J. Mac is HISTORY!!

[Joe]

www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/1674-full.html

(Scroll down a little)

J. Mac McClellan, editor-in-chief of FLYING magazine, has been fired at last. My commercial pilot friend heard it from the CEO at Cessna, whom he casually knows.

For anyone who doesn't know, my opinion of J Mac was that he was a lackey and the magazine should have been retitled CORPORATE FLYING.

[Joe]

Egads, this "news" is about a month old. Oh well, it was news to me.

[Tom Goodrick]

I have a subscription and the most recent issue (August) shows no indication. I have never been real happy with him in such a prominent position. He did not know as much as he thought he did.

[flaminghotsauce]

I must confess, his articles were one of the last I would read. Not that I didn't appreciate his input into all subjects, but it was kind of dry reading. Some of the other columnists paint much better pictures with words than he did.

[Tom Goodrick]

When you think of it, FLYING has definitely gone down hill. For me it began with the departure of Richard L Collins. For nearly 40 years (since 1957) I looked forward to his articles. Even if the other articles were not so great, his "ON TOP" column always had something of interest. I think he had a serious health issue. That's a shame but that's the way it has gone with many of FLYING's good writers.

In the past, FLYING had other great columnists too - Baxter and Morgan come to mind in particular. Richard Bach was another good one though he didn't stay long.

Today they have no one who is really good. The two women have interesting comments on occaision - Martha Lunken and Lane Wallace. Lunkin's description of how the kindly old DC-3 can kill so easily was interesting. Training by J Hopkins has good points every once in a while. Airwork by Tom Benenson was often okay but what does he do now that he sold his airplane? Technicalities always bothered me with some incorrect aspect. Gear Up is a joke about how a rich doctor spends his money (I just got some hefty doctor bills so this may color my attitude). Then he yearns for his own pure jet (he has a turboprop) and likes to fly airliners. Jumpseat just does not interest me very much. It is too much of an insider's discussion of the airline business.

Maybe some changes will be good.

[Allen Peterson]

J Mac's swan song is in the September issue.

[Tom Goodrick]

OK. Today I got the September issue and read J Mac's swan song. He remains the conviced he is the best Editor FLYING has ever had or could have. He's not.

It will be interesting to see what happens to FLYING. I am not sure long-range planniing is the answer either. It would not hurt to rotate some new writers through the magazine for a while. I would release all the columnists at this point and look for new blood.

[Joe]

It wouldn't bother me if they axed everyone but the two women. They don't always hit, but they hit a lot more than they miss.

I miss Collins. What I really miss is PRIVATE PILOT.

I don't know, it just seemed like Mac has the opinion that no one who makes under $100K a year has any business touching an airplane. His (and the mag's) fixation on glass panels was elitist overkill. The last straw for me was when he advocated closing down weather briefings, because, by cracky, we should all just run out and get sat weather systems.

[eljeffe]

A LACKEY??? SOUNDS TO ME THAT ALL THESE NEGATIVE BLOGS ABOUT MAC ARE FROM JUNIOR BIRDMEN WEARING HUGE WATCHES , RAYBAN SUNGLASSES, AND FLY AIRPLANES THAT HAVE PARACHUTES ATTACHED TO THEM.

[louross]

I read an article somewhere by some DC-3 pilots where they pointed out numerous errors about what the 2 women wrote and their jist was the writers didn't know anything about flying DC-3's. Some DC-3 pilots I knew talked very well of it and said the only problem was when flying in heavy ice you had to use the ax to knock ice off the windshield in order to see to land.
lr.

[louross]

I rember I liked to read Morgan's articles, and I remember the name Baxter. That was a long time ago. If I rember, Morgan retired from, some airline.