Best aviation magazine?

[meltsner]

I was at the local library's used bookstore and picked up two copies of the AOPA Pilot magazine for 25¢ each. Not bad. But they were old -- '03 and '04 issues.

Do you have any preferences on which magazines are the best in your opinion? I'd love to subscribe to one or two. I can't find anywhere to subscribe to AOPA Pilot without membership. Is it possible? AOPA's Flight Training looks interesting also, they have a 6-month "trial" period.

I've also looked at Flying and Plane & Pilot, among a bunch of others.

Does anybody have preferences on these, or others? (I know there's no "best" magazine)

[Kapitan]

Not an expected reply:
The best magazine IMO was "Shell Aviation News" which ran in decades 50s, 60s and 70s.
Never again I saw similar printed quality photographs (b&w), and of the many airliners and planes of those days, which are nowhere to be found today.

I reckon very few collections of these have survived, and they are worth a small fortune.

[loki]

Are you looking for a magazine that is GA focused, or aviation in general?

[wolf2]

when i was growing up i loved "wings" and airpower" the best, though i certainly bought my share of "flying", "private pilot", "plane and pilot", etc. but my all time fave, and the one i would not be without during my active flying years, was "aviation week & space technology".

[meltsner]

Are you looking for a magazine that is GA focused, or aviation in general?

General aviation, or aviation in general? Yes, sorry, I was actually going to mention GA in particular. More of the 'low n slow' type, I'm not overly interested in the heavies, etc. right now. That might change later.

I've seen "Private Pilot", but it looks like that is now "Plane & Pilot" if I see right.

[tigisfat]

flying

[Kapitan]

I found one at ebay. Well, almost, it was sold.
"Shell Aviation News" was amazing in quality pictures of all those airplanes and airlines from the golden era.
My father had the full collection, and I used to read them over and over. The collection was lost in a house move.
About 200 issues spanned in 3 decades. Here's one example sold at ebay for 20 dollars.

http://cgi.ebay.com.sg/ws/eBayISAPI....m=380306045281

[dfreemanfso]

For me, it's easy. IFR Magazine. No commercials or pretty pictures trying to sell you an airplane you can't afford. It's all about flying technique, geared toward GA instrument pilots. I think it would be great for learning some IFR stuff to apply to FS.

http://www.ifr-magazine.com/index.html

Dave

[gene172]

For real aircraft my favorite is "Air Classics". A lot about restored aircraft. I read it cover to cover every month. (Order direct from publisher, not an exchange). For computer sim, I like PC Pilot.

[meltsner]

Thanks y'all, that gives too many choices! Looks like Plane & Pilot will probably be first try. That and "Flying" are an excellent budget price, so I'll see how it is. At any rate, I'm sure there's no way to not enjoy any of them, they all look good IFR may come down the road as well.

I thought PC Pilot and Computer Pilot look interesting too, but at $40 & $24 a year for 6 issues, let's just say a lot could be put toward the sim itself instead!!