Welcome to your new Flight Training magazine. What you are reading is the culmination of months of work by a dedicated staff that drew on years of research, brainstorming, and listening to readers to come up with what we think is a fantastic new magazine.
The first thing you’ll notice is a completely new look. That’s evident beginning with the cover and logo. Inside, you’ll see a design we feel is fresh, inviting, and modern. To make the design a reality, we engaged Bates Creative Group, an award-winning design firm. With our close collaboration, we worked together for months to come up with a design that captures the essence of our readers and the unique subject the magazine covers.
The reason for the change is simple. We know readers appreciate and value the content; however, we also know the look of the magazine was outdated at best. So we set about to create a design that looked fresh, and then tweaked the content, what I consider the words and technical illustrations, to match that.
So although the look of the magazine is totally different, many of the writers you know and trust remain, and our editorial focus is the same. Our primary mission is to serve student pilots and flight instructors, and we will continue to do that into the future. However, we know that the 30- or 40-year-old student of 10 years ago is not the same person today. We consume our information differently, in shorter pieces, and it needs to be written in a more direct style.
That doesn’t mean we’re abandoning the message. On the contrary, we think we’ve strengthened it. We know readers can get information on learning to fly in many places, but we strive to make ours the most targeted, most accurate, and most useful source of information on learning to fly that you can find. And I think we succeed.
We don’t want to be a textbook, and much of what’s new in the magazine reflects that attitude. Beginning with a new quick-read section in the front (see “Preflight,” page 8), you’ll find a beautiful photo spread (which you can download online), followed by a page on what to do with an airplane this weekend. It’s one of the many examples of a section that demonstrates flying is more than basic book knowledge.
Other new features are on more advanced subjects, such as instrument flying, and more inspirational content to remind you what flying is really all about. Learning to fly is a wonderful, life-changing experience, but ultimately it’s a means to an end. We’ll show you a little of what it is you’re shooting for, in part to remind you why you started doing this in the first place.
Finally, in publishing it’s no longer acceptable to think of a magazine as simply a product that comes to your door or you buy on the newsstand. It’s a brand, and in recognition of that, our Web site is all new. There will be videos, expanded career content, added training resources, and so much more. The site is also a great place to send a nonpilot friend who is interested in learning to fly. Check it out when you get a chance.
We hope you enjoy the new look and feel of Flight Training. Please drop me a line and tell me what you think. I’d love to hear from you.
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