Yup, just got my copy and that's a great article, great stories, and great pictures! Nice job, Ron. Did you write the article "on spec", or did you get a commission to write the article before the event? I love the detail you had on the people behind the aircraft, and their stories. I know you had fun at the event, gathering all that detail!
I'm a freelancer, so technically everything I do is "on spec." However, when you've worked with certain editors for years, there's a pretty good certainty they're going to use the article. So it's not just blindly throwing something over the transom.
In this case, I was asked to cover the Fly-In for Sport Aviation, so I was on assignment. This makes it easier in several ways; it's more effective to be able to say "Covering the Fly-In for XXXX magazine" than "I'm a freelancer, someday what I write might get published."
Pay for Kitplanes and the EAA magazine articles is on publication, though the invoice for author payment at EAA goes in fairly early (I got the check for this one about a month and a half ago). I try to write enough so that my article payments and book royalties cover the expenses of my airplane... it minimizes the guilt when writing that hangar rent check every month. :wink2:
I'm glad you liked the emphasis on people, 'cause that's what I *like* to write about. There's a story behind every homebuilt (or classic restoration); just because a trophy didn't result doesn't mean the story isn't worth telling.
I actually prefer NOT to having to do an article staring me in the face, when I go to a Fly-In. I covered the Arlington Fly-In for about eight years straight for Kitplanes, and prefer to just sit back and relax at fly-ins rather than flitter about trying to ensure I've got enough material and photos for a good story. So normally, I turn such assignments down. But the editor called me just a couple of days before the show started, and was obviously in a bind.
I'm the type who CANNOT read my own writing when it's published, so I appreciate the feedback here.
Anybody who wants more details on writing for aviation publications should check out my
Avwriter's Primer.
Ron Wanttaja
