Dear Subscribers, Advertisers, and Readers,

For those of you who are new to PilotMag, I would like to introduce our magazine and websites. To those who have been loyal subscribers, advertisers, and readers over the last 18 months, I would like to say thank you, we sincerely appreciate your business and support.

Pilot Magazine, is now embarking on a new mission – to create a global media company that will provide the most interesting and informative content in the world of aviation. To begin with, we are focusing on our publication, PilotMag, the most innovative and cutting-edge print media resource in aviation today.

When we launched PilotMag, it was our intention to “boldly go where no aviation magazine had gone before.” To publish a magazine that was interesting, exciting, modern, visually amazing, and contained stories about pilots and aircraft that people actually wanted to read about. We think we have achieved this goal and produced a magazine that is extremely unique and informative at the same time. We also think we can take this magazine to a whole new level, making it the most outstanding aviation publication ever printed.

To enable us to reach this goal, we have recruited a new Editor-in-Chief, Jeff Berlin, who is not only an excellent pilot, but who also brings with him years of knowledge and experience in the aviation publishing business. Formerly the Editor of Plane & Pilot and Pilot Journal, Jeff also has years of experience as an aviation writer and photographer, writing for just about every major aviation publication in print. We think this issue will showcase Jeff ’s talents as an editor and writer and will be the beginning of a great partnership that will make PilotMag the leader in aviation publications.

In addition to PilotMag, we are continually in the process of revising and updating our online properties, PilotMag.com and PilotLounge.com. Our goal is to make these websites the most viewed in aviation today. By constantly updating the content and offering news, information, training, and advertising in a high-quality format, we can raise the bar for aviation websites to a level never seen before.

We are also currently developing a television series, PilotMagTV, to bring the excitement and adventure of aviation to the entire world in digital high definition. This program will bring to life the stories and people that we write about in PilotMag, as well as, provide additional content highlighting the contributions made by general and corporate aviation in our modern lives. We believe this show will be one of the most exciting and entertaining on television today.

We hope that you will join us in our mission over the coming months and years to make PilotMag the standard in our industry and the future of aviation media.

Thank you,
Brad R. Irwin, CEO | Publisher
Pilot Magazine, LLC

As I sit to write this, my first editor’s letter for the new PilotMag, it’s not just another sunny day in Los Angeles, it’s the Vernal Equinox. I do some of my best writing at this small café, sitting at the intersection of left and right and north and south. It bustles with people ordering lattes, cokes, and breakfast served all day. It’s not a Starbucks. It seems fitting on numerous levels that starting on this day of renewal, when the shorter and colder days of winter gradually transform into the longer, warmer, sunnier, and more colorful days of Spring, we’re bringing you a renewed PilotMag.

Last year at the Reno Air Races, in between thunderous heats of tricked Mustangs and Sea Furies battling for the Unlimited Gold, PilotMag’s CEO, Brad Irwin, offered me the reins of the magazine in an effort to help take the magazine to the next level. It was a great opportunity and I look forward to bringing you not only a revitalized PilotMag, but an aviation magazine that’s entertaining, absolutely relevant to your aviation experience, and not the same old deck, reshuffled year after year. So if you’re a seasoned old salt that has been there, flown that and has the t-shirt, a sleek turbine owner, a pre-solo student looking forward to kicking their instructor out of the plane, or even a pilot like me, who tools low and slow one day and high and fast on another, PilotMag is for you.

I also hope that on these pages we can impart some of the passion for flight that we feel here at PilotMag. For me, flying has always been about the people. Don’t get me wrong, I love the tech and planes too, but it’s the people that make aviation so special and a privilege to be a part of.

In my years as a contributor to most major aviation magazines, and as an editor of this publication and a couple others, I’ve had an extraordinary opportunity to fly some pretty exotic planes to some rather exotic places. It’s hard for me to even pick one flight as my most favorite. It seems a common problem as my friend, uber-writer Lane Wallace, recently came out with a book called “Unforgettable: My 10 Best Flights.” If I were to recount mine, would I choose my gut-wrenching sortie flying air combat maneuvers in an F-16, my first takeoff and landing in a DC-3, my two trans-Atlantic crossings in Daher-Socata TBM 850s, my other longest flight, when I hopscotched my way to Sao Paulo, Brazil in a brand new Cirrus SR22, or my first water landing in a Cessna Caravan on New York City’s East River with the Empire State Building visible just across town. And then there was the time I was just cavorting with friends in an Aviat Husky. That was such a fun afternoon, just flying along, following roads and the contours of the countryside. Now that was flying - pure, simple, low and slow. Knowing Lane, I really wonder how she picked just 10. I could really keep going.

Over the past few months as we’ve worked to put this first new issue together, some friends have suggested we’re crazy to be launching, or relaunching, a magazine in this economy. Besides our feeling at PilotMag that that aviation found its bottom months ago and is now on the upswing, please notice that we bill ourselves on our cover as the Future of Aviation Media. We’ve got big plans at PilotMag, are constantly looking forward, and plan to be the vanguard of how quality aviation content is delivered.

