying for a purpose e.g. visiting a customer. So, the USA has a lot more instrument pilots.

The USA also has a lot more money sloshing around the GA community. Apart from a small group of IFR owner-pilots, probably under 1000 total, most of European certified GA exists on really minimal budgets. Just look around the local airfield. This is reflected strongly in the writing and the products advertised.

Why doesn't a Garmin 396 work over here, SF?

The account of a refusal of an offered story is something I've come across myself. I am no judge of own material but was strongly encouraged by others to write in. The mags all wrote back saying they are inundated with material and so can pick and choose. Yet a lot of the content remains poor.

[Gerhardt]

I subscribe to AOPA Pilot, Flying, Plane & Pilot, and used to Private Pilot until they renewed my subscription, cashed my check and then closed their doors. AOPA and Flying were excellent for safety tips and reminders. And I admit to a wee crush on Ms. Wallace.

But for general enjoyment of the articles I liked Private Pilot the best. Tropical Ed (Ed Stephens Jr.) was a riot and did a good job of getting his point across in a humorous manner. I wonder what he's doing now?

It seems most of the good helicopter magazines are from Canada and Europe but I've had a helluva time trying to get subscriptions to them.

In case one is asking why I subscribe to so many magazines...I'm not fond of being the 99th person to pick them off the back of the toilet in the mens room. The girlie magazines, well that's a different story.

[IO540]

I'm not fond of being the 99th person to pick them off the back of the toilet in the mens room. The girlie magazines, well that's a different story.

Aren't all the pages stuck together by then?

;) :D

[cubflyer]

Not sure why the quality of US magazines has anything to do with the % of IFR pilots! I know a lot of US pilots, many airline pilots, but none who ever fly IFR on their days off!
Personally I dont really like Flying because it is always full of articles on avionics and flying IFR, which I do for a job but am not interested in for my private flying.
Sport Aviation used to be a good magazine in the US (its the EAA's inhouse magazine for those that dont know) but with a new editor a few years back it seemed to try to change to be a bit like Flying, with less articles about interesting people and aircraft and more columnists. I find that most of these columnists write a great column about once or twice a year, the rest of the time it is easy to see that they got to deadline day and couldnt think what to write, so any old drivel came out.

Stuart, did you actually submit your article, or just suggest that you might write it. Many of the mags do get many people saying they will do something, much of which never materialises.Most will not comitt to anything until they get the actual article and photos in their hands.

Seems to me that the three UK "pilot" magazines on the high street shelves are about equal these days. Pilot used to be by far the best, but seems to have gone down hill over the last few years. Whereas Flyer seems to be getting a lot better.

[Oscar Kilo]

I'm very much a fan of the US "Flying" mag too (IFR or not it has well written and different articles) and over the years have subscribed. However on the last two occassions I've tried, by posting the sub slip with the appropriate amount of US$ (in cash), I've not heard anything back.

So my question - you chaps that have managed to subscribe to Flying recently, how did you do it? What method of payment did you use? .....or did you get a US pal to do the honours for you?

Interested to hear, as these days it feels like there's not a lot worth reading hear (bar "Loop" which I hope keeps up the good job).

[yawningdog]

This topic keeps poping up, "why aren't the uk mags as good as the US mags, The US Flying Magazine is always quoted as an example."

Yet there is always a response that seems to justify why the UK magazines need to be the way they are, even though people are ASKING for something different.

Who cares how many valid IR holders there are in the UK. What about the invalid ones? Shame on them. What about all the IMC rated pilots, the invalid ones, and the instrument students?

Don't patronize us. Just because we are from the UK, it doesn't mean we do not aspire to, or are not interested in the more complex side of aviation. If people are going to the extent of subscribing to US based magazines rather than UK ones, then the UK Magazines should sit up and wonder, WHY?

In my opinion, the UK magazines are "samey" and thin on content. Too many pictures, not enough intellectual comment, repetitive flight tests, and frankly pretty lousy travel briefs. The UK magazines seem very formula based where each month there will be an article within a particular category, even if the article is not very strong.

I'm sure that it's all down to the bottom line. The circulation over here is small compared to the US, so the lower revenue will reflect upon the quality. But that shouldn't be the case, it's the chicken & egg syndrome I fear. Lets start EXPORTING our magazines to the US rather than the other way round.

"Oscar Kilo", you can subscribe to Flying via their Internet site.

[Gerhardt]

I read the magazines within a day or two of them arriving, then toss them. If someone in the UK wants them when I'm done you're more than welcome to them - here's the deal:

1. Let me know that you're interested so I don't make a deal w/ more than one person.

2. Bundle up a few issues of some fairly recent UK magazines and ship them to me. Airplane magazines are fine too but I'd love some devoted to helicopters also.

