Old Pilot Magazines
I'd be very keen to get a collection of old pilot magazines to predate my 1993 collection. I have found, and written to "Pilot" on more than one occasion mourning the death of intelligently composed aviation writing. One only has to compare an old review of an A/C written in 80's/90's to the present day piece to see the scale of what is being left out. When I challenged the editor Nick Bloom on the piece on the J3 Seaplane of 2009, he told me that they had to "dumb down" the magazine as it was losing readership when he took over. The new generation of pilots, which should have included me, seemingly couldn't stick the content. Notably I won the letter of the month but I'm still awaiting the famous £100 Transair Voucher, and the offer of Colin Goodwin's attendance to write an article which would set the record straight on the J3 Seaplane.
Last months piece on the Cessna 180 would have been better composed by my little sister who has would probably have a clearer grasp from her single flight in my 180. It seems to be lost to the Pilot flight test team that an aircraft should be evaluated in flight conditions similar to one would expect that A/C to be used in. Going for a bimble from one big grass strip to another yields little of the star qualities of the C180. One would expect a Mooney to be blast off to France on an IFR trip to get a feel for how it fits, similarly a Cessna Skywagon to be dropped off a 300m hillside strip loaded and flown through its paces then back into same or rougher in various wind load/conditions. If the unique abilities and mission profiles are not assessed and mods/drawbacks/maintenance issues illustrated then the article just misses the point. If you read car magazines they manage to frame things much better.
So stick them mags on Ebay, I'll bid. Perhaps "Pilot" could do me a reverse subscription starting with the year I was born, but if their current form is anything to go by I'll grow old waiting.
Over