Support Air Classics/Warbirds International Magazine

[Mike]

Nobody’s asking for anything on this forum. The OP simply cut-and-paste the appeal from Facebook as they thought it would be of interest.

[Mark Allen M]

Yep! You are correct and I am corrected.

[JimH]

Air Classics and Flypast were the "Bibles" in the 70's, 80's and early 90's. I was 8 in 1979 when I got hooked on A/C, the Red Baron RB-51 on the cover was all it took. I begged to go to the newstand every month until my mom and dad finally broke down and got a subscription. O'Leary was a photo god in my eyes and Chino was Mecca. It eventually got my dad hooked and he started taking us on his business trips to California during the early 80's. Hanging out at Chino a few weeks a year was magic. I wanted to take air to air photos and fly warbirds. Fast forward almost 25 years...I volunteered. I volunteered and put "skin" in the game, the "skin" being time. Time is a much bigger commodity than money, but it takes both to make the warbird world happen. You can always make more money but you can't make more time. 300 days a year doing the mundane jobs from folding T-Shirts, answering the same questions a 1000 times a season, to wiping oil, and cleaning parts lead somewhere. Clicking a shutter on a Mustang or B-24 15ft off your wing, pushing the throttle up on a priceless piece of history...its bloody amazing. How you choose to spend your time is key to getting what you want. "You get your chance to try in a twinkling of an eye, 80 years with luck or even less"...best song lyric ever. Everyone here that loves these aircraft have/had the chance, at some point, to open the wallet of life and make that leap, some do, some don't. This virus, combined with an exemption program that is or will be in limbo has already shut the door on many opportunities. My advice, when things return to whatever normal we are facing, get out there with a rag and an open mind and volunteer.

The internet was the death knell for ALL magazines. In the pre internet days you had to wait a month to get photos from an event, Chino Air Show, Flying Legends, Reno....now you can live stream events and post photos as they happen. Magazines like A/C and Flypast did not keep up with the changing culture and are suffering for that. Kids don't read magazines.

Jim

[Sopwith]

JimH, I had never thought about how the internet had affected magazines before and I see exactly what you mean. FlyPast has gone to the dogs over the years and as you said it used to be good but they haven’t kept up with changes. There is still a place for quality mags, Classic Wings always get the right balance for an example. I do like to physically hold and read a magazine.

[Courier Sportster]

I never received a subscription to Air Classics that was my supposed birthday present in 1974. So bummed. I was jazzed-up and waited and waited. For nothing to arrive ever. I blamed my sloppy father for either screwing it up, or never doing it in the first place. He didn't follow-up although I made a few sad requests, which I took as a clue to a deception. I'll never know but maybe now I can ease-up a tad on old Dad. Perhaps it wasn't his fault after all. I was hog-wild for the mag until this point, and then sort of quit. It became a sore point. If things had gone right back then, perhaps they'd have had me as a customer for life. Contentiousness aside, I am finding this thread very informative. Loved that WARBIRD REPORT-- grainy black and white photos of cool planes in the weeds. Oh how my heart would soar with that child-like sense of wonder.

[Baldeagle]

You can add my name to the list of people who wrote an article for them and never got paid.


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[Snake45]

You can add my name to the list of people who wrote an article for them and never got paid.


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I was Aviation Editor for a book publisher back in the '80s. It was known even then that Challenge would screw you.

In the '90s I met a VERY respected av-writer who was still writing for them. I asked him if he got paid. He said, "Yeah, always--eventually." He said the routine was to wait till they owed you for six or eight stories, at which point the $ figure was enough to justify suing them, which he would, at which point they would pay before it went to court (which would cost them attorney fees). He said this was a pretty standard way of doing bidness with them, and was done by everyone who did repeat bidness with them.

[Steve Birdsall]

I was Aviation Editor for a book publisher back in the '80s. It was known even then that Challenge would screw you.

In the '90s I met a VERY respected av-writer who was still writing for them. I asked him if he got paid. He said, "Yeah, always--eventually." He said the routine was to wait till they owed you for six or eight stories, at which point the $ figure was enough to justify suing them, which he would, at which point they would pay before it went to court (which would cost them attorney fees). He said this was a pretty standard way of doing bidness with them, and was done by everyone who did repeat bidness with them.

