Yep, the Word is Out: New Concepts, New Aircraft, More (Gulp...) Editors

by ANN Senior Correspondent Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien

There comes a time in flight where the PIC shakes the stick and says, "Here, you take over." (Usually when you're upside down, nothing on the clock, and still climbing, but that's another story...). And that has happened recently with the SportPlane Resource Guide, the beloved, and accursed, monstrosity that weighs down coffee tables nationwide -- but contains more information on sport and experimental airplane types than anything else, ever. Jim Campbell has handed a fair amount of it over to me with the anxious look of a young mother whose baby is about to be put in the hands of the babysitter for the first time. And who has just found out that the sitter is a New Age follower of Carthaginian religion...

Jim will not be relinquishing oversight of the new guide, and he'll still be the primary contributor. You will still get his Zoom Report on the planes he knows -- the majority of them. We'll still be the only guys who rate the risk of a particular design or vendor. We'll still have more detail on more types than anybody in the business.

It'll still be heavy, I'm afraid. Don't let your daughter put it in her book bag or the grade school will turn you in for child abuse.

One much-requested change that you will be seeing: we WILL include a section on out-of-production, but widely available, kits and plans. We always are getting questions about plans and projects that people are buying on the secondary market. Some of these are GREAT planes and are unavailable for reasons having nothing to do with their quality, the definitive example being Rutan's composite canard aircraft. Some of them are turkeys and went off the market due to design flaws or business irrationality and our readers deserve to know about them, too.

It's a strange thing in this business, but availability over a period of decades doesn't guarantee a good design, and a quick failure doesn't mean a bad machine.

We'll be trying some other new ideas with this edition; we don't want to mention them just yet. Some might not work out; some might prejudice you. Instead, we'd like you to drop us  a line (sprg@aero-news.net) and let us know what you like, or don't, about the last (1998) and previous editions of the guide, and what you'd like us to change. I can't guarantee we'll do what you prefer, but we will listen to what you say.

You can always go straight to my email (hognose@aero-news.net) or right to the boss (publisher@aero-news.net) but the SPRG account is for the, well, I won't insult your intelligence by pointing it out.

If you're a vendor with a Light Sport, kit, or plans-built aircraft of any kind, drop us a line and make sure that I have your information. If you have a beef with coverage in the previous edition, we'll give you a fair hearing (as we always have). If we missed something or got it wrong, now is the time to get it right.

Come by and see us at the shows, too! We'll be there.

FMI: sprg@aero-news.net