AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2008 - 52

WAYPOINTS BY THOMAS B. HAINES EDITOR IN CHIEF Look who’s 50 L osing track of your organization’s mission is a sure way to derail an operation. Royal Typewriter Company, founded in 1906, made to the many publications currently dealing in such matters.” Of course the general aviation of today is a much broader ﬁeld than it was in 1958. Back then, the GA world consisted of piston singles and twins, with turboprops and business jets just starting to become a reality. Today, GA runs the gamut from light sport aircraft through mainstream four-seat singles to single-engine and twin turboprops to very light jets and up through business jets costing $50 million and more. The homebuilt market was excellent typewriters. The company, bought and Editor in Chief also in its infancy in 1958. Today’s aircraft registry sold several times over the past 100 years, still exThomas B. Haines boasts tens of thousands of homebuilts—from ists—making a variety of ofﬁce equipment, but it’s joined the AOPA plan’s-built simple single-seaters to sophisticated, not exactly a household name as it was through Pilot staff in pressurized turboprops, and even a few jets. much of the last century. Imagine if the company’s April 1988. You’ll see all of those types of aircraft proﬁled on mission statement had been strong enough and these pages, with the amount of coverage weightﬂexible enough to allow it to move into and dominate the world of “communications devices” instead of just ed toward what readers and our readership surveys tell us is typewriters. Today, we might be typing away on Royal personal most important to the largest segments of the audience. Occacomputers and talking and texting on Royal smartphones and sionally when we proﬁle a turbine airplane, especially if it’s a PDAs. Royal might be the Dell, Sony, Samsung, or Apple of the cover story, I hear from members who complain that AOPA has lost its way—that we’ve abandoned the “grass roots” of GA. twenty-ﬁrst century. While not exactly a mission statement in the form that Sorry, guys, but GA is changing. Turbine airplanes are becomtoday’s high-priced strategic consultant might help a company ing a larger part of the market. New lighter turbine engines craft, the mission for this magazine 50 years ago was clear—de- have allowed the prices of very light jets to be competitive with livered in the ﬁrst editorial: “You are holding a copy of the ﬁrst single-engine turboprops and even high-end piston airplanes. issue of what we hope and intend will be the leading monthly They are of interest to a surprising number of pilots—even magazine in general aviation. We fully intend that The AOPA those who know they will never own one. The capabilities of Pilot will be the most informative, most vigorous, most dedi- everything from new-generation piston singles to turbines have attracted the attention of a new breed of pilots who relish cated publication of its kind in the world.” Hey, why not shoot for the moon? Think big. But crafting a the transportation capabilities of GA. We would be doing a dissuccessful aviation magazine was no small challenge then (or service to readers by ignoring these changes in the market. Similarly, we occasionally hear from pilots who believe that now). The aviation magazine market was highly competitive back in those days—as it still is. Flying magazine dominated light sport aircraft and sport pilots shouldn’t be welcomed into the market in 1958 as it had under various names for decades. the GA fold. Apparently some believe that these small, yet As you’ll read in “AOPA’s Big Idea,” (page 72), The AOPA Pilot highly capable, light airplanes will somehow detract from the started out as a section and later an insert in Flying. Mean- rest of the market or increase the accident rate. Some pilots while, another publication started in 1958, Business and Com- suggest that the sport pilot curriculum is less rigorous than the mercial Aviation. It still exists today as a McGraw-Hill title. Also private pilot curriculum. In fact, earning a sport pilot certiﬁpopular in those days was Leighton Collins’ Air Facts maga- cate is probably more demanding and more complex than zine. His son, Richard, was for a short time editor in chief of earning a private pilot certificate in the late 1970s when I this magazine and continues today as editor at large at Flying. learned to ﬂy. Certainly, the airspace and regulations are more Meanwhile, Pilot’s ﬁrst editor was a former editor at Flying. It complex—even for sport pilots—than what we had to know when Jimmy Carter called the White House home. was a small community then and continues that way today. Other magazines have come and gone, refocused their content onto only a segment of GA or broadened it to all of avia- The more things change… tion, yet Pilot has soldiered on—and grown continually—by While the products we write about—whether airframes or sticking with the mandate in that ﬁrst issue. We are still “dedi- avionics—have changed dramatically over the years, some cated solely and exclusively to serving AOPA members. We be- story categories remain the same. In that ﬁrst issue, the editors lieve AOPA members are primarily interested in matters per- outlined the types of subjects they would cover: “We will containing to general civil aviation, and we intend to conﬁne our- cern ourselves with new developments in civil aircraft and selves to that concept. We will leave articles on guided missiles their accessories, safety devices and practices, flight techAOPA PILOT • 52 • MARCH 2008

AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2008