J. Mac McClellan Editor in Chief
As editor in chief, Mac leads the editorial staff of highly skilled, heavily experienced aviation writers, editors and photographers to a new level of excellence. Mac's knowledge of virtually every facet of the general aviation market helps him keep Flying focused on what's new, what's happening, what's exciting and what's fun.
Mac has been a pilot for 37 years and an aviation writer for more than 30. He holds an ATP certificate with type ratings in Learjets and Citations. He also has a commercial helicopter pilot license and is a certified instrument flight instructor. Mac began his aviation writing career in 1976 with Business & Commercial Aviation, which, at the time, was a companion to Flying. Mac was technical editor at B/CA and moved over to Flying in 1980 with the same title. During his years at Flying, Mac has been based in Kansas City and Grand Haven, Michigan, before returning to the main office, then in Greenwich, Connecticut, to become editor in chief in 1990.
Mac has logged more than 10,000 hours flying virtually every current general aviation aircraft type, and many not-so-current classics and antiques. In fact, his first airplane was a Cessna 140 that was manufactured two years before his birth. He now travels primarily in his Beech Baron.
Mac is also an avid sailor, racing his Tartan 10 on Long Island Sound during the summer, whenever he isn't flying his Baron.
Richard Collins Editor Emeritus
Richard Collins has been writing about airplanes, how to fly them and the environment in which they fly for over 50 years. Richard earned his private certificate 55 years ago and acquired his commercial, ATP and flight instructor certificates over the years. He has logged over 20,000 hours in general aviation airplanes.
Genetics apparently played a part in Richard's aviation writing ability; his father was Leighton Collins, founder, owner and editor of Air Facts. Richard etched out an unprecedented aviation writing career that took him to Flying in 1968, where he became Editor in Chief in 1977, and to AOPA Pilot as Publisher and Editor in 1987. Richard returned to Flying in 1993 and as editor at large contributes his monthly On Top as well as other feature articles.
Richard has studied the weather from the best vantage point-the left seat-and is one of the nation's foremost experts on aviation meteorology. He is featured in a Sporty's Pilot Shop video series on weather, has appeared in 28 videos in Sporty's Air Facts how-to video series and has written 11 books on aviation.
Robert Goyer Senior Editor
As a teenager Robert Goyer worked with his folks at their small chain of FBOs in Southern California, where he earned his private certificate (before the advent of GPS) in between flipping burgers, pumping gas and turning wrenches. He even commuted to work from Apple Valley to Barstow Daggett Airport for a time in a Cessna 152. Robert started in aviation journalism in the late 1980s, writing, photographing and more for a number of small sport and general aviation titles, including Air Progress and Affordable Flying magazines. He came aboard at Flying in 1995 as associate editor and was named senior editor in 2000.
A commercial land and seaplane pilot with multiengine and instrument ratings, over the years Robert has flown more than 150 different types of homebuilt, ultralight and general aviation aircraft (including a few he says he wished he hadn't!). In addition to writing and photographing feature stories on a variety of subjects, Robert closely follows trends in aircraft electronics, aircraft ownership, light-sport aircraft and the very light jet segment.
Robert lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, two sons and a rescued Aussie Shepherd named Django. In addition to all the other cool airplanes he gets to fly as part of his "job," Robert regularly tools around the country in a PlaneSmart Cirrus SR22 out of AUS. His other interests include old trucks, distance running, roots music, good wine and the fine art of fastpitch baseball.
Lane Wallace West Coast Editor
Lane Wallace, a VFR pilot and both the West Coast Editor and a regular columnist for Flying, learned to fly in 1986 after seeing a low-flying yellow biplane fly by overhead one day, and her love affair with aviation continues to this day. She traded work on a collection of old airplanes for flying lessons and bought a half-interest in a 1946 Cessna 120 soon after getting her license. She bought her current airplane, a 1977 Grumman Cheetah, in 1998, but old taildraggers still claim a special place in her heart.
Before writing for Flying, Lane wrote for a number of national and international magazines and publications, including AOPA Pilot and Flight International. Her work has also appeared in ForbesLife magazine, and she was a featured contributor on Microsoft's 2004 Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight release. She has also written six books for NASA, including a book for young people, Wild Blue Wonders: Exploring the Magic of Flight, that was published by the Experimental Aircraft Association in 2001. In addition, Lane has written and co-produced a number of video programs and documentaries, including a three-part series on the human adventure of test flight that aired on The Learning Channel in August 1999 and the Telly Award-winning documentary Breaking the Chain in 2006.
