"Aviation Consumer" Gone West?

I just contacted my credit card company and disputed the renewal charge from 2 weeks ago. I said they're not delivering the good as advertised (online vs print). I got a response shortly after saying the dispute has been resolved, full refund issued. Online may be good for the retired folks, but for someone who is on a computer all day for my career, the last thing I want to do is l9ok at a computer screen more.
 
bonefishpete said:
They had a good run.
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Not quite as old, but IFR did pretty well too (one of the other writers send me this). Hopefully Firecrown will incorporate some of its (and Aviation Safety and Aviation Consumer) type of content into Flying and/or Plane & Pilot.

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midlifeflyer said:
Not quite as old, but IFR did pretty well too (one of the other writers send me this). Hopefully Firecrown will incorporate some of its (and Aviation Safety and Aviation Consumer) type of content into Flying and/or Plane & Pilot.

View attachment 137650
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and @bonefishpete

You guys are a couple of teases. Now I really want to read those articles. Yes, I would like to read about Learjet checkrides, buying used avionics in 1979, and all the other cover stories.
 
This was posted in another forum that I frequent. The person posting is a contributor to IFR magazine.

Yesterday I got an email from the editor of IFR. It was addressed to all the contributors of IFR magazine. Big banner at the top of the email saying that the email is not to be forwarded or posted anywhere. So I’ll paraphrase. Basically he said that Firecrown has had a change of heart. IFR and Aviation Consumer will continue. For how long it is not known. Contributors are being asked to continue contributing articles. The next (March?) issue is going to be delayed by a couple of weeks. The following issue is hoped to be on time.

No additional information on Aviation Safety.
 
That's interesting...I am on my subscription page and all I have is Feb shown. There are 3 posts dated March, but no new magazine issue. I also looked in the digital Issue catalog, and it's not there. Also, no email notifying me or providing a link to a March issue????
 
$3 in 1979, wow. Couldn't you buy a nice 3/1 Ranch home for that? :)
 
Chris Mixon said:
That's interesting...I am on my subscription page and all I have is Feb shown. There are 3 posts dated March, but no new magazine issue. I also looked in the digital Issue catalog, and it's not there. Also, no email notifying me or providing a link to a March issue????
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Yep, saw the same. Surprisingly the customer service hasn't e mailed me back with my questions about the March issue. Probably some auto bot is still sending out the pre fabricated e mails, but no one left to load the March issue, answer the phones, etc.
 
That’s not an issue of the magazine, that’s a single, short posting on the web page.
 
Haven't received email or printed versions (yet), but after login, it appears 'Volume 41 Number 3 March 2025' has been posted to IFR Magazine site.

Thank you Mark and all contributors @midlifeflyer
Great to see such an outstanding resource ... continues!

Available online under 'Digital Issue Archives':
IFR Magazine.jpg
 
MikeNY said:
Haven't received email or printed versions (yet), but after login, it appears 'Volume 41 Number 3 March 2025' has been posted to IFR Magazine site.

Thank you Mark and all contributors @midlifeflyer
Great to see such an outstanding resource ... continues!

Available online under 'Digital Issue Archives':
View attachment 138997
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Yeah. Got it now. Yep, my VTF article is there. I literally have no clue what is going on. I will try to find out but I might not be at liberty to talk about it.

(Edit: Just read it - it's too bad I didn't get a chance to review the pre-publication proof and catch errors)
 
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SoCal 182 Driver said:
There's a rumor running around that Aviation Consumer (along with IFR and Aviation Safety magazines) has gone (or is going) west.

Anybody have any info?
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Hello, so they were going to be shut down, but then the management/publisher has reconsidered and they will now continue. But Av Safety will be doing digital, according to 'Editors Log' , 'Final Entry' in the Feb issue of Av Safety. How do I know? I have written for IFR and heard from the editor. First IFR was going to be shut down, and then, surprise, a change in plans, back in business. So IFR is not going away. :)
 
Will IFR be digital only?
 
