Waypoints

Thomas B. Haines has served as editor in chief of AOPA Pilot since 1994. He has written for Pilot since 1988.

To understand where we're going, we have to know where we've been. As we contemplated the redesigned magazine that you hold, I looked back at where we've come from. The last time we made any significant design changes was with the January 1996 issue — more than five years ago. It doesn't sound like such a long time ago, but in thumbing through that issue, much has changed.

In that issue, we announced AOPA Online, a new service on CompuServe. With the service, you not only had access to all of the CompuServe products, electronic mail, and new AOPA information, you could also connect to something called the World Wide Web. How 'bout that! Of course, now we have our own Web site and CompuServe is a shell of what it once was.

In 1996, Garmin was touting the then-new GPS 155 TSO. The IFR GPS receiver had no moving map, and to fly a GPS approach (of which there were only a handful) you had to play the thing like a Stradivarius. Over at II Morrow, noted then as "a United Parcel Service Company" and now known as UPS Aviation Technologies, they wanted you to know all about the Apollo Precedus handheld GPS. It was a nice unit with a moving map, but the company no longer makes handheld GPSs.

Lancair was flying the Super ES. In an article titled "Testing the Tomorrow-Think Theory," we speculated that Lancair, a company that sold kitbuilt airplanes, might just certify the ES and put it into production. In February of this year, we carried a cover story on the Lancair Columbia 400, the company's second production model. The Columbia 300 was the outgrowth of the ES.

Bob Hoover was back flying after the FAA finally came to its senses regarding his medical history. Half a decade later, he's still flying safely. Also in the news, the Gulfstream V flew for the first time. Today, the company has delivered dozens of the super-long-range business jet and introduced a new, higher performance version, the G-VSP.

In Washington, AOPA was busy fighting for the proper level of FAA funding and opposing Arizona Sen. John McCain's call for user fees. OK, so some things never change.

Of 116 advertisers in our then-new "Fly by Wire" index in the back of the magazine, one of them had a Web address. Today, among an even larger group of advertisers, you're hard-pressed to find one without a Web address.

We adapted the magazine to all of the changes in technology, and, in fact, led among aviation publications in providing our readers access to timely information electronically. But the adaptations took a toll on the overall look and user-friendliness of the magazine. So we decided to step back and start anew. We have produced what we believe is a simpler, better design that is flexible enough to change with the times.

In a case where less is more, we've limited typography in the magazine to only a handful of typefaces, or fonts. With the dizzying array of fonts available these days, it's tempting to use them all every month. The result can be a cacophony of text that screams for your attention. Limiting the design throughout the book to a few fonts quiets the visual noise and brings a certain elegance to the pages. Similarly, cramming too much type onto a page adds to the cluttered feel. You'll notice that we are more generous with white space, giving the pages a more open look.

One of the most vigorously debated decisions was whether to move sections of the magazine around. There are good reasons to move our commentary columns, such as this one, from the back of the magazine to the front. But I personally find it annoying when I go to the grocery store, for example, and they've rearranged all of the aisles for no apparent reason. Likewise, I don't like my favorite magazines jumbled up for no reason. But in this case, we decided that it was important that our commentary section be more cohesive. Our readership surveys show that members find our columnists interesting and informative. So it seemed appropriate that they should be moved to the front with another popular commentary section, "Letters."

I believe you will appreciate a change we made to "Pilot Briefing," which follows commentary. A "news" section in a monthly magazine has always been a bit of a misnomer, and it's especially true in the Internet age. It used to be that delivering the news once a month was good enough, but with a plethora of Web sites and e-mail newsletters out there, month-old news suddenly seems like, well, month-old news. Over the past couple of years, we dramatically changed our philosophy on news. We now deliver most of aviation's breaking news electronically, through daily updates to AOPA Online and through our weekly e-mail newsletter, AOPA ePilot. ePilot is free exclusively to AOPA members, and some 175,000 of you have opted to receive it each Friday morning. In the newsletter, we deliver aviation news of the week and some tidbits on what's going on in Washington at the FAA and on Capitol Hill.

Like you, we're all pilots here and we enjoy flying, especially on the weekends. To help you find interesting places to fly on the weekends, we include a few unusual fly-out destinations in each issue of ePilot. Starting early this year, we launched an enhancement to the newsletter that allows us to also deliver information about aviation events that are occurring over the next couple of weekends in your particular region. If you want to see all of the aviation events, we provide a link to our online calendar, which is the most comprehensive available.

Follow along as we make additional changes to ePilot. We will soon be delivering even more customized information. If you aren't receiving the newsletter, go to AOPA Online ( www.aopa.org/members/files/pilot/epilot/) and sign up today. Your first edition will arrive in your e-mailbox next Friday.

By delivering breaking news electronically, we can use these magazine pages for what magazine pages do best: provide in-depth information and lots of illustration. As you can see in this month's "Pilot Briefing" section, we have focused on far fewer subjects than usual, but we provide more detail and illustration than we could when the section was expected to carry an entire month's worth of news. For example, the death of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, an aviation giant and legend, might have received only a passing mention among a blizzard of other news items. But we now can afford to bring you additional details about the life of this amazing aviatrix. We still provide the highlights of the month's news at the back of the section.

Throughout the magazine, you'll see more references to additional information on the Internet. In all cases, we plan to continue to relay the entire story or concept we're discussing in the magazine. However, we can now share with you some of the resources and background that were used in developing the story. For example, there are plenty of interesting Web sites showing experimental aviation weather forecasts. In his monthly "Wx Watch" article, Editor at Large Tom Horne often refers to them. Through the Internet you can take a look for yourself. Look for these references in black boxes accompanying many feature articles. In most cases, the link noted in the boxes will take you to our Links page on the Internet. Instead of requiring you to type a plethora of confusing characters in order to access a particular Web site, we do the typing for you. All you have to do is go to the Links page on AOPA Online, scroll down until you reach the story that interests you, and click on the convenient links. The address for the Links page never changes, so you can bookmark it for easy access.

Finally, we've added a new department in the front of the magazine called "Hangar Talk." Here we can tell you about the story behind the story. Oftentimes, how a story comes together can be as interesting as the story itself. Through this new page, we'll also be able to tell you about some of the people who help to bring you this magazine.

In the end, after all, a magazine is about people. It's only as good as the people who write, illustrate, edit, and produce it. All of us who write for the magazine are pilots — from ATPs and CFIIs to fairly new private pilots. Several members of the art and production staffs are student pilots. From owners to renters, we cover the gamut of experience and perspective. Likewise, our contributors and columnists vary from airline pilots to those whose primary use of an aircraft is for the pure fun of it.

For their redesign efforts, a special congratulation goes to Art Director Mike Kline and Associate Art Director Adrienne Rosone (who soloed in a Piper Archer a few weeks ago). It is their creativity that you see reflected here.

As always, we're anxious to hear your comments.

E-mail the author at [email protected].