Lane writes a variety of feature and news articles for Flying. But her Flying Lessons column each month is where she writes about the parts of flying that are closest to her heart-the people, joy, learning, laughter, magic, passion, adventure and living that flying offers to those who are willing to trade the security of the ground for the classroom of the sky.
Russell Munson Consulting Editor
Russell Munson is a freelance photographer and writer who has been contributing to Flying magazine for some 40 years. He wanted to fly for as long as he can remember, and knew by age 14 that he would spend his life making photographs. In fact, his first photographs with the family Kodak at age 12 were of airplanes.
After getting his private pilot license 45 years ago, Russ combined his two loves of flight and photography by specializing in aviation photography. He went on to earn his commercial, multiengine, instrument and DC-3 type ratings and has over 4,500 hours, much of it in his beloved 1962 Piper Super Cub that was his companion for 37 years, and a delightful Beech Bonanza V35 he owned for 10 years. Much to his surprise, Russ succumbed to the siren call of a new love after writing and photographing a Flying article on the improved Aviat Husky for the February 2006 issue. He now owns a 2006 A-1B-180 and has to be forcibly pried out of it by his wife at meal times.
Russ wrote and photographed his book, Skyward: Why Flyers Fly, took all the photographs for Richard Bach's classic book, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and produced a DVD, Flying Route 66, which he wrote, photographed and narrated.
For Russ, the main purpose of an airplane is not to go from A to B, but simply to go up, providing its pilot with a sense of freedom unknown on the ground.
Tom Benenson Contributing Editor
Tom Benenson, who has logged more than 3,500 hours in general aviation airplanes, began flying as a high school student. He took his first lesson in 1958 in a J-3 Cub at Maryland's College Park Airport. He eventually soloed in an Aeronca Champ at Rock Country Airport while a student at Beloit College in Wisconsin. After spending some time in graduate school and the army, Tom earned his private pilot license at New Jersey's Morristown Municipal Airport, going on to earn his commercial certificate with multiengine and instrument ratings and his instructor, instrument instructor and advanced ground instructor ratings.
Today Tom gets around in his 1976 Cardinal RG that he's owned for more than 20 years. The Cardinal is noted for its over-equipped instrument panel and its unusual paint job. Tom calls the paint scheme "expressionistic"; from the side, the lines represent a cardinal, complete with a crest on the engine cowl and tail feathers on the vertical stabilizer. The strange design on the doors of the airplane is his cattle brand that's supposed to look like an airplane in flight. He says it looked better when it was branded on the side of the small herd of black baldy cattle he kept on a friend's ranch in South Dakota. When not in the airplane, Tom's on horseback, team roping with one of his three Quarter horses.
Tom, who earned a B.S. in biology from Beloit and a master's in drama from the University of North Carolina, has worked as a flight instructor, actor, playwright and filmmaker. He also wrote for Aviation International News for 15 years, eventually becoming its executive editor. Tom joined Flying in 1992 as a Senior Editor. In addition to writing features, Tom writes the monthly Airwork column in which he recounts the experiences and lessons learned by the owner/operator of a small airplane.
Peter Garrison Contributing Editor
Harvard-educated in English, Peter Garrison is a self-taught aerodynamicist whose writing concentrates on what makes airplanes work and how they can be improved, and on the factors, both mechanical and human, that sometimes cause them to crash.
When no production airplane satisfied Peter's desire for range and efficiency, he built his own and called it Melmoth. He flew it to Europe, Japan and South America. Melmoth was destroyed on the ground in 1982 when it was struck by an out-of-control airplane, and Peter spent 20 years building his four-place Melmoth 2. With 4,000 hours, Peter has a single and multiengine commercial license, instrument rating, and Learjet type, helicopter, seaplane, glider, gyroplane and hot-air balloon ratings.
Since 1968 Flying readers have been looking to Peter for technical precision and erudite writing. His work also appears in other magazines, including Condé Nast Traveler and Air & Space, and he is the author of several books. He writes and sells aviation software and consults on aircraft design questions.
The blend of theoretical understanding and practical experience Peter brings to his monthly Technicalities and Aftermath columns provides Flying readers with technical and operational information that is useful to aviators of all skill levels flying in all situations.
