Gareth Stringer reflects on a busy few weeks of change for GAR, and takes a look ahead towards 2017.
Well, I wasn’t expecting that.
Trump in the White House? BREXIT? Ed Balls still in ‘Strictly Come Dancing?
No – finding myself back as Editor of GAR!
Yes to all the above as well, obviously, but in truth, having handed over the reins to Elliott some time ago, I honestly thought that was me done, in those terms.
A400M © Chris Wood – www.globalaviationresource.com
My personal circumstances are very different to those from when I was Editor first time round. Then I was self-employed and able to devote a lot more time to the site. Now I have embarked on a whole new career challenge and work full-time on a shift-basis, so keeping an eye on the site and the social media has to work around that.
That is why it is so great that GAR still has such a strong team behind it, and I say that even after the raft of recent departures that may have left some of you wondering where the next piece of content was going to come from, such was the fecundity of some of those who have left!
But fear not! As we said at the time, we have every intention of continuing to bring you aviation content covering all genres and all eras, just as we have done since day one back in 2009, and we have already done some of that in the weeks following the changes to our team.
Perhaps most worthy of note was Paul Filmer’s excellent report from a quite remarkable event in North Korea, the Wonsan Air Festival. If you had told any of us that in 2016 we would be publishing an airshow report from there of all places, we would most likely have thought you had gone slightly mad, so that was a truly significant event in more ways than one.
MiG-29 at Wonsan – © Paul Filmer – Global Aviation Resource
But that’s not all, for we have also published two reports from night photoshoots at RAF stations, namely RAF Northolt and RAF Brize Norton, features from Nellis AFB’s recent Red Flag exercises (coverage of which is something of a GAR tradition now), and a couple of major events in the USA; Fleet Week and the California Capital Airshow.
Looking ahead too, we’ve got plans! There are events, anniversaries, significant moments in aviation history and people with great stories…such is the beauty of the aviation world that we all enjoy and cherish so much. So, while GAR might not be quite as prolific as it once was, our passion for aviation is as great as ever, and so is our desire to bring that passion to you, with top quality features and images. That has to be the aim, no matter who is on the team.
So, on that note, I’m off to do some writing. Thank you all for your ongoing support, we really do appreciate it.
Welcome back Gareth. I am certain the quality and quantity will be maintained as we hope for a more realistic set of airshow regulations in the UK to come forth in 2017.
Thanks Barry. Hopefully all that will hold true!