I called IFR Subscription Service and this is what they told me. The last print edition was February and the March edition was digital only. They also said that the March edition was the last edition. When I asked about a reimbursement for the remainder of my subscription they said that was rolled over to my Flying subscription.
 
That might explain why out of the blue I just got email that my digital copy of the April Flying magazine was ready.

I don’t subscribe to Flying…
 
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DJTorrente said:
If it is folding due to bankruptcy, customers owed future performance/refunds, etc. get to stand in line with all the other unsecured creditors, usually getting a prorated share of whatever crumbs fall off the BK table.
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Don't think it is bankrupt. Firecrown bought them. They'll probably try to shift you to one of their other rags.
 
jayhawk74 said:
I called IFR Subscription Service and this is what they told me. The last print edition was February and the March edition was digital only. They also said that the March edition was the last edition. When I asked about a reimbursement for the remainder of my subscription they said that was rolled over to my Flying subscription.
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Thanks for update.

An unfortunate decision to discontinue publishing IFR Magazine; it will be missed.
:(
 
Half Fast said:
"IFR Pilot Magazine reserves the right to change the number of issues in an annual term,..."​
​
"Aviation Consumer Magazine reserves the right to change the number of issues in an annual term,..."​

Right down to zero issues, I presume. It appears to me that they promise their subscribers absolutely nothing in exchange for purchasing a subscription.

Maybe Aviation Consumer could publish a review and warn consumers.
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Just because its in a TOS doesn't make it legal. Going to zero issues is not what you agreed to. Maybe they cut to less than monthly, but even then a contract has to be fair to both parties.

Its a moot point. Even if they go to 1, or zero issues, and you are 100% legally correct, the costs in legal fee's to recover nothing more than your subscription payment means you still lose. When I ran my business in the beginning I took a few people to small claims court over a few hundred dollars for work performed. Yes, I won. Wanna guess how much a judgement is worth? Nothing.
 
If any of you listen to the Uncontrolled Airspace Podcast (UCAP), its co-host Jeb Burnside has been editor of Aviation Safety Magazine for at least the 15 years I've been listening to them. He hasn't specifically announced any career changes, but it may not be unrelated that they are newly publishing a UCAP newsletter.
 
jayhawk74 said:
I called IFR Subscription Service and this is what they told me. The last print edition was February and the March edition was digital only. They also said that the March edition was the last edition. When I asked about a reimbursement for the remainder of my subscription they said that was rolled over to my Flying subscription.
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The most I can do is confirm that February was the last print issue and March the last issue altogether. I'm not surprised about the roll-over but don't know anything about FireCrown internal decision process. Whether they ever ask any of the IFR authors to write for them I don't know. But I do know that they have periodically used existing articles. For example, the April 2024 issue of Flying carried an article I did for IFR back in 2017 (I only knew about it because someone I knew told me about it; )

I guess I should be honored to have an article in the final (March) issue of IFR and a sidebar in the penultimate (February) issue.
 
Straight up scam from IFR and Flying magazine is garbage. You can look at Pilatus ads and read the gripes of old timers ranting about people pulling up to fuel pumps in ways HE finds egregious.
 
It seems the situation at the Firecrown group is getting worse- apparently the well respected and long established Aviation Consumer magazine has been cancelled, and now I heard through a forum member that avweb editor Russ Niles was let go. pretty sad these things were destroyed in what, less than 2 years?
 
Lowslowrvis said:
It seems the situation at the Firecrown group is getting worse- apparently the well respected and long established Aviation Consumer magazine has been cancelled
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I really hope that someone or several someones here downloads/downloaded all of their digital archive articles.
 
Lowslowrvis said:
It seems the situation at the Firecrown group is getting worse- apparently the well respected and long established Aviation Consumer magazine has been cancelled, and now I heard through a forum member that avweb editor Russ Niles was let go. pretty sad these things were destroyed in what, less than 2 years?
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Not surprising. They don't deliver the freakin' magazines! They failed to send me copies I reported not receiving, and offered no refund. If they go belly up, they've earned it.
 
