Sport Aerobatics Magazine

[gibbons]

Already showing improvement! Way to go Ken. I liked your editorial.

Any feedback from the high-HP crowd about the "grass roots" feel of this issue?

Chip

 

[Ken Ibold]

Gee, thanks, Chip!

Dave left me some content, but not really much in the way of a planned out editorial calendar. So at this point I'm just puking stuff together. It'll take another month or two before it starts to show improvement from a planning point of view.

The dilemma of Sport Aerobatics is much the same as it was with Aviation Safety. On the one hand you have extremely accomplished people looking for that final edge, and on the other hand you have the neophytes who are trying to figure all this stuff out. Somehow you have to serve both masters. IAC recognizes this intellectually (if not emotionally), in that of the 7,000 or so members only a few hundred -- I forget the exact number, maybe 600 -- compete. So you have the huge preponderence of members who are really just into the recreational aspect. Gotta give them a reason to re-up when the bill comes.

I just wish IAC had some budget for me to work with. It's the first publication I've ever worked for that didn't pay contributors, so getting people to supply material is something of a challenge.

 

[BruceAir]

Ken,

I understand your dilemma. I love my Extra 300L. I love flying aerobatics. But I have no compelling desire to compete (we can talk about the reasonswhy some other time).

I love teaching about aerobatics (stalls, spins, upset recoveries, etc.), giving aerobatic rides, introducing pilots to aerobatics, and just flinging myself around the sky (all that "...danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;/Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth/Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things/You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung/High in the sunlit silence" stuff).

Therefore, I rarely find much of great interest in Sport Aerobatics.

If you're interested in future contributions, however, shoot me an email.

 

[Toby]

I also liked your editorial, Ken. It was my breakfast reading today. The tone you set made the magazine and aerobatics in general seem more friendly and accessible, less intimidating. I hope to see some articles for folks who are just starting out, and I can think of SO many topics that could be addressed. The details of safety, preparation, equipment, adjusting to the physical aspects, are all very interesting to me. I'm sure you have many ideas as well, and I look forward to reading future issues.