Originally Posted by
Mike Flynn
The late Ian Davies wrecked Pilot when Archant took over.
I was a great fan of Pilot magazine when it was owned by James Gilbert. At one time in the early 90s I had almost every copy since it was started by Norman Jones. Archant wrecked Pilot by trying to cover everything aviation, and duplicating subjects from other publications. I believe Ian Davies worked for Archant and contributed to the magazine but was never in charge of the content.
I once had a very arrogant letter from the then editorial team at Archant (Sam Spurdens, insignificant little man) which in no uncertain terms told me if I didn't like it I could go elsewhere. I did, and have never bought it since.. It also came at a time when the internet was expanding, so free advertising was becoming available. I can remember in the 1980s when classified adverts took up almost 10 pages..
A lot of the contributors had also moved on or passed away, so there were trying to re-do subjects under their own editorial 'direction' which didn't work. I wrote a flight test for the mag in the 90s, got paid handsomely.
An awful shame about Pilot mag, it was at the top of the pile when it was owned by JG.. Printed media is no longer needed in today's digital world, you're paying for waste paper once you've read it.