Jay Hopkins Contributing Editor
As founder and president of the Error Prevention Institute, Jay Hopkins provides safety, quality and effectiveness training to businesses, government agencies, hospitals, police and fire departments, and air medical transport operators throughout the country. His Training column in Flying allows pilots to benefit from his uniquely effective approach to error prevention.
Jay received his BA in social psychology from Lehigh University, and lived in many different parts of the country before settling in Payson, Arizona. When he is not flying around the country doing seminars on Error Prevention, he likes to hike in the mountains around his home, go kayaking or take adventures like riding his bicycle across the country.
Jay has experience in virtually all facets of civil aviation, including line service, aerial photography, glider towing and instruction, along with charter, airline and corporate jet operations. His work training military instructors has given him experience with all branches of the U.S. military as well.
Jay has owned and operated a Part 141 flight school and Part 135 charter service. He served as chief pilot of an international corporate flight department and flew copilot for a commuter airline. Jay has over 5,000 hours of flying time with experience in 45 different types of aircraft, from gliders and Cubs to Metroliners and Learjets. He holds an ATP certificate with type ratings in Learjets and Westwinds, and is a certified instrument flight instructor as well as a commercial glider pilot and instructor.
At FlightSafety International in Tucson, in addition to instructing in the Learjet 35 and 55 simulators, Jay developed and presented the Jet Transition Course and the Learjet 55 Initial Course. He was one of the first instructors hired by SimuFlite Training International, where he was chosen as the first standardization instructor and also served as manager of instructional design.
For several years Jay flew a Turbo Twin Comanche around the country to his training assignments. While he is now back on the airlines, he is still very active in aviation as a mission pilot, instructor and check pilot for the Civil Air Patrol in Arizona, flying a brand new Cessna 182T with a G-1000 glass cockpit.
Dick Karl Contributing Editor
Dick Karl is a cancer surgeon who appreciates the beauty and science involved in both surgery and flying; in fact, in the first piece he wrote for Flying, in July 1998, he examined the similarities between the two passions.
Dick had an interest in aviation as a teenager; he really caught the flying bug in college when he worked at Tompkins County Airport in Ithaca, New York, renting Avis cars and driving the airport limo. He soloed in a Cessna 150 in 1966, and he earned his private certificate in 1967. He's been reading Flying magazine ever since. He went on to earn his multiengine instrument land ratings and has logged over 4,000 hours in personal airplanes. Dick has owned many, including a Musketeer, an Arrow, a Cessna 210, a Cessna P210 and a Cessna 340. He now enjoys flying his Cheyenne I. He has earned type ratings in the Cessna 500 series and the Boeing 737, which he called "one of my greatest aviation experiences."
Dick's monthly Gear Up celebrates the human side of flying. He writes about his enthusiasm for both the machines and the people who fly and maintain them. His column is written from the perspective of a lifelong aviation enthusiast who has enjoyed owning, maintaining and flying progressively more capable airplanes. Now in the turboprop world, he's still amazed at the good fortune of personal flying. When he is not writing for Flying, Dick writes op-ed pieces for the St. Petersburg Times. He is also trying his hand at writing longer works; his Across the Red Line, a collection of stories about the bravery of patients and the experience of trying to heal them, was published in 2000. By day, Dick serves as the chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Dick says, "Writing for Flying has been one of the nicest, most rewarding events in my very lucky life."
Les Abend Contributing Editor
Les Abend is currently a 767/757 captain, has logged almost 18,000 hours and has been with his favorite airline for 23 years. He began writing his Jumpseat column for Flying in January 2003.
Les soloed before he was able to legally drive and subsequently earned his private pilot license at age 17. He was a line boy at the local airport, pumping gas, towing airplanes out of hangars, washing and waxing, and supervising the office cash register while saving his pennies for flight training. He attended the Purdue University School of Aviation Technology, instructing and flying charters to help pay for his education. Shortly after graduation, Les was hired by an Allegheny Commuter in Jamestown, New York. After being furloughed, he was hired by another Allegheny Commuter operating Twin Otters. Les went from the left seat of the Twin Otter to the right seat of a 727, flying night freight for a contract carrier operating UPS airplanes. After a brief employment and furlough as a 727 flight engineer for Wien Air Alaska, Les was hired by his current airline.
