What is Plane&Pilot?

BigBadLou

BigBadLou

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Lou
Just got a strange-looking envelope in the mail today.
Opened it up and saw only a white piece of paper with subscription price and my address. No explanation, no advertisement, just a subscription bill.

WTH is a Plane&Pilot? Never heard of it. Judging solely by their way of wooing the customer, it does not seem like any particularly good company with much aggregate IQ. Staring at the nearly blank piece of white paper, one might wonder whether such a magazine even exists or whether this is just a scam.

After a brief Google search, I found a webpage that fits the name but looks like it was made by a 5-y/o.

So my real question is: is this a real magazine and is its content better than what it looks like on the outside?

Real-life input is welcome.
 
It used to be real magazine, but I think it went belly up some time back. Not sure, though.
 
It's a real magazine. Still being published.

I used to get it every once in a while, but have not done so in years.




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Greg Bockelman said:
I still subscribe.
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As do I. It's not a bad General Aviation magazine. I'd rate the quality of photography and writing in FLYING higher than P&P, but often the content in P&P is more relevant to many of us GA pilots.

Detailed articles on driving a Boeing 777 from NY to Rio and back with paying customers and the handling qualities of the latest Gulfstream bizjet are interesting reading (...and typical FLYING content), but are perhaps not as practical as maintenance tips for your Lycoming 0-360 or discussions of the used market for C-182s(..typical P&P).

I enjoy both magazines.
 
I sort of miss the days when magazines (and newspapers for that matter) were doing well and as a teen, I would pick up plane & pilot and Flying magazines at the news store in the airline airport terminal to read on my airline flight. Now magazines are slowly dying off, I pretty much only use my iPad to read real books and I very rarely go through anything but FBOs when I'm traveling.

Ah, nostalgia...
 
BigBadLou said:
So my real question is: is this a real magazine
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Yes. It's been around since 1970 or so.
and is its content better than what it looks like on the outside?
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No. They try, I think, and Bill Cox is a good guy, but every time I've picked up the magazine, there have been glaring errors and inaccuracies.
 
Been getting it for years. I like it better than "Flying Magazine."
I do the digital version the last few years.
 
BigBadLou said:
Just got a strange-looking envelope in the mail today.
Opened it up and saw only a white piece of paper with subscription price and my address. No explanation, no advertisement, just a subscription bill.

WTH is a Plane&Pilot? Never heard of it. Judging solely by their way of wooing the customer, it does not seem like any particularly good company with much aggregate IQ. Staring at the nearly blank piece of white paper, one might wonder whether such a magazine even exists or whether this is just a scam.

.
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That's the latest ploy in advertising. Send what looks like a bill for something you already ordered, thanking you for your order. Seniors get duped all the time and just pay the bill which starts the subscription.

I've subscribed in the past, picked up a few news stand copies, just to have something to read on my daily commute.
 
P&P is more in line with the interests of most GA guys and gals// I don't subscribe anymore, but think its a good read.
 
I wouldn't blame P&P too much for that sort of stupid magazine subscription marketing. They don't have any control over it. The publishers contract with companies to drive up subscriptions. They'll hand the marketing company a list of their publications, the marketing company will match publications with demographic data and other sources, and spam out this sort of drivel. P&P editorial staff have no control over the inclusion of their title in the pile of other titles that have been handed over by their publishing overlords. In this case, that would be Madavor Media, which has so much regard for their Plane & Pilot magazine that they choose to not list it as one of their brands, but do list Bird Watching...

So, yeah, not really a comment on P&P, which I do get, and isn't a bad magazine, but has a habit of having nearly the same content as everyone else. (Hard to do otherwise in GA...not that much to pick from.) Just saying that these marketing tactics also don't really have anything to do with the magazine, either.
 
It's a real magazine...I'm a subscriber. I receive renewal messages, but they look professionally prepared to my eyes. Don't know what you got.

I like P&P because it runs articles by international ferry pilot Bill Cox and by world-class instructor Budd Davisson. My "world-class' designation is earned by the way he explains concepts.

If I could dump a publication it would be Flying...but it is a perk from NAFI and I am not about to quit NAFI.

Bob Gardner
 
bobmrg said:
It's a real magazine...I'm a subscriber. I receive renewal messages, but they look professionally prepared to my eyes. Don't know what you got.

I like P&P because it runs articles by international ferry pilot Bill Cox and by world-class instructor Budd Davisson. My "world-class' designation is earned by the way he explains concepts.

If I could dump a publication it would be Flying...but it is a perk from NAFI and I am not about to quit NAFI.

Bob Gardner
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Since you're a subscriber, you're not subject to the external marketing. You see stuff from the actual billing arm of the publisher, not marketing crap. That's why your stuff looks right.

And not Budd Davisson anymore. My understanding is that the last magazine was his last column for P&P.
 
arnoha said:
Since you're a subscriber, you're not subject to the external marketing. You see stuff from the actual billing arm of the publisher, not marketing crap. That's why your stuff looks right.

And not Budd Davisson anymore. My understanding is that the last magazine was his last column for P&P.
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Oh no! I was afraid that that might happen with the change at the top.

Bob
 
bobmrg said:
Oh no! I was afraid that that might happen with the change at the top.

Bob
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Oh! I just realized why "Say Again, Please" is listed under your name. 'Cause you wrote the thing. I'm slow and stupid; don't mind me.

You probably already have heaps of praise for that excellent book, but let me add more: it's a damn fine book, one I've read, own, and have recommended several times over. In addition to that, you write as well here as you do with an editor standing over your shoulder. It's a welcome break from the broken mess of writing that is most of the posts on the intarwebs (mine included).

