Good thread DP. After my criticisms on "the Watch thread" here are my positive suggestions-
The three main UK GA mags are called Flyer, Pilot and Todays Pilot. However despite the nature of their titles they tend to concentrate more on the lumps of old metal found in hangars rather than the people that fly them. I would therefore like to see more "people based" stories ("human interest" stories sounds a bit twee). Some suggestions along these lines might be-
1. Try and alter prejudices and defy expectations - why not take a confirmed "nosewheel snob" (or indeed someone who has only tried nosewheel spamcams and is therefore a little in awe of taildraggers -like myself) and get them to to undertake a farmstrip flying course in a tail dragger?
2. The veterans who ditched their 172 on the way to their reunion dinner on the Scillies certainly have tale to tell. To be still be flying at thier venerable age is pretty impressive, but to succesfully ditch in the Atlantic in Winter and all be safely rescued is a great achievement. Did the plane sink, how did they vacate, did they aim to ditch near the fishing boat, etc etc.??
3. Diary type articles - for example visit someone building a PFA kit aircraft a couple of times a year for 2 / 3 / 4 years for short updates on progress and detail the real meaning of what 500 or 1000 or 2000 hours locked away in their garage really feels like. What will the project really cost once the paints on the wings and the inks on the permit to fly? Are they still married ?! Or why not follow an ab -initio PPL student over the course of training over a year. Just think of the value they could have got out of the Pink Aviator if they had known what we know now!
4. Car and motorbike magazines often get a number of ordinary joe's to test new models preferably with a wide span of experience. There was a recent article in one of the mags (I forget which) with this format regarding the new Diamond single. It is a format that could be expanded upon.
However..... what is really neded is better quality writing across the board. Rather than wait for someone to send in an article on say perhaps farmstrip flying and decide to go with it despite the quality or otherwise of the writing (& the photos) as often seems to happen at present, how much better it would be if they could actually pay and commission decent writers and journos to put the articles together.
100 years on from the first powered flight, and as a pretty new PPL I can attest to the fact that flying is a pretty extraordinary thing to do. From the staid writing in the mainstream mags you would be hard pushed sometimes to believe this. What I would really like to see in the aviation mags is more verve, passion, and perhaps controversy.
Mr. W