By the middle of March, this website had exceeded all prior monthly records. In only 16 days, we recorded an all-time high in single-day non-repeating visitor count and in monthly visitors.
So, it is already certain that I will conclude my full-time activities with ByDanJohnson.com on a very high note and I am grateful beyond what I can convey. I had hoped to “go out at the top of my game” and this strong response from visitors is a wonderful send-off.
Please believe me, though, the genuine thanks are from me to you, not the other way around.
I am deeply appreciative of your loyal readership for these past 20 years. Thank you from the bottom of my pilot’s heart.
Is Affordable Aviation
Really a Thing?
I didn’t know I was creating the affordable aviation space when I began my online adventure back in 1999 — it took four years of work in those early days of the World Wide Web but we went live on April 1, 2004. Our 20-year-anniversary is right around the corner, just before Sun ‘n Fun 2024 begins.
I’ve enjoyed a career that took me aloft with many of the star pilots of the recreational aircraft world. Here, Rans Aircraft founder Randy Schlitter impressed me with another of his great-flying creations.
While I didn’t use the term “affordable aviation” at first, it is where my personal interest (and budget) lies and I found a growing number of you felt similarly. This month you illustrated to me just how many pilots are involved in this segment of recreational aviation.
Based on website visits this month and throughout the last year, I believe I can now estimate the global number at more than 80,000 recreational pilots*, up more than 25% from 66,200 when I surveyed this cohort in 2015 (chart and article with more detail on this estimate). Virtually all of you in this large group have expressed a strong interest in “affordable” aircraft.
Building and operating this website has been enormously satisfying. Some might say it is getting a whole new turbocharged boost with Mosaic coming in about a year. Maybe so.
Reviewing aircraft means the chance to fly many different aircraft. If you like flying and if you like writing, contact Marc Cook via email.
Having watched the birth of hang gliding (1970s), ultralights (1980s and into the ’90s) in LSA (in 2004), Mosaic arriving in 2025 marks a fourth epoch in the world of light, recreational aviation. I am honored to have had a front row seat for each of these evolutions. It’s been my pleasure to report them as straightforwardly and as fully as I can through print, online, video, social media, and airshow speeches.
Affordability is important for many of us. In my humble opinion, recreational aircraft approximately compare to boats, RVs, motorcycles, or ATVs. These vehicles can run the gamut from affordable to ridiculously expensive yet a reasonably-priced entry point lets newcomers in without breaking the bank.
Aviation has similar needs for a range of aircraft that regular people making ordinary incomes can still buy and fly.
This website reports those flying machines but please read-on…!
Writers’ Opportunity
I will not be leaving the aviation journalism scene entirely, although I will be taking a sabbatical from airshows in 2024. Nonetheless, my writing output will reduce and fresh writers are needed to keep the energy going.
- Do you care to be among them? If you have any writing experience and the subject matter interests you, here is an opportunity.
- Do you know an enterprising younger writer keen to enter the world of aviation journalism? This could help them get a foot in the door. It’s entry-level aviation and entry-level aviation writing as well.
- Have you written for other periodicals but always wanted to try aviation writing? This may give you a chance.
ByDanJohnson.com is now part of a world-class team lead by flagship title Flying magazine — now headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The opportunity is significant — Now known as Firecrown, this media group owns many of the best non-membership aviation magazines in the business: Flying, Plane & Pilot, AVweb, Kitplanes, IFR, Aviation Consumer, Aviators Hotline… and the list goes on. This impressive collection, all now under one leadership, offers outreach to every facet of aviation. ByDanJohnson.com is one of those titles.
Firecrown boss Craig Fuller acquired ByDanJohnson.com (and my alternate domain name of AffordableAviation.com) because he recognized the content’s value. This was reinforced because he owns and flies two LSA (an Icon A5 and a Tecnam Astore). He knows and likes the same kind of aircraft that you do.
Can you imagine a better group to help your entry into aviation writing?
What To Do
If Interested
Here is what NOT to do. Do not send me or this website your CV or information. You are certainly welcome to contact me but I cannot make any decisions about hiring writers. I have sold the business and it is someone else’s decision now.
Marc Cook is editor of Kitplanes, another title now owned by Firecrown, the new corporate name of the company lead by Flying magazine.
Here is what to DO — Contact Kitplanes editor Marc Cook via email. He will be taking over leadership of ByDanJohnson.com / AffordableAviation.com and he is the one to approach with your writing interest. Please only contact him if you are genuinely interested in this writing opportunity. Marc is amazingly busy and cannot field all sorts of questions. Also, please remember this is right before Sun ‘n Fun 2024 opens. Everyone in the business is scrambling to prepare; please show patience.
I would be happy if you copied me on your inquiry to Marc but only for my interest and knowledge. Any decision is solely his to make.
Please write Marc if you have a true-blue interest in getting into the aviation journalism game.
A brief side note on pilot-certificate affordability — This week, my colleague Meg Godlewski writing in Flying online reported that the average cost of a Private Pilot license is now $14,000 according to a survey by Redbird, the flight simulator company. My, my… a Sport Pilot certificate is looking much better at less than half that cost! …plus, no aviation medical is required.
* Based on figures through March 20th, this website should easily exceed 80,000 unique visitors (specifically, different computers accessing the website) in the month of March 2024.
Can’t thank you enough for all your incredible work with sharing valuable, useful, and entertaining information about a topic that has always been near and dear to my heart, and the hearts of so many others, throughout the many years. Your efforts have been truly valued and very much appreciated, indeed.
Your kind words are deeply appreciated.
Thank you for all of your knowledge & insight into the flying world, you will be missed.
Thank you! I’m backing away but will not disappear entirely. Flying Media wants me to continue writing… and I will, just less than before.
Thank you for all of your great reporting over the years.
l can only hope that the consolidation of virtually all general aviation reporting and publishing (Belvoir, AvWeb, Kitplanes, ByDanJohnson) under Craig Fuller’s Flying Magazine group won’t homogenize these formerly independent sources into one indistinguishable bowl of pablum.
Dan.
Have you heard anything from the company DOWN UNDER in New Zealand building the WAVE whether they will be at SUN & FUN this year or not? Looking forward to seeing this new amphibian they have built for sure. Just hope the price will be in the affordable range with everything being very expensive these days.
I have heard nothing from Vickers Aircraft about their Wave coming to America. It will happen as an investor in the project lives in Florida but they may not be ready yet.
Yeah, NO… Affordable should be within the means of average Americans and even LSA doesn’t compete in that category. Hell, Ultralights don’t compete well, with decent engines well over $5k. As a disabled Army veteran, if I can scrape an extra $1200 per year together for any one project, I’m doing good.
Now, on this fantasy budget, I AM trying to design and build an ultralight based off an historic 1-of-a-kind biplane, piecing together several other designs to achieve both the design and the FAR-13 Ultralight status. Good Lord willing, she’ll end up on display at the Stinson Field Museum, in San Antonio, Texas… Yes, I’m planning to attempt an ultralight based on Ms. Katherine Stinson’s Curtiss-Stinson Special, which she used to raise millions for the Red Cross during WWI .
The Stinson flight school taught the vast majority of American pilots that fought in WWI.
I completely understand everybody’s budget is different, and yes, some of these LSA have become not-at-all affordable.
However, I’ve written about several aircraft that definitely qualify and here’s one of the most such: Affordaplane — build a flyable kit for $4,000-7,000. Find more in this article.