I always wondered how they got people like Pete Bowers and Walt Boyne to write for them, and if they were treated differently to us lesser beings.

I used a variation on the "six or eight stories" deal that you described - after one article was published (and not paid for) I'd offer them something I hoped they'd find appealing and hint that I wouldn't submit it until I'd been paid for the previous one. In the end I either ran out of ideas or was so pissed off (or both) that I gave up - hence that unpaid article from 1972.

[Steve Birdsall]

I was Aviation Editor for a book publisher back in the '80s. It was known even then that Challenge would screw you.

In the '90s I met a VERY respected av-writer who was still writing for them. I asked him if he got paid. He said, "Yeah, always--eventually." He said the routine was to wait till they owed you for six or eight stories, at which point the $ figure was enough to justify suing them, which he would, at which point they would pay before it went to court (which would cost them attorney fees). He said this was a pretty standard way of doing bidness with them, and was done by everyone who did repeat bidness with them.

I always wondered how they got people like Pete Bowers and Walt Boyne to write for them, and if they were treated differently to us lesser beings.

I used a variation on the "six or eight stories" deal that you described - after one article was published (and not paid for) I'd offer them something I hoped they'd find appealing and hint that I wouldn't submit it until I'd been paid for the previous one. In the end I either ran out of ideas or was so pissed off (or both) that I gave up - hence that unpaid article from 1972.

[Steve Birdsall]

I was Aviation Editor for a book publisher back in the '80s. It was known even then that Challenge would screw you.

In the '90s I met a VERY respected av-writer who was still writing for them. I asked him if he got paid. He said, "Yeah, always--eventually." He said the routine was to wait till they owed you for six or eight stories, at which point the $ figure was enough to justify suing them, which he would, at which point they would pay before it went to court (which would cost them attorney fees). He said this was a pretty standard way of doing bidness with them, and was done by everyone who did repeat bidness with them.

I always wondered how they got people like Pete Bowers and Walt Boyne to write for them, and if they were treated differently to us lesser beings.

I used a variation on the "six or eight stories" deal that you described - after one article was published (and not paid for) I'd offer them something I hoped they'd find appealing and hint that I wouldn't submit it until I'd been paid for the previous one. In the end I either ran out of ideas or was so pissed off (or both) that I gave up - hence that unpaid article from 1972.

Sorry for these multiple posts - don't know whether it's my internet connection or something else - anyway, please delete as required.

[Michel Lemieux]

Great post Mr Jim!

For me it was small comic books that my dad had (now mine)
Yes you are right....kids do not read mags anymore....and even my kids have ZERO interest in my passion....

How do we get them interested? Got them to a few airshows and even this got them bored.....Except for the souped up Hondas in the parking...LOL....

Edit....Great read on how... http://inspire.eaa.org/2020/05/12/one-familys-passion-for-vintage-twin-tailed-aircraft/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWTJKbE5UZzVaVGhrTnpWayIsInQiOiIxOVlFNzlwWTNVeTllZ3JBbm1wQXJ3K1FtUEVKRyt4bm9LbW9PK1NEcjBIOHZnYk1qdEw3YVpza01LVVc4U0NFZnk2T1F4ODIrS3o3Vkt4N2llc2NSNmgxbWpYZ3pOQ284MUZWa1hraTRSVk1SNTVXY1YwUEx5Wkt2eW15VUFSUSJ9

[shepsair]

He still owes me $ for a number of articles I published in the mid 2000. They don't deserve to be saved. Buy other magazines who treat the contributors.

[shepsair]

Double post

[Clifford Bossie]

He still owes me $ for a number of articles I published in the mid 2000. They don't deserve to be saved. Buy other magazines who treat the contributors.

I wish there was a like button!

I lost interest in their magazines years ago for various reasons. If there is a need to be filled then someone else will pick up the slack.

[norman malayney]

I notice readers are posting material from facebook. Be happy we have, more or less, honest publishers in the USA. It is terrible in the UK where most publishers promote unethical behaviour. Here is just one of many examples that merits American-style justice.

https://www.facebook.com/penandswordboo ... 235596153/

Once the web page appears, you are given options. Choose at the bottom, "Not Now" to access the narrative.

If you wish, I can supply many more examples of this unethical UK behaviour.