Become a member and get exclusive access to articles, contests and more!
Start Your Free Trial

Plane & Pilot Submission Guidelines

Write For Plane & Pilot: (Important: Please put the word “Submission” in the send line of your contact email.)

As you know by now, Plane & Pilot is a different kind of magazine. As a rule, instead of having one person writing a column every month for the same space, we have multiple contributors doing it. We do this in order to give you a wide variety of insights, expertise and background.

Who We’re Looking For: The short answer is, probably you. The long answer is, one thing we know is that our readers are an amazing resource. Your typical pilot is not your typical person. Aviators of all descriptions tend to be well educated, successful, hard working, articulate and opinionated. We come from all walks of life and occupations, we travel widely, and we like to help other aviators every chance we get. It’s in the DNA. If this sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you.

You don’t have to be a published writer to contribute to Plane & Pilot. Just a pilot who has a good story to tell. We can help as much as needed turning your story into a finished piece.

What We’re Looking For: There are a couple of regular opportunities for contributors to Plane & Pilot.

  • Lessons Learned about Flying (and About Life): This piece will run from 1400-1600 words and tell the first-person tale of an extraordinary flight. Many of our stories have involved a close call or a deeply moving experience one had while flying, or both of those things. Even low-time pilots have stories to tell for this space.
  • Risk: Are you a CFI or professional pilot who has an interesting and insightful take on how pilots can all reduce their risk? We’re looking for one in-depth topic for this one. Previous Risk columns have explored subjects from the need for smart go-arounds to how to cut your risk as a volunteer medical transport pilot. About 1400 words.
  • Stories about ownership: These can include modifications you’ve done on your plane. 

What We’re Not Looking For: With few exceptions, Plane & Pilot covers today’s general aviation flying. We probably won’t have a place for stories about commercial aviation or space flight (with the possible exception of AirFare). Other topics we don’t cover are product reviews, book reviews, tributes, memoirs, poetry, fiction, academic papers or anything promotional in nature. If it’s long and rambling, make it shorter and not so rambling. Most of the stories we publish are between 1,500 and 2,500 words. Your subject should be clear, and the piece should be all about that topic. 

Payment: Pay for reader-submitted Risk stories is $250. Pay for Lessons Learned is $101. Payment is made after we publish your story. We can also accommodate writers who prefer not to be paid. If you’re interested in submitting a story to us, please send it with a short cover email to us at [email protected] and attach the file as an MS Word document.

Thanks for your interest!

Save Your Favorites

Save This Article