Pilot Magazine
I would venture to say that "PILOT" is read by many amongst the GA fraternity as it a quick way of finding out what is happening in aviation. Sad therefore that it is tending to lose it's way somewhat. I got my June edition this week and there seemed to a lot more advertising than usual. A quick check showed that, including that front and back covers, the magazine consisted of 110 pages. No less than 56 of those pages were taken up entirely by advertisements and many other pages included advertisments at least in part. In one instance 8 pages were devoted to a product called Arthroplex which helped people deal with rheumatism and other ailments. I am not sure what place such a product sales pitch has in an aviation magazine unless it reflects the fact that a fair number of older pilots are Senior Citizens.
To accommodate all this advertising undoubtedly something has to give. It is many years since "From the Notams" appeared which was an unfortunate ommission as it was a quick reference to anything you may have missed. Similarly the feature which brought you up to date with helpful websites has also disappeared. In the June edition I refer to Safety Matters was reduced to two pages describing two accidents and four incidents. It would be nice to think that this was reflective of greater safety but probably not. Finally "Airfields" didn't even get a look in.
The editor tells me that they need the advertising to make the magazine viable but you also need readers and if the magazine doesn't suit their needs, they stop buying it.