May issue of Kitplanes is worth reading

[Bob Axsom]

Originally Posted by KPmarc

Are you volunteering to help, Bob? I'm all ears!

I would be willing to help because I think the information needs to be exposed. I am a middle of the pack racer with some very important health provider responsibilities since just before the AirVenture Cup Race last year so I would not be a good point man on this. I expect my wife's health to be improving greatly in the near future and I can work during those times at night when I wake up to help put stuff together but I'm having a hard time just getting the annual condition inspection done on my plane so I can't have the intensity of involvement and awareness that would make it special. I will miss the first race of the season this year at Taylor, Texas but after that I hope to take them all in including the one in Canada in August. Mike Thompson is the creator and director of the Sport Air Racing League and he modifies and races his RV-6 he might be a good source. Alan Carroll is a Professor of Geology in Madison, Wisconsin and he has a very clear focused mind when it comes to air racing which he does in his modified RV-8. John Huft is far and away the fastest RV racer in his modified RV-8 he provides his information at his website - very intense engineering minded but friendly guy. Bruce Hammer and his brother Steve have their Glasair I TDs modified to a speed level that I doubt anyone else will reach - Bruce especially is a very intense no nonsense guy that would not waste time with a lot of fluff. The race results for the past three years are located at the Sport Air Racing League website www.sportairrace.org and I have collected that information into an Excel four worksheet workbook that I can provide with tabs for the as published race results, then sorted by class & speed, sorted by speed regardless of class and sorted by pilot. I am interested and pleased that you are interested.

Bob Axsom

[elippse]

Let's not forget Contact! magazine and Jack Cox's Sportsman Pilot!

[RVbySDI]

Originally Posted by elippse

Let's not forget Contact! magazine and Jack Cox's Sportsman Pilot!

You beat me to the punch. In fact I was going to suggest Contact in response to Bob's request for detailed experimental information.

[dedgemon]

Originally Posted by mburch

Speaking with my homebuilt-enthusiast hat on...

I have to say, in my opinion Kitplanes was really going downhill before they shook things up at the top.

mcb

Now if they would just quit wasting space on all of those "guides". I really don't need another listing of every homebuilt ever thought of. That would be good web site content, not the mag.

[cjensen]

Originally Posted by dedgemon

Now if they would just quit wasting space on all of those "guides". I really don't need another listing of every homebuilt ever thought of. That would be good web site content, not the mag.

I would bet that a lot of the readers and subscribers are not yet builders, and that's why that issue is included every year. I don't need it either, but it's not published for those of us that don't need it...

[N941WR]

Originally Posted by cjensen

I would bet that a lot of the readers and subscribers are not yet builders, and that's why that issue is included every year. I don't need it either, but it's not published for those of us that don't need it...

Even though I've built one plane, which I'm now "restoring", and hope to start on another soon; I find the guides most interesting. I like to compare similar makes and models, quantity flown, kit costs, estimated costs, etc.

Remember, not everyone wants to build and fly an RV. After all, there are those out there who have never ridden in an RV.

(Does my opinion on this subject even count since I've been on Marc's payroll from time to time?)

[9GT]

I let my subscription for Kitplanes expire a few years ago and forgot how much I enjoyed it. Time to re-subscribe I guess,,,,,,

[KPmarc]

Originally Posted by dedgemon

Now if they would just quit wasting space on all of those "guides". I really don't need another listing of every homebuilt ever thought of. That would be good web site content, not the mag.

In general terms, I tend to agree. And we have rather dramatically cut back on the number of "directories" we do. Used to be that we had trikes, powered parachutes, and other types of aircraft, plus, for a couple of years, we ran Buyer's Guides for SLSA (ready to fly) aircraft.

Thanks to the efforts of our new(ish) web guy, we have the opportunity to do some interesting things with online databases, and I think you might see some more consolidation of guides. Ironically, the one I struggle with the most is the Plansbuilt Buyer's Guide. That one is a natural for a web-only product, but I get calls every week from someone who has seen the paper copy, has a question about a plans provider (usually, they don't answer the phone!) and confesses that he doesn't have regular internet access...so could I look something up?

A significant, albeit decreasing percentage of our readers don't use the internet much and don't want us to put these guides there.

Trust me, every year as we get nearer production for the December issue, I ask my staff, "Can't we just do this on the web?" It would be so much easier!

[Andrew Sego]

I think Kitplanes has improved since I started getting it a couple of years ago, but maybe it's just my understanding of the content that's gotten better.

[9GT]

I always enjoyed the buying guides.

Originally Posted by KPmarc

In general terms, I tend to agree. And we have rather dramatically cut back on the number of "directories" we do. Used to be that we had trikes, powered parachutes, and other types of aircraft, plus, for a couple of years, we ran Buyer's Guides for SLSA (ready to fly) aircraft.

Thanks to the efforts of our new(ish) web guy, we have the opportunity to do some interesting things with online databases, and I think you might see some more consolidation of guides. Ironically, the one I struggle with the most is the Plansbuilt Buyer's Guide. That one is a natural for a web-only product, but I get calls every week from someone who has seen the paper copy, has a question about a plans provider (usually, they don't answer the phone!) and confesses that he doesn't have regular internet access...so could I look something up?

A significant, albeit decreasing percentage of our readers don't use the internet much and don't want us to put these guides there.

Trust me, every year as we get nearer production for the December issue, I ask my staff, "Can't we just do this on the web?" It would be so much easier!