I have no experience with popular magazines, but I was the editor of a law journal for a couple of years. Based upon that semi-related experience, I suspect that editors of most aviation magazines would be thrilled to receive quality submissions.
Publishing according to a regular timetable (one a month, once a quarter, etc.) requires that a magazine fill X number of pages ... if they can do so with good, fresh writing rather than the mediocre, so-much-per-word work of a tired hack, they'd prefer to do so.
There are any number of boooks available to guide budding magazine scribes: see e.g.
here,
here and
here.