Magazine and Mission Statements (split thread)

[Bill Berson]

This vague mission statement is no different from any of the past mission statements.
The fact remains, the Director of Publications has no interest or knowledge in the areas mentioned, as far as I can tell, from his articles this past year.

[Chad Jensen]

This vague mission statement is no different from any of the past mission statements.

That's because it hasn't changed since the beginning.

The fact remains, the Director of Publications has no interest or knowledge in the areas mentioned, as far as I can tell, from his articles this past year.

Mac is here to run the magazine. He is very good at it, and is the reason he was chosen. He has people around him now that will feed the content. What Mac is interested in doesn't correlate directly to what is put in the magazine. Sure he has articles that go in, but the articles he runs are always fairly highly rated from the membership.

He runs a good magazine...always has, regardless of what the content is.

[Jim Hann]

He runs a good magazine...always has, regardless of what the content is.

I agree with you Chad, Flying is/was a good magazine, it seems lately that the vocal minority has wanted to pile on the negative comments. Print is a declining medium, no matter what subject matter it covers. We do need somebody who can put together a good magazine.

That said, Mac flying an E-AB aircraft (not owning), or hanging with you building Tailwind ribs sure would silence some of this noise. Just sayin'

Jim

[Kyle Boatright]

Mac is here to run the magazine. He is very good at it, and is the reason he was chosen. He runs a good magazine...always has, regardless of what the content is.

He may be a good magazine editor, and the pubication has been excellent from a technical perspective in his short tenure. But his tenure has also included the least "enthusiast oriented" content of any run in the magazine's history. There wasn't a single feature article in last month's issue that translated to the proverbial guy in his workshop. That's just sad.

[jam0552@msn.com]

Mac McClellan may be a pilot but he is way out of touch with what is obvious to anyone with an aircraft maintenance background. For example he praised the design of the Airbus A380 after the Rolls uncontained engine failure caused extensive structural damage to several vital systems and almost caused a catastrophe. The correct response would have been to question why the cowlings did not contain or at least slow the engine fragments that not only destroyed sections of the wind leading edge and spar but also severed hydraulic lines and electrical cables. The number 2 engine could not be shut down after landing because the electrical cables had been cut! Bad call Mac. I sent him an email response to his article on the A380 but I never heard back from him. After sending him the email I found out that structural damage and control system impairment was even worse than my email.
-Joel Marketello

[steveinindy]

Mac McClellan may be a pilot but he is way out of touch with what is obvious to anyone with an aircraft maintenance background. For example he praised the design of the Airbus A380 after the Rolls uncontained engine failure caused extensive structural damage to several vital systems and almost caused a catastrophe. The correct response would have been to question why the cowlings did not contain or at least slow the engine fragments that not only destroyed sections of the wind leading edge and spar but also severed hydraulic lines and electrical cables. The number 2 engine could not be shut down after landing because the electrical cables had been cut! Bad call Mac. I sent him an email response to his article on the A380 but I never heard back from him. After sending him the email I found out that structural damage and control system impairment was even worse than my email.-Joel Marketello

Eh....you should try pointing out the questionable judgment necessary to think that running an unshielded plastic fuel line throught the cockpit of a popular homebuilt is good idea and see the response you get. You can question Mac for not doing all of his homework. Given that I don't recall him being A380 type rated...some misunderstandings are to be expected. Folks who have built and flown a plane would be anticipated to have a better idea of the limits of the model. However, you be amazed the number of homebuildrs who seem to be just as oblivious to or willfully ignorant of the design issues of their aircraft as Mac was about the A380.

[Chris In Marshfield]

I find it interesting that almost all posts in the last week, regardless of topic, come back to a Mac-bashing event. Really? Can we at least start a new thread instead hijacking another if we want to start a discussion on magazine content? I understand that this is "Hangar Talk", and hangar talk is often a moving target, but it's getting really hard to get any useful information out of this thread (and others) that may have some useful information on the original topic.

Thanks gang :-)

~Chris

[Chad Jensen]

Agreed Chris. I'll run up to talk to Hal. I don't have moderator privileges in 'Hangar Talk'.

[Hal Bryan]

And...done.

[Bill Berson]

The reason for so much discussion about the EAA mission is because no one has explained how the direction of EAA will save private aviation. The new mission seems to be: "lets include everything aviation" with a new focus on the top end (twins, turboprops and hard IFR flying articles).

I have been fortunate to have owned and restored or built 8 airplanes in the past 35 years. Semi-retired now, I work almost full time trying to come up with ideas to promote aviation from the bottom up. My motivation (including criticizing EAA here) is mostly a desire to help the next generation afford the freedom to fly as I did. I am looking at ideas for low cost engines, low cost structures, home storage, how to improve the restrictive FAR's.... things EAA was about in the past.

This may be my last comment on the topic, I will continue my work in my own way.
If someone can explain the logic of the new EAA direction, I would be interested.
I simply do not understand how promoting the top end will help.