Flying Magazine Senior Editor Stephen Pope is a longtime aviation journalist who holds a commercial pilot certificate with multi-engine and instrument ratings. He grew up and still lives in northern New Jersey, where he started taking flying lessons as a teenager in a Piper J-3 Cub at a small grass strip.
While in high school Stephen worked as a line boy at the 60th Street Heliport in New York City and First Aviation Services at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport, as well as a stringer writing for several local newspapers. After soloing at 16, receiving his private pilot's certificate at 17 and picking up his instrument rating a year after that, he enrolled at the University of Maryland at College Park as a journalism major, where he earned his degree and completed an editorial internship at AOPA Pilot magazine.
After graduating Stephen joined the staff of Aviation International News, a business aviation trade magazine in Midland Park, New Jersey. During his 15 years with the publication, Stephen moved up the ranks to become Senior Editor directing avionics and technology coverage; Editor of Domestic Show Publications; and, in his last role with the company, Editor of Business Jet Traveler magazine.
While at AIN Publications, Stephen won seven Aerospace Journalist of the Year category awards — the most of any writer — including being named the overall Aerospace Journalist of the Year in 2007. He has also won three NBAA Gold Wing Awards, the first in 1999 for a feature article on the business jet charter industry, the second as part of a team of journalists covering the 9/11 attacks, and the third for a story on business aviation's response to the January 2010 Haitian earthquake.
An active and enthusiastic pilot, Stephen lives in Budd Lake, New Jersey, with his wife Kate and son Andrew and flies a Diamond DA40 out of Caldwell Airport. He joined the staff of Flying in 2010.