Ultimately, none of this would be happening without you, so please don’t hesitate to drop us a line anytime with your ideas, comments, questions for the experts at Sportys, or just to say hello. Or maybe you’d like to tell us about one of your favorite flights. Regardless, we’d love to hear from you, so drop us a line - PilotMag Editor.

Chewing over a can of campfire philosophy with some new friends, I was asked what it was like to grow up as a Lindbergh. I mentioned that my childhood felt no different from that of my friends, and that I thought I had a pretty regular upbringing. Growing up on an island in Puget Sound, I was relatively sheltered from most Lindbergh mania. I knew about my grandfather’s solo transatlantic flight in 1927 that made him so famous, but in those days it didn’t go much beyond an elementary school friend’s excitement while doing a book report about my grandfather.

The older I got, the more interesting this legacy became. On one hand, a certain lack of ease around this legacy built up into what I call “Lindberghophobia.” This self-diagnosed condition lurked in the background as strangers discussed my family of origin too loudly at a party or the grocery store. It also manifested itself at public events where people would gush about Charles or Anne while shaking my hand too vigorously or too long and leaning in too close. This stuff had a tendency to make my skin crawl when I was younger.

On the other hand, “Lindbergh mania” opened up doors through which I’ve met some of the most brilliant and amazing people. One of those people, Peter Diamandis, was inspired by the $25,000 Orteig Prize which Grandfather won. Peter went on to create the ten million dollar XPRIZE which jump-started the personal spaceflight industry. My desire to promote the XPRIZE culminated in an exhilarating and challenging personal experience - a 17 hour solo transatlantic flight in my Lancair Columbia 300. That trip pretty much exorcised my Lindberghophobia.

Being in the company of pilots, I knew this fireside conversation was headed in an aviation direction, and sure enough my fireside companions asked about my solo flight from New York to Paris in the Lancair in 2002. The standard responses to these questions started to bubble to the surface as if on autopilot, but the spell had been cast. This was no hangar flying session, or press conference; it was a campfire in the woods fueled by roasted sausages on a sharpened stick and cold beer with the hissing and popping of Douglas Fir flaring up in the fire.

So, my story began.

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#1. I’m in the market for a new handheld GPS. There seem to be so many good ones available by various wellknown manufacturers. Do you have any tips that will help me decide which one is best for me? I’m an instrumentrated private pilot.

The past year has seen an amazing number of new GPS products announced, and there’s probably never been a better time to go shopping for a portable. Some of the features now available were unimaginable just a few years ago, even for panel avionics systems. Perhaps best of all, the range of features and prices from companies like Garmin and Bendix/King means there’s something for every type of pilot.

Finding the right one for you is a matter of asking yourself some basic questions. For example, how will you use your new GPS--as a backup, or as an everyday navigator? For backup use, a basic unit with moving map features may be all you need. The new Garmin aera 500 and the Bendix/King AV8OR Handheld are both available for under $800, and offer loads of situational awareness.

Stepping up the ladder a little, do you need XM Datalink Weather capability in your GPS? XM Weather can be a real life-saver in the cockpit, displaying NEXRAD radar, METARs, TFRs and much more. Multiple models are available with this function, like the Garmin aera 510, 560 and GPSMap 696. XM Weather can also be added to both AV8OR models. If weather is not an important feature, you can usually save around $500 by opting for the Garmin aera 500 or 550, or the AV8OR without weather.

Since you’re an instrument pilot, do you want to use digital instrument charts? If so, the Bendix/King AV8OR Ace and the Garmin GPSMap 696 are great choices, as they are FAA-legal replacements for paper charts. The Ace even shows en route charts.

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Aviation is a unique adventure; but, flying aerobatics in an airshow environment is the ultimate rollercoaster. Over the last 13 years, I’ve had the opportunity to gain slightly more than 1,500 hours of total flight time in a wide range of aircraft. Fortunately my aviation journey has taken me across the entire United States, Canada, and the Caribbean.

Despite seeing most of North America from a general aviation cockpit, my most memorable experiences involve hanging from the straps of a biplane inverted for almost 600 hours of flight time.

At some point in most general aviation pilot’s careers, they have had the opportunity to roll upside down inside in an airplane. Whether it was in an old Cessna 150 Aerobat or a modern, all composite Extra 300L, the experience usually expands most people’s understanding of how to control an airplane. One of the greatest things I’ve enjoyed about aerobatics is the more advanced stick and rudder skills one gains as a pilot, which directly increases pilot proficiency in all flying environments. I can noticeably tell the improvement in my stick and rudder skills, when I’ve been recently flying aerobatics versus when I’ve been away from aerobatics for awhile. That even applies to everyday flying in standard or normal category general aviation aircraft.

In addition to the improved motor skills, there is a certain challenge involved in safely learning how to properly perform hammerheads, spins, loops, and tail slides in an aircraft which is designed to be inherently unstable. It’s also a great learning experience to learn one’s physical limitations in relation to G’s forces and the physical experiences that your body encounters.

The easiest way to get started in aerobatics is to start training under a well-known and reputable aerobatics instructor. There’s a lot to learn and safety is paramount. As such, it’s vitally important to train with someone that has a superior amount of knowledge in the sport. Just like in obtaining your private license, the more you fly, the quicker (and cheaper) you will learn how to master the world of aerobatics.

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