3. Send me your address and I'll ship you all of the ones I've mentioned above.

[stuartforrest]

IO540 I know you are knowlegable about most subjects but I hope I am correct about this one ( actually I would love to be wrong).

The 396 relies on XM satellite radio to be the carrier of its weather signals and their coverage does not stretch outside US and Canada.

This means that in the UK a Garmin 396 will effectively become an even more expensive 296 as its main benefit wont work. I guess I was a bit flippant saying it wont work because of course the GPS will work but then who would buy a 396 when they could get a 296 much cheaper with all the same features if you fly in europe.

Oscar Kilo

About the subscription to flying. I would suspect you go to flyingmag.com but I bought a copy in the states and then filled in the little card. The put another card in every month. I have one on my desk now. If you PM me to get my address and send me an SAE I will happily send you the card. I pay by credit card and it seems to work fine.

This time it is 2 year for $14 or two years for $24. Yes that is not a missprint!!! There is an additional $8 for postage per year but that makes it about £12 for twelve issues delivered to your door and when you reckon on they have at least double the content of the UK mags you can count that as at least £100 worth in the UK mags terms.

Funnily enough I got mine yesterday after posting my first entry and I can assure you it is packed with articles that are of interest to the UK pilot unless you prefer to look at Castles from the air in which case you are completely out of luck!!

[IO540]

SF

If the ONLY diff between a 296 and 396 is the XM weather (which I didn't know) then you are right; there is no airborne weather service in Europe that I am aware of. I thought there was some difference in the map database.

I know one can get the VHF modem which receives the satellite data but I don't think there is European coverage.

To be honest, if you really really want airborne weather you can do it with a normal mobile phone, and use one of those services that send you TAFs/METARs over SMS. Just make sure it's a decent one that sends the current ones. I have also done it with a phone set up as a plain old 9.6k GSM modem, or even GPRS (though my experience of GPRS is that it doesn't really work airborne) dialling up for normal internet access, and if you go to a very bare website then you can get it that way. Low altitudes only, say a few k feet max.

The American flying mags are indeed cheaper than the UK ones, even fater paying for airmail, which is pretty amazing. As for the old argument about material, I suspect a lot of the UK readers don't actually fly at all. That would distort the readership profile somewhat.... there is no obvious reason for the UK mags to be quite so backward as they are.

To be fair though, it's one thing to see a nice bit of avionics in some American mag and another to get it approved for installation in a G plane. You've then got to find an avionics shop that knows how to read the installation manual. Last time I had something fitted, I had to pull back the panel and stick a hoover in there to get out the swarf which they left in there, between all the connectors and the wiring. And this was a well respected avionics shop. The last two jobs they did left loose screws, and neither worked fully as it should, and never will unless I throw a lot of my money at it.

The UK has a little way to go when it comes to handling modern GA stuff, and it's not just the mags :O

[stuartforrest]

Ah yes I dream about the weather capabilities of the 396 but it may be a while before we see anything like it I suspect. I would go and live in America if all the Americans would promise to move here!

[fly_sd]

I think xm has been around for a few years now but only recently has become more popular among people. As the time it was launched there was a feeling it was going to fail but seems to have taken off since. It is primarily a Satellite Radio service - commercial free supposedly - as everything over here is usually peppered with commercials/ads. You can see some cars driving around with the xm radio antennas – I understand you can even get BBC world service radio on it. I think Garmin is also now partnering with others to make GPS more attractive – for example they are now offering some car GPS models equipped with RDS and partnering with a network of FM broadcasters to provide traffic info. So I guess the features on the 396 is a result of Garmin partnering with xm for this additional service.

As for magazines – I subscribe to AOPA’s Flight Training which is quite well written and has a bunch of technical articles which may be of use to those learning to fly in spite of the differences in the FAA/JAA system.

[windy1]

You can subscribe to Flying online via

http://www.neodata.com/hfm/flyn/

but you need to check your address and email is up to date.

The customer service is awful: lots of patronising replies telling you how important you are but without answering the question. However, its worthwhile persevering because you can pay with visa which saves a lot of fannying around with bankers drafts or international money orders.

I just renewed mine for $41 or £24.45 so as others have said, its a good read for a quid a month, especially for those who visit the states occasionally for training or fun flying.

Arguably, Collins is the most experienced most current light aircraft pilot journalist on the planet, and to my mind compulsory reading for anyone interested in instrument flying, safety or weather.