Do you write for any of the magazines? I'd read that column!
 
What is Plane&Pilot?

If an aviation magazine published the same issue as they had 30 years ago, and just updated dates and possibly a few advertisements, would anybody be able to tell?


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arnoha said:
Oh! I just realized why "Say Again, Please" is listed under your name. 'Cause you wrote the thing. I'm slow and stupid; don't mind me.

You probably already have heaps of praise for that excellent book, but let me add more: it's a damn fine book, one I've read, own, and have recommended several times over. In addition to that, you write as well here as you do with an editor standing over your shoulder. It's a welcome break from the broken mess of writing that is most of the posts on the intarwebs (mine included).

Do you write for any of the magazines? I'd read that column!
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Thanks for the kind words, Armen. I have written for P&P and the Belvoir pubs in the past but those days are behind me.

Bob
 
Re: What is Plane&Pilot?

Pilawt said:
They try, I think, and Bill Cox is a good guy, but every time I've picked up the magazine, there have been glaring errors and inaccuracies.
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I believe that's the norm with most flying magazines nowadays. Not much editorial oversight and lots of corrections in the next issue. :)
Why pay a chief editor and some proof-readers if the readers will do the same job for free? Heck, they will even pay for it! :D

RalphInCA said:
If an aviation magazine published the same issue as they had 30 years ago, and just updated dates and possibly a few advertisements, would anybody be able to tell?
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I have been pondering the same question for a while. Depending on how often they regurgitate their content, one might notice. Magazines that do it yearly are not worth my continued subscription.


Thank you, everybody, for your feedback, it is appreciated. I am thinking that $12 for 12 issues might not be too much lost money and I might actually learn something from reading this magazine. Trying to firm up my decision. :)
 
A magazine that used to cater to small GA airplanes,had great articles on used aircraft . Had some very good articles.
 
arnoha said:
And not Budd Davisson anymore. My understanding is that the last magazine was his last column for P&P.
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What about Patty Wagstaff? Is she still writing for Plane&Pilot?
 
Received the solicitation in todays mail..$11.95 for a year...
 
There was one other magazine. Pilot Adventures? I don't think that's the one. It was edited by some guy named Pilot Michael or something and it always had a two page lingerie ad in the center with really hot models.
 
Okay I totally found it. It's called "Flying Adventures." Michael Higgins was the dude's name. The back issues are there with the totally hot lingerie chick in the ads intact.
 
Someone needs to resurrect the Pacific Flyer. Especially that ONE issue each year.


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What is Plane&Pilot?

Pacific Flyer was one of the best aviation magazines ever. Sport Aviation is about the only GA mag that is close.
 
Re: What is Plane&Pilot?

RalphInCA said:
If an aviation magazine published the same issue as they had 30 years ago, and just updated dates and possibly a few advertisements, would anybody be able to tell?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Judge for yourself....

https://books.google.com/books?id=XKEb3xG0UR0C&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false

The "Big three", when I started flying in 1987, was Flying, Plane & Pilot, and Private Pilot.

Private Pilot and Plane & Pilot were just as glossy as Flying, but it was much more oriented towards the piston GA crowd. Very little in the way of turbine stuff that I recall.

Richman
 
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My favorite of the old magazines was the original "Air Facts" that was run by Leighton Collins, Richard Collin's dad (I think). It had excellent articles and writing.

I'm sure only old timers will remember it.

Air-Facts-1971-Magazine-red.jpg
 
Artimas said:
My favorite of the old magazines was the original "Air Facts" that was run by Leighton Collins, Richard Collin's dad (I think). It had excellent articles and writing.

I'm sure only old timers will remember it.
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According to the intrawebz, Richard Collins has resurrected it as a internet journal.

It's a different day age to be sure.

The issue with most magazines is that they recycle the same topics on a loop that seems to be 24-36 months long. Back in the day when you had new people getting into flying, that was just about right to re-introduce topics that may be new to a certain segment of your readership.

There really wasn't any other option for readers to get it, unless they had access to back issues.

These days, everything is archived and available on the web, so the need to recycle material is greatly diminished. That means that the overall level of new content has to increase if it is to compensate.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE magazines. I love to sit at the hangar at dusk, or some other time, kick back with a beverage and enjoy the topic. But it is definitely more of an uphill battle, and I can see that the number of different periodicals would necessarily be reduced.

Shame, too, because back in the day, each mag had a different flavor.

Richman
 
Re: What is Plane&Pilot?

Nuts, I remember that issue. Not because it crushed my Miami Vice fueled dream of being a drug pilot.:no: Glen Frey's song did that.:yes::lol:
https://vimeo.com/58719183
Richman67 said:
Judge for yourself....

https://books.google.com/books?id=XKEb3xG0UR0C&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false

The "Big three", when I started flying in 1987, was Flying, Plane & Pilot, and Private Pilot.

Private Pilot and Plane & Pilot were just as glossy as Flying, but it was much more oriented towards the piston GA crowd. Very little in the way of turbine stuff that I recall.

Richman
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I liked Budd's columns a lot until a few years ago when he said a few things that irritated me a little. For some reason he kept harping on new pilots only having one real hour of flight time that they've repeated a hundred times (vs a pilot with 100 hours). Some pilots just prefer staying local, others within their comfort zone. But the way he wrote it came off as more of a put-down and it was just a burr in my saddle and it was hard to enjoy his columns after that.

There was also a GA magazine called Private Pilot that I liked. My favorite column there was by Topical Ed, kind of the Henning of the magazine.
 
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