Allow me please a moment of reflection about the aviation magazine business.

I was powerfully reminded this month that churning out a magazine every four weeks is hard work. The source of my reminder is the editor I have employed for our new cycling magazine TopCycle.  Maurice Hall had earned his daily crust trading things like container loads of broom handles when he was seduced by me to edit a cycling magazine. I think he is still shell shocked about how much work is involved – and I only asked him to do it part time. He was so overwhelmed that I asked past SA Flyer Editor John Miller to help out with the actual production of the magazine.

The reason I mention this is that I would like to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate my small team on the gargantuan task they accomplish each month.

SA Flyer has been growing beyond our wildest expectations. At 140 pages this issue is the biggest we have ever produced. And yet my team have uncomplainingly risen to the challenge. Our layout artist Emily Kinnear has not only single-handedly produced this issue of SA Flyer, but has also produced the first issue of Top Cycle. And if ever a lesson was needed in how we may delude ourselves that we are indispensible, she produced it while I was touring the USA for two weeks. Our Sales Manager Wayne Wilson shot the lights out as he continually exceeds our optimistic  sales targets. He is always willing to go the extra mile and is happy to come back into the office at night to nail down elusive American advertisers.

Wayne’s success is the magazine’s lifeblood. It places us on a sound footing to be able to bring you, our readers, the best material. And this is my objective - to build a loyal following of readers who we continually entertain and educate about their passion for flying.

As Editor, I presume to ask my readers to invest their time in the material I dish up. It’s not an investment of money, as the magazine still does not even cost R30. But I know how irritated I get if I plough through a badly conceived or written newspaper or magazine article, or watch a poor TV show.  At SA Flyer we have had to earn our readers’ trust and then keep it. If we keep this trust we can use that credibility for the benefit of our advertisers.

It’s simple – but it works. Almost without exception, our advertisers confirm that they get by far the best results from advertising in SA Flyer, or if their market is bigger than South Africa, in FlightCom.

This particular issue of the magazine has however been a difficult one to for me to edit, as it is one of the few where I have accepted blatant advertorial. In previous issues I have profiled loyal advertisers under the general heading of ‘Companies’. However, for his issue I have accepted the need to headline some articles specifically as advertorial, even though I ‘de-fluffed’ the original material. The reason for the sudden surge in advertorial is the necessity that we provide a platform for those companies that are investing a lot in their participation in AAD.

AAD is as big for aviation as the Soccer World Cup was to South Africa. And for this spike in the commercial flavour of the magazine I beg your indulgence. It will soon be back to its undiluted focus on the reader.