Last Chance: We Want YOUR Input... Help Us Make Our Final Decisions On The Best Birds/Products/Values Of The Year

Each year, we put our heads together, look over reader input, our own reports and other sources of info and try to recognize the VERY BEST aircraft and products in a number of pivotal categories. Each year, the choices get tougher. Worse; we tend to also make it more difficult by tightening the reins on the decision making process so that it gets harder and harder to make the cut as the best in any category, much less wind up at the top of the pack.

A Few years back, we also made some additional decisions as to what constitutes a "Best of Breed" and how wide we wanted to cast the net. As previously noted, it struck us that naming an overall "best" aircraft across the entire spectrum of general (or sport) aviation is probably no longer reasonable. There are simply too many aircraft that have distinguished themselves in too many outstanding ways for one to truly be called better than the other on an overall basis. One man's perfect high-speed Hot-Rod, for instance, becomes the expensive "way too hot to handle" mistake of another pilot whose mission requirements may differ markedly. So... we're going to cop out -- just a bit, mind you. From then on out, we named the best aircraft in individual categories, and reserved the right in the future to whittle down those categories as necessary. But, the fact of the matter is that no one airplane is all things to all pilots, and within the spectrum that we have decided on, we're looking for YOUR Guidance in each of a number of august categories.

Let me also note that while aircraft that previously were named Best Of Breed in any category, or overall, are eligible for inclusion in this year's list, we have decided to make it more difficult (in our judging protocols) for a previous winner to take the top spot in our judging criteria, so that a repeat winner truly earns the distinction.

So... here we go, let's get YOUR FEEDBACK for the following categories so that we can make some informed decisions about what aircraft and products truly deserve the distinction to be named by ANN and its readership as the "Best Of The Breed."

ANN 2009 Award Categories: (PLEASE feel free to suggest additional categories if you feel the following do not properly address the best that you've seen in the past year) --

• Heroes and Heartbreakers (The People and/or Companies/Organizations That Either Helped Us Or Hurt Us The Most In 2009)

• Avionics -- Cockpit/Glass Panel Systems (OEM/Retrofit) 

• Gadgets Of The Year (encompassing both software and hardware products of use to the GA Pilot) 

• GA Piston-Single Category 

• GA Piston-Twin Category 

• GA Turbine (Turboprop) 

• GA Turbine (Jet) 

• S-LSA RTF (Ready To Fly) Category 

• E-LSA Kit Category 

• Amateur-Built/Experimental Kit Category 

• Plane Of The Year (The Best Of Them All -- Regardless of Category)

FMI: Here Are MY Suggestions for ANN 2009 "Best Of The Breed" Award Categories