Nice thread topic dp, I will kick off with..............
1. I would love to see more "Owners and their Aircraft" type articles. One mag did one like this a few months ago about a guy and his Cherokee and I found it good honest reading. It's interesting to read about other peoples flying and their tips on maintenance, insurance etc. can be very useful. It wouldn't be expensive to do a series like this and rather than going for people like "Stavros and his modified Yak 18" I feel some down to earth ones like "Pete and his 182" etc. would be more useful!!!
Perhaps the owner who had the article written about him might be given a free watch for his efforts and time!!
Seriously though, I get tired of reading how "Janet and John went to Austria in their Rallye". We could all learn from solid articles about owners because many people who don't own, want to.
Just an idea.
2. I would agree entirely with dp on his "can we hear more about affordable planes". The exotic ones are great to read about and I appreciate that the magazine has to target a very wide audience. The space shuttle article a few years ago was the biscuit as far as I'm concerned and when an airliner is on the front of one of the three mag's I don't even take it off the shelf.
I think it was flyer that did an excellent series about 18 months ago where they discussed different aircraft that could be bought within different price brackets. That was "useful" journalism and I have re-read those articles several times especially when condsidering a change of a/c.