First, Humility and Gratitude

Whenever you take a leap of faith it is by its very nature a perilous thing. It helps when you have little to lose like I did last Thursday (!) when I resolved to get AVBrief off the ground. The work I was familiar with. Researching and writing stories about aviation topics is as natural as breathing to me. But would potential readers and advertisers respond? Without them, not even the most insightful prose would matter much.

I and my little band of volunteers have been blown away by the response. Word about our launch is only just starting to get to the people who would be interested a development such as this. Some of the most influential and dedicated people in this industry have pledged full support. Readers I’ve interacted with for 20 years are clamoring to help. Some have even offered money, even though we literally had nothing to sell on Monday morning when we launched. We’ve signed up more than 1,000 subscribers in less than 24 hours and the total keeps rising faster all the time.

Without trying to sound trite, it is humbling and we are full of gratitude.

But what we’re especially grateful for is the message we’re receiving about how our friends, colleagues and associates feel about this industry. They’re cheering us on. All we’ve done is to pledge to play it straight with presenting the myriad stories that shape aviation every day. We’ll do it accurately and we’ll immediately acknowledge and correct our mistakes.

We’re not in it for the clicks and likes. We’re in it to provide a pipeline of information necessary for pilots, operators and mechanics to keep everyone safe. We’re here to make sure we all get the most value for our money in what is a necessarily expensive exercise. And we’re in it for the pure exhilaration of lifting off on a dead calm summer morning with nothing but blue sky and endless possibilities for fun and adventure ahead of that glinting prop.

When I wrote in this space 48 hours ago, I had no idea what the future held for me personally. I’m 68 years old on Saturday and my wife and I have another business, one that would probably benefit from more of my attention. But I also thought that if I just quit, this unique little corner of the journalism world would end with that. The hundreds of messages of support and pledges to participate have told me AVBrief is here to stay.

But I can’t expect to be around doing this forever. So I’m pledged to finding bright young journalists who share these core beliefs and have the curiosity and sense of adventure to follow their noses to good stories. We know a few and we’ll find a few more and I intend to leave this enterprise in good hands.

As I said in my opening salvo on this venture, artificial intelligence is not capable of doing this job, and I’m convinced it never will. An algorithm will never have skin in the game and cannot write from the perspective of a fragile human being operating in a constantly evolving environment that is always conspiring to hill him or her. The experts say AI will be better at doing this than all of us in no time, but it sure isn’t there yet.

One thing is sure, though. It won’t tag along on that calm and blissful morning, smell the heating engine, hear the crackle of the radio, look through that glimmering prop and understand why it’s there.

Over the next few days, AVBrief will take shape with personalities, themes and discussions that will be very familiar to those who have, as have I, enjoyed the previous publication that led to this venture. One of the founders of AVweb contacted me on Tuesday and pledged his support. I told him we wouldn’t let him down and would work tirelessly to maintain the standard set 30 years ago and honor its legacy.

I wrote every word of it and meant every word of it.