Writing for Flying has been a lifelong dream for Les. His Jumpseat column provides a candid and sometimes humorous view into the life of an airline pilot.
When Les is not in the Flight Levels, he can be found flying gilders with his club in upstate New York. He can also be seen in the cockpit of the towplane. He is also an active member of the Flagship Detroit Foundation, flying a DC-3 in a display of airline heritage. Les and his wife love boating, diving, skiing and entertaining. Les is fortunate to make his home in both Connecticut and the Florida Keys.
Martha Lunken Contributing Editor
For no apparent reason, Martha fell in love with airplanes at age nine and she learned to fly an Ercoupe in the early 1960s while attending college in her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio. Armed with a degree in English Literature, she became a flight instructor and operated a flying school at Cincinnati's Lunken Airport for seven years. She married Ebby Lunken, for whose family the airport was named.
After a divorce and far too much time instructing, Martha reluctantly accepted a job in 1980 as an Aviation Safety Inspector with FAA's Flight Standards Division at DuPage Airport in Chicago. Eight years later she made her way back home via the Indianapolis FSDO and ran the FAA's safety program in southern Ohio ... when she wasn't on suspension.
She has an ATP, airplane single and multi-engine land and sea, and a commercial hot air balloon rating. She's type rated in the Lockheed 18, DC-3 and SA-227 aircraft. Martha owns a 1956 Cessna 180, half of a J-3 Cub and has 12,000+ hours flight time.
Mark Phelps Editor, Flying eNewsletter
Mark Phelps traces his passion for aviation back to age eight, when he'd stop at the town library in Milton, Massachusetts, while negotiating his paper route. There, he began what has become a lifetime pursuit; filling his heart and mind with the stories of aviation's heroes, past and present.
After graduating from college in 1975, he learned to fly, maxing out his first-ever credit card. His first job in aviation came in 1978 as a recruiter for an aircraft mechanic's school, and Mark bought his first airplane, a two-seat Grumman AA1-B, in 1981. (His current airplane is an IFR-equipped 1954 V-tail Bonanza.) In 1986, he landed a dream job as associate editor at Flying, and he has returned, in early 2008, as editor of the Flying eNewsletter. In between, he served on the editorial staffs of the Experimental Aircraft Association and Aviation International News as well as in the communications department at Dassault Falcon Jet. Along the way, Mark has been privileged to fly some of the airplanes he read about as a kid, including a Supermarine Spitfire, and to meet many of the heroes whose stories filled the pages of those books.
With approximately 1,800 hours' flying time, Mark is an active instrument pilot. When not flying or fussing with the vintage V-tail, Mark fills in the time playing ice hockey in an "adult" (old men's) league. He lives in central New Jersey with his wife and twin sons, who came into his life in 2001.
Connie Sue White Managing Editor
Connie Sue White recently joined Flying's editorial team as managing editor. Connie Sue, a University of Florida journalism grad, brings 20 years of magazine publishing experience to Flying, as well as a strong flying heritage (thanks to her father’s passion for aviation). Her first memory of "taking" the controls was during a family trip in her father’s Bonanza when she was 7. Not too long after that, her dad, a young 42, quit a well-paying white-collar job and started a new career: rebuilding Waco biplanes. Then, he purchased a grass strip in Zellwood, Florida. With airplanes all around her, mostly antique biplanes and high-wing taildraggers, and plenty of time hanging out at the airport, it was only natural that she learned how to fly. Her first "lessons" began with her father in a Piper Cub when she was 12. She later transitioned to an Aeronca 7EC Champ, in which she soloed on the morning of her 16th birthday. Connie Sue flew casually around the patch for the next couple of years, before heading off to college. When she returned home, it was always her intention to learn how to fly her dad’s Waco, Big Red.
"Flying in that open cockpit seemed to be about the purest kind of flying there is, so peaceful and gentle," she recalls. "When we'd go up, I would regularly glance back at my dad and we'd always flash big, wide grins at each other."
But, tragically, her father died in an airplane crash when she was 26. Her drive to fly died, too, and she never looked back — until now. Twenty-eight years after her first solo, she’s not only working at a venerated aviation magazine, but she is also back in the air, working toward a private pilot's certificate at FlightSafety Academy in Vero Beach, Florida — two turns of events she never would have dreamed of happening.