I’ve received the last bunch of paper aviation consumer magazines. I’m bummed they are going out as it was a great reference
 
I discovered "Air Facts" Air Facts Journal from the Saturday Morning email blasts from Sporty's a few years ago, and I enjoyed many of the online stories from amateur authors sharing stories from the piloting experiences. Air Facts has been around since 1938, originally founded by Leighton Collins. His son Richard became a popular General Aviation writer for many years. At some point Sporty's purchased Air Facts, so it continues, without the paper, or any cost.

In order for future generations of heirs to my fortune (ha ha) to find me in a hundred or two years from now, I submitted a couple of my more exciting stories to Air Facts (where maybe they will last forever) so that my name can be found, and they can learn where all the money went

The first article My Near Death Experience placed #7 out of the top 10 submissions (out of a couple of hundred) selected by the editors for 2024 (attracted some well earned criticism). Which encouraged me to write another No Power, No Time: A Glide Towards Shore that so far hasn't had drawn any negative comments.

I'd enjoy hearing any interesting, or learning experiences from the varied crowd of characters that inhabit PoA.
 
AvNavCom said:
EAA's Sport Pilot is great, although sometimes it feels like it should be called Oshkosh/Air Venture magazine.
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I recently changed from EAA's Sport Aviation to their Vintage Airplanes in part due to just what you described. Albeit, the magazine is half the size its more about the old school I grew up flying and less about the latest Carbon Cub etc.
 
Just received my August edition in the mail today. If this is true, and previous reports of the demise have not been, I’m glad I turned off auto-renew last month. I was set to renew in September if the price wasn’t outrageous.
They were hawking a deal for 3 of the magazines at Oshkosh but Aviation Consumer was not one of them.
 
It seems to be prevalent throughout the magazine industry. Make magazine screwed me by folding mid-subscription (they came back but they didn't honor the previous subscribers). I judge a wine competition for WineMaker magazine every year, and they told me that they've gone online only as of this year as well.

I'm really ****ed that down here I can't get the NYTimes delivered timely. They claim to not have a distributor but the next county over can get it and the same distributor delivers the WSJ and some of the local papers to me. Just to be annoying, they put the WSJ in a NYTimes plastic wrapper (which shows the same distributor has the Times, but they NYT won't let them deliver to me). Then they cry about why the print is dying and the advertisers don't want to go there (the ads don't show in the online stuff).
 
Rick A said:
..... encouraged me to write another No Power, No Time: A Glide Towards Shore that so far hasn't had drawn any negative comments.

I'd enjoy hearing any interesting, or learning experiences from the varied crowd of characters that inhabit PoA.
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Well written good story - complete with an analysis of why the apparent engine failure. So often these don't get into enough detail to educate the rest of us for whatever reason. Lawyers?
 
Rick A said:
The first article My Near Death Experience placed #7 out of the top 10 submissions (out of a couple of hundred) selected by the editors for 2024 (attracted some well earned criticism). Which encouraged me to write another No Power, No Time: A Glide Towards Shore that so far hasn't had drawn any negative comments.

I'd enjoy hearing any interesting, or learning experiences from the varied crowd of characters that inhabit PoA.
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Thanks for sharing them. They were both excellent reads.
Man, that's carb ice on a completely different level.
 
Really disappointing. Aviation Consumer was my go-to for making aircraft upgrade decisions. Well-researched articles about new and competing products, not ad-fluff. No way can Flying address this niche within their page count. Their writing philosophy is web-site-style info-bites with low information density, stuffed between dozens of lifestyle ads. Even the aircraft reviews are fluff. It's basically a coffee table rag now. I'm done with it when my subscription runs out, although it has been extended once already from the IFR cancellation. Is the new Plane & Pilot any better for GA pilots, or did they fluffify that magazine, too?
 
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