Like me, I'm sure that many of you have dreamed, drooled or found one of your loves while perusing the classifieds in the thin-sheet yellow Trade a Plane papers. The end is near!

https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/tra ... o-digital/

Scolopax wrote:Like me, I'm sure that many of you have dreamed, drooled or found one of your loves while perusing the classifieds in the thin-sheet yellow Trade a Plane papers. The end is near!

https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/tra ... o-digital/

The AvWeb article didn't say whether it would be subscription access only or something else. I guess that will be a Sun 'n Fun or OshKosh question when I visit their booth (assuming they still have one).

The rags are fun for everyone except the guy trying to reconcile the expense with the reach in the age of the internet. Printing, shipping, it's probably not as effective as it once was when everyone has phones. I know I'm stating the obvious but it's hard to blame anyone for making that decision.

And I've always dreamed of publishing a print BCP. There's just something about the tangible medium. I love it.

Zzz wrote:...There's just something about the tangible medium. I love it.

Which is why I read BOOKS, subscribe to a couple of (euphemistically called) 'news' papers, and a raft of printed 'zines. . But I also download several periodicals so I can read on the road and when in the back of an aluminum or carbon fiber tube. Eventually I expect economics will push me to all digital media.

Zzz wrote:...There's just something about the tangible medium. I love it.

I totally agree, but I'll be the odd-guy-out and say Good Riddance to Trade-a-Plane publications.

They used to send them to me for no reason other than I'm a pilot, and since my wife is also a pilot they'd send two. I never read them and couldn't stand the waste, or the fact that they took up so much room in the mail box that other mail wouldn't fit...neither could I get them to quit sending them. Phone calls, emails, snail mail...for years nothing breached the automated subscription database. To me it was just extra-large junk mail.

Zzz wrote:There's just something about the tangible medium. I love it.

I'll further qualify this by saying that I love high quality print magazines, not necessarily toilet paper grade ad rags.

Before the internet I loved the TOP bathroom reading. I haven't picked up the yellow paper in years, but still use TOP online. In the era of easy searches, better graphic photos, and easier readability - it makes sense to me they would stop the print version. I think controller will still have their printed material for those stuck in an FBO waiting out some weather.


Josh

Zzz wrote:I know I'm stating the obvious but it's hard to blame anyone for making that decision.

Indeed. Issues of TAP have been a fixture in practically every FBO and pilot lounge across America for the greater part of a decade. I didn’t subscribe, but I will definitely miss it.

Steve Stone ran TAP for many years. He retired this last summer. When I made my annual visit to their booth at OSH this year, I was told that Steve had retired. I’m betting this decision was made not long after his retirement.

A great guy....always with a smile at their booths, handing out papers.

I guess now they’ll be handing out bytes?

MTV

It seems like their classified section was almost totally eclipsed by barnstormers awhile ago. The functionality of their online content always seemed pretty worthless to me especially using a mobile device, which is what I use for 95% of my computing. That said I like the paper and can remember it being around my entire life as my dad always seemed to have a few copies in the head or on his desk. I think they had some other “yellow papers” for heavy equipment and machinery. Changing times I guess....

Good riddance.

I flip through them while waiting in an FBO occasionally but they are/were terrible for actually finding an airplane. By the time the print goes out, the good airplanes would be gone anyway.

Also I'm an environmentalist and it was just a waste of good trees.

I agree it has seen its time.
I wonder how the ad revenue will change. With the paper version I always would stop at ads that caught my eye but not so on the online version, don't think I have looked at an ad for the past several years and I do miis that.

My son sure is going to miss it. But he is only five and does not have access to the internet. Cool though that he got to look at the pictures and dream about airplanes as I did when I was a kid.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Zzz wrote:The rags are fun for everyone except the guy trying to reconcile the expense with the reach in the age of the internet. Printing, shipping, it's probably not as effective as it once was when everyone has phones. I know I'm stating the obvious but it's hard to blame anyone for making that decision.

And I've always dreamed of publishing a print BCP. There's just something about the tangible medium. I love it.

100% Agree! Magazine Photography in my opinion will never be matched by any Kindle or iPad. I don't mind reading Consumer Reports digitally but I'll always buy the actual Photo Annual of Powder Magazine over looking at it online. There's car rags that do a good job too like Wheel Hub https://www.wheelhubmag.com/ they are only quarterly but focus on photography, a visual appealing layout and in depth articles i.e. they're not shilling for whatever vendor is buying the most ads. I DO believe there is room for something similar that is centered around Aviation and what's better than Back Country Aviation?!?!

49_sedan wrote:It seems like their classified section was almost totally eclipsed by barnstormers awhile ago..

I pretty read through many hundreds of ads in TAP in FBO Pilot lounges and am sad to see it go (never have or would be a subscriber so I understand them shutting down). I still have the hardest time wrapping my head around HOW that website is relevant in 2020! I think I was able to generate a website that looked similar to that in my intro to computers class in the 1990s! Barnstormers has to win the award for having the most traffic to such an antiquated website. It clearly hasn't had a way overdue overhaul since 1995, yet sadly it's where the most reasonably priced GA aircraft are advertised. Craigslist which is pretty basic is still better in that it doesn't hurt your eyes to look at and the ability to easily search makes it so much better than Barnstormers, plus the ads have unlimited text and can have a couple dozen high res pics uploaded all for I believe FREE at the moment for planes (could go to $5 an ad like cars/motorcycles).

Rogue_Ryder wrote:
I pretty read through many hundreds of ads in TAP in FBO Pilot lounges and am sad to see it go (never have or would be a subscriber so I understand them shutting down). I still have the hardest time wrapping my head around HOW that website is relevant in 2020! I think I was able to generate a website that looked similar to that in my intro to computers class in the 1990s! Barnstormers has to win the award for having the most traffic to such an antiquated website. It clearly hasn't had a way overdue overhaul since 1995, yet sadly it's where the most reasonably priced GA aircraft are advertised. Craigslist which is pretty basic is still better in that it doesn't hurt your eyes to look at and the ability to easily search makes it so much better than Barnstormers, plus the ads have unlimited text and can have a couple dozen high res pics uploaded all for I believe FREE at the moment for planes (could go to $5 an ad like cars/motorcycles).

Controller/TAP user interfaces have so much "fluff". Barnstormers is great. It's simple, to the point. A little more text would be nice, but a good seller can get the point aross concisely an then attach a spec sheet if they want to post more info.

Funny thing I've noticed is that there seems to be more maules on TAP than any other site. Always though that was odd.