Rotor and Wing Magazine
 

I have subscribed to r+ w for many years, over time I have found the magazine to be good, but recently its content a bit thin on civilian worldwide operations. Although the items on military helicopters is interesting, its not the same as it was, I seem to get through it much faster than I used to, is it still widely read out there?

R&W has become very commercialized. The folks on Justhelicopters forum call it
Bower&Wing,because of Ron Bower's ads.
Try Pacific Rotors. Great magazine with a helicopter pilot's point of view.

I concur,
Pacific Rotors is a great mag!

Thanks for the positive comments about the magazine guys. I may piss a few people off with my postings but always try and put out a quality magazine.

We have increased it to 60 pages from Issue 9 and always drop me an email if you have ideas for stories etc. Any feedback is helpful.

Rotor & Wing is probably the most authoritative publication in the business today. It’s a real anorak’s magazine (Hard Core). We don’t get Pacific Rotors so I can’t say how it compares, but I think it has a great balance of Civil and Military issues and makes for great reading…

If you want to let me know your postal address and company name I will send you off some of the issues to have a look.

Rotor and Wing is probably the LEAST authorative helicopter publication in the aviation press.

The value of this magazine, and it's contents, are directly related to it's price - $FREE.

My apologies Cyclic, it was not my intention to offend, it was just an opinion.

Likewise and no offence taken.

Obviously, you are equally entitled to your own opinion and it is not my intent to detract from your assessment of this publication, only to state my own.

Personally, I find a lot of the content and coverage tedious and repetitive. The "news" might have been news once, but routinely, it's shelf-life expired long before the publication date!

The rounds of interviews with "industry leaders" are equally tiresome, appearing as self important, hyped-up portraits of the individuals concerned. Lets see them answer some of the more challenging questions about their business that could be thrown their way!

Maybe some other suggestions if anyone is interested: -

Try asking the readership to gauge how they rate various types (including military and Russian), how well the manufacturers support their products, respond to problems and improve their products and service.

Lets hear some detail on how to sustain and grow the industry; tackle the specific problems in the various sectors of the industry; deal with the airworthiness and support problems of the various helicopter types; deal with governmental and regulatory issues and some serious flight test reviews by pilots who at least know the sector and equivalent type comparisons.

Lets see serious analysis of operator and labour relationships; unionisation; contract personnel; expanded information on pay, benefits, working conditions; low time pilots; lack of new personnel joining the industry; loss of experienced personnel to other sectors of aviation or industries, etc.

Safety and training; accident and incident analysis, and avoidance; technological developments that operators in the real world use, and do not consist solely of a Press Release for some ridiculously priced military application that will never see the light of day in commercial aviation.

There have always been some worthwhile things to read in R&W (particularly Ray Prouty) and I still look at every issue, but it only takes a few minutes to read anymore.

Some other publications that might be of interest(not listed in any particular order);
Helicopter International
Pacific Rotors
Helicopter World
Helicopters (Canadian)
Rotor (HAI)
rotorhub.com
Professional Pilot
Business and Commercial Aviation
Aviation International News

I have to concur wholeheartedly with Cyclic Hotline, R & W has long been a military and "industry leader" mouthpiece with precious little "real" information. Lots of meaningless droning with plenty of publication-supporting advertising and the average time to get cover to cover seems to be getting shorter. But then again, maybe it's just my attention span?
Possibly it's not supposed to be oriented to the average pilot except for the odd article, there certainly seems to be lots of self congratulatory back slapping and throat clearing going on!
Perhaps the internet is the reason the news seems old, because we sure have a fast way to move rumours, half-truths, hearsay and lies to every corner of the globe.
But that's just my opinion. I think...

Yes, I get through the magazine very quickly, i don't know whether its because the articles are so useless, or because its thinner, but it has changed. Im over Mr Bower and his helicopter evaluations, id like to see a operator out there with their report on a machine, I did see one once, a great article by a production logging pilot on the K max, very informative.

I have to say that the current copy of R&W is the best in ages - maybe they are paying attention to their readership (or reading these forums?)

Also the current issue of Helicopter World is very good.

Easy to criticise (or not comment), but credit due, when deserved....

Where can I get a subscrition to R+W magazine, I really need to get a good helicopter mag I am wondering where to find one but im having no luck

Cody the distressed chopper pilot

Slingload,

We did an operators report on the 407 back a few issues ago. Have a number planned for upcoming issues. We dont have any test pilots on staff but do talk to various operators about the aircraft they are using.

Keep an eye out for a very enlightening feature on the AS-350B3. Will generate a lot of comments, that I am sure of.

Regards

Pac Rotors

Helicopter world has had a change of editor which is why it has improved.
I know him and I think it will get better and better.

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elpirata

elpirata,

where can i get a subsribtion to helicopter world?

Cody

Cody,

http://www.shephard.co.uk/pubs/helwrl/index.htm



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elpirata

I have been getting Rotor and Wing for years,but I'll be spending my money on Pacific Rotors. I just got a complimentary copy and was really impressed. Rotor and wing has way too much Military and not enough of the every day operator

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Just checked out the Helicopter World website. They want $130 for a yearly subscription to their magazine. Whew!!!

All your responses to my original post are interesting, i am told that the folks at R&W have read this thread! It appears that they were looking into all of this before it was raised on this forum, but this thread has stirred the pot so to speak. I am still over Ron Bower.