Sport Aviation Magazine

[Clarke Tate]

You need to remember that the Vintage, Warbirds, and IAC magazines come to their members at an additional cost. Those are separate divisions within EAA, with separate dues structures and separate budgets. If you want to get those extra magazines, you pay more.

Which brings to this discussion the question; do EAA members who are specifically interested in homebuilding think the time has come for a separate homebuilders division, with it's own printed magazine? Food for thought!

I think that is in many ways what Experimenter was which is now only an electronic newsletter. I paid for that and Vintage as an additional subscription. I now pay for the additional Vintage magazine. The point I was trying to suggest,without saying it, is that it may be time for tie-ins to Vintage and a reborn Experimeter magazine. My only concern is that there is quite a bit of electronic content being managed by the organization already and that all takes money. The other more key concern for the organization is that Sport Aviation must reflect all divisions enough to act as both an archive of the EAA organization information and fostering the interest for the kind of future members we desire. This might be done with a basic article regarding representing each division in Sport Aviation and more in depth coverage in the individual division publications. This creates a printed archive of this organization as Sport Aviation has for decades and fosters what EAA is about with every issue while maintaing a division structure.

[Pat_Panzera]

You need to remember that the Vintage, Warbirds, and IAC magazines come to their members at an additional cost. Those are separate divisions within EAA, with separate dues structures and separate budgets. If you want to get those extra magazines, you pay more. They also have electronic newsletters that any EAA member can get free of charge, but the printed magazine comes at an extra cost.

With the current circulation of Experimenter eNewsletter (nearly half that of KITPLANES), I honestly believe that it could easily become a print publication offered for free to EAA members as an alternative to Sport Aviation (as it was in the past) and it could be done at a profit. It would have the added benefit of not only appeasing those who are considering leaving EAA, but also bring back thousands who have left.

This could also positively affect the bottom line of producing Sport Aviation by way of reducing the piece-count of each issue.

BUT! There is a rather high number of people who prefer the electronic version and that number will only grow as us dinosaurs who prefer print dwindle in numbers. It's that thinking that brought about the electronic newsletters in the first place, with the hopes that it would be attractive to the younger generations who all have been "connected" since middle school and haven't picked up a printed publication in a dozen years.

[Frank Giger]

Which brings to this discussion the question; do EAA members who are specifically interested in homebuilding think the time has come for a separate homebuilders division, with it's own printed magazine? Would you be willing to pay an extra cost for this magazine, just like the Vintage, Warbirds or IAC members do?

The day that homebuilding is just another side niche group within the EAA I'll think about letting my membership lapse.

I already have an AOPA membership, after all.

[Mike Switzer]

While I somewhat agree with you guys that don't want to pay for a second magazine when the experimental stuff used to be in Sport Aviation, due to my internet speed i would like to see the experimenter stuff in print form - or at least in a pdf so I can download it in the background & print if I want to.

[Pat_Panzera]

While I somewhat agree with you guys that don't want to pay for a second magazine when the experimental stuff used to be in Sport Aviation, due to my internet speed i would like to see the experimenter stuff in print form - or at least in a pdf so I can download it in the background & print if I want to.

Now THAT could happen and is something I'm working on.
It seems like the logical next step as more and more people would rather have it in a format that they can either print or read offline.

I'm experimenting with formatting it to look and feel more like a magazine, using the same tools I've played with for converting CONTACT! Magazine.

Here are some examples of what it could look like: www.issuu.com/Panzera

Pat

[Mike Switzer]

Pat something like that would be great. I actually like the format on the old issues of sport aviation once they are downloaded they are easy to read.

[Kyle Boatright]

The day that homebuilding is just another side niche group within the EAA I'll think about letting my membership lapse.

I already have an AOPA membership, after all.

I suspect more than a few of the "core" EAA'ers will do the same thing. Why? Because they are being given the cold shoulder from HQ, because the magazine that championed the interesting part of aviation is being turned into a clone of another publication, and because they are chagrined at the the apparent direction of EAA away from what it was when they joined.

They won't be leaving the EAA, instead, they will take the view that the EAA has left them.

The EAA is setting itself up for a dumpster fire with its membership. Those hundred and something thousand members didn't sign up for AOPA, Part Deux. They signed up for something unique, and that something is being marginalized.

[David Darnell]

Pat,
I liked the looks of that. Real easy to use IMO

[Frank Giger]

I'm experimenting with formatting it to look and feel more like a magazine, using the same tools I've played with for converting CONTACT! Magazine.

That's outstanding, and a nice "split of the middle." That way I can print those parts that I need to carry with me to the build area (or for "private time.").

[dewi8095]

No, the homebuilt magazine should not cost extra.
Sport Aviation, the magazine that comes with membership, should be all about homebuilts only (or at least low cost airplanes). If EAA wants to get into corporate jets and turboprop, then start another division for those interests.

Mixing everything into Sport Aviation is the problem.
Bill

This seems to be a logical approach to the problem. Has EAA's editorial board discussed keeping Sport Aviation all experimental/homebuilding and creating a General Aviation interest section?

Don