WIX Archives

Warbird Magazines - and Thanks!

Posted by Graham O on Wed Sep 11, 2002 12:52:10 AM

Hi all,
Been meaning to repsond to the correspondence in the earlier thread re warbird magazines. I'd just like to say how much I appreciate the kind comments re our humble publishing efforts. Classic Wings came about from my own desire to read a magazine that reflected my own interests. Since my last year in school I have been involved in hands-on restoration and flying of vintage and ex-military aircraft. This of course has involved years of fossicking, horse-trading, long quiet hours of work and all the usual things to get aircraft back together, to the pure joy of that first test flight and the on-going priviledge of being able to fly these machines. The magazine largely reflects this type of current activity around the world and especially downunder where our activities were never well covered in the past despite having some very cool, very rare UK and US built machines. We don't do so much period material, wartime stories etc., partly as this is so well handled by other publications, including the countless books that I find myself collecting.
Of course there's a down-side to coming from an aviation rather than a publishing background, and I now find the earlier editions embarrassing to look at. I'm still wearing 'L' plates in every aspect of the magazine production but folks seem to like what we do so that is hugely gratifying.
Re the price, we're able to keep the cost down by keeping the weight to below 200gms (just). After that threshhold the price escalates, so it's not the other magazines ripping you off....but the international postal accord. Since this limits the number of pages we can produce, we instead run everything in full colour so the aircraft look their best.
Sorry Scott if this qualifies as 'Spam' but I thought it would be rude not to reply to the very kind comments by the team. Now if any dedicated WIX reader has not seen Classic Wings and would like a free sample airmailed to them, I'd be happy to oblige. E-mail me direct and I'll arrange it - you can thank Scott for this offer.
As for my own favourites.....it's still a toss-up between FlyPast and Aeroplane. I thoroughly enjoy both of them.
Cheers for now,
GMO

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