January 27, 2010

While UltraFlight Magazine has had a couple of logo changes over the years, for fifteen or so years the name has always remained the same. And a good name it has been since it reflected what readers flew or wanted to fly, ultralight aircraft. However, since the FAA introduced the sport pilot rules our ranks have been somewhat artificially split. Some of us remain flying ultralight aircraft and others of us fly exactly what we were flying before, only now they're not called "ultralights" anymore; now they're called "light sport aircraft."

Unfortunately, the rule changes left "UltraFlight" with something of an identity crisis. Readers who already know the magazine, know that we have continued to write about ultralight issues and equipment while at the same time talking about sport pilot rules and regulations. But pilots entering the sport often won't even open the magazine because they assume it is only for ultralight pilots. With so many people now entering aviation through the sport pilot program, we certainly want to reach those people, too.

Which left us with the question of what to call the magazine. Trust me, this is something that has been wrestled with for years behind the scenes. This summer a consensus was reached that the name needed changing, but to what? We certainly didn't want a name that reflects just sport pilot information and we didn't want a name that only focused on ultralight aviation.

The solution was to forget what we call ourselves, what the FAA calls our kind of flying, and really what anyone else called our kind of flying. We approached the "what to call ourselves" problem by trying to define what the magazine is about to a potential buyer of the magazine glancing at it on the newsstand. That new person isn't going to necessarily know what an ultralight is, what a sport pilot is, what a microlight is, what an experimental aircraft is, or any of the labels we have given to ourselves or had foisted upon us by the government.

And that is where the name "Powered Sport Flying" came from. It is a simple three word name that tries to capture the excitement of what we all enjoy doing, no matter what our wing may look like or what regulations we're flying under.

Of course then came the work on the logo for the new name. Honestly that is where the artistic talents (as well as the patience) of our Graphic Artist, Tim Dilliner, came into play. Tim designed dozens of potential logos, any one of which could have been used and would have looked great. But Tim and the rest of us were searching for the right look and after weeks of trying one idea after another, Tim came up with the logo you see here. Inside these covers we've placed our new logo in a lot of places to give you (and us!) a chance to get used to the new look. We hope you like it as much as we do.

So enjoy this last issue of UltraFlight Magazine and let's look forward to a new decade, a new name, and new flying adventures to share with each other in Powered Sport Flying!

Roy Beisswenger
Technical Editor – Powered Sport Flying Magazine