A Standard for Aviation Journalism

What can I say? This magazine is the gold standard for popular aviation journalism.

Gold standard for General Aviation

Flying magazine sets a gold standard for general aviation magazines. It is not perfect -- the maybe cozy relationship with advertisers, it's hard to do one thing perfectly when you cover such a large subject, airline pilots detect a bias against big iron, sometimes it is a little too glossy -- but it covers the whole world of piston and personal airplane flying.

In the past, Len Morgan and Richard Bach and Ernie Gann and many others wrote for Flying. Right now, for my money, the best writers are Lane Wallace and Peter Garrison. With Flying, you get them every month. For private pilots, the only magazine that directly compares is the excellent AOPA Pilot, but you will get that magazine if you join AOPA. The best way to get Flying is to subscribe, as it's a huge savings over buying it retail. If you are not sure it's for you, go buy one at the supermarket or bookstore and then come back and subscribe for a year.

the standard general aviation publication

Flying is the major magazine for the general aviation community. It features a number of regular writers and columnists who are renowned in aviation circles (possibly because of their role with Flying). Flying's safety features and reviews of the latest technology are unbeatable, and they do make at least a token effort to try to cover the gamut of general aviation. Nonetheless, the magazine does seem most focused on the corporate aviation world of jets and heavy multi-engine props, probably because that is where the big ad dollars are (note that they practically give away the magazine, and in fact it is free on airline shuttle flights nationwide). Private Pilot or Plane & Pilot might be good choices for most people interested in true general aviation.