I was talking to Matt Jackson the other day. He had a famous incident where his canopy blew up at Reno. He said he had just reached up and pulled his visor down over his eyes, for no reason, and the canopy disintegrated. If he hadn’t put the visor down, he would have been blinded and crashed. You never know what’ll save you.
I get the impression they're going to focus P&P on the low/slow/fun flying side, and Flying on the faster more expensive side with the free cookies and courtesy cars.
P&P is now owned by Firecrown. To get an idea of what it may look like under Firecrown, I submit this image from an article about test flying in the latest Kitplanes issue:
She's the real deal. I've done few photoshoots with her now and I'm excited about what she's doing. She showed up in Texas and didn't know anyone. When doing her first photoshoot, someone recommended a guy who turned out to be a car photographer. Not only was it unsafe, they didn't get good photos. The next story was with my friend Tres and she asked him if he had a photographer he would recommend and he said I was the only one he'd fly with. We did this shoot of a Top Cub on floats. We liked working together, so soon we did a this shoot with a Waco, then this shoot with a company relocating wildlife with an R66, and then this shoot of a Cirrus. We've got another fun shoot coming up next week.
The Libby app and a library card will get you both Flying and P+P free in many cases right on your iPad. I didn't renew my Flying subscription because the "aspirational" changes meant that it didn't speak to me anymore (hard to care about the interior of a multi-million dollar turboprop or jet) and P+P because Firecrown jumped up and down about using AI for everything, and I don't want to support that.
It sounds like she'll have interesting content to start at least, and she'll undoubtedly tell the stories better and better over time. It sure beats the race to AI.
Thanks for bringing up Libby. I'd forgotten about it.The Libby app and a library card will get you both Flying and P+P free in many cases right on your iPad. I didn't renew my Flying subscription because the "aspirational" changes meant that it didn't speak to me anymore (hard to care about the interior of a multi-million dollar turboprop or jet) and P+P because Firecrown jumped up and down about using AI for everything, and I don't want to support that.
Love all the photos though.
avbrief.com
X and Facebook are mostly places where people spout their own opinions with zero understanding of anybody else’s opinions. And even less tolerance for those opinions. Useful words are scarce on both platforms.
Part of the issue, I think, is people's reluctance to pay for online content. Physical magazines have two routes to income; paid subscriptions and advertising. Online sources such as AvWeb or AvBrief have only one. They certainly can try to set up a subscription system, but then you've got people screaming "PAYWALL!" if access to their content comes into question. You never had people screaming that they couldn't read something because they had to physically buy the magazine.
Eat it and you get to find about about the amberlamps.
I think there will always be a market for thoughtful and informed writing, including (especially?) long-form articles. The trick is linking the writers of those articles and the readers of those articles in a way that is sufficiently profitable to keep the enterprise going and is acceptable to all parties. A good example would be The War Zone, which frequently publishes complex, researched/sourced, and long-form articles on various military topics. Supporters of the site have been begging for ways to financially support the site via a subscription of some sort, in order to keep that level of quality.
Well, it's either that way or 100% belief as long as it supports my agenda, especially in politics. People want affirmation, not information!
That’s an offering. It doesn’t mean there’s a market any more than the new P+P does.AvBrief.com
Pure aviation intelligence, nothing artificial. News, Experimental aircraft, reviews, MOSAIC, avionics, flight safety, pilot gear, builder and maintenance tips.
40 years ago it was people protecting their hearing.
After I got my license, I took up one of Uncles who got me into flying. We we got in, I handed him a headset and he started laughing. He thought I was joking. Then he made fun of me! "What are you an airline pilot now?"
I hope you answered "NO, BUT I'M TRYING TO PROTECT MY HEARING FROM THIS LITTLE PLANE THAT'S MUCH LOUDER THAN A MODERN JET!"After I got my license, I took up one of Uncles who got me into flying. We we got in, I handed him a headset and he started laughing. He thought I was joking. Then he made fun of me! "What are you an airline pilot now?"
No, but even if I did, I don't think he could hear me!
Reminds me of when helmets became a thing for snow skiing/boarding and people were made fun of for wearing them at first.I also don't understand the shade thrown at someone protecting their melon. I wear one in the SuperCub because I'm flying over rough terrain basically all the time- I spent 4.5 hours in it on Saturday and only landed on a charted runway when I came home.
Warbirds (or anytime you are in an airplane with a parachute) is a no-brainer for helmet wear. Lots of my students in both backcountry and warbirds don't have helmets but they always get the discussion on why I use them and a strong recommendation to think about it. The noise cancelling is excellent, they are fairly warm in the winter and it's safer.
@nauga - how am I going to look cool shooting my watch down if I don't have a mirrored visor??!! (yes, I do have one on my warbird helmet)
The main problem with Facebook is it's much harder to find the information later - They'd much rather you ask the same question again. Then, the group just gets annoying, but it's getting "engagement" so they're happy.
I still can't figure out what some of the AI/Bot posts are about. I'm on a 58-59 Chevy Apache Fleetside page on FB. AI posts weird posts and I can't figure out why.
Group gets likes from those who don't know better and lots of comments from those who recognize it's AI garbage. Group is thus getting more "engagement" and the algorithm prioritizes that group over the non-AI one in people's feeds. More ads are sold. Everyone is happy except the user.
When you can’t measure what you value, you start to value what you can measure.
Or car shoulder harnesses. I remember when people were cutting them out of their cars.
