Is there something you want to say in the club magazine or Skywings? Something you think may help others? Do you want to make a record of a really nice flight? I think I must enjoy writing. I do a lot. Believe it or not, I cannot produce much of any value using pen and paper and the trauma of an attempt usually destroys the message I am trying to put across. It was only the invention of the word processor which enabled me to start writing usefully. Writing, like anything else, improves with practice. I am not sure how others set about writing but I will try to outline what I do. Most of my articles are triggered by some event. A good flight, witnessing an incident or accident, or something someone mentions or writes.

If I have a good flight I start by writing it up as quickly as possible while it is fresh in my mind. At this stage I ignore grammar and spelling to concentrate on getting as much down as possible while I can still remember it. With advancing years this becomes more and more important! Having got the 'skeleton' down I can take my time sorting it out. For me it essential to refer to a map and I will detail the route by landmarks. I assume keen readers will get a map out although I hope I include enough detail for the more casual reader.

The next step is to go through the text again and start sorting out the grammar and spelling. Again the power of the word processor really pays off as I can 'cut and paste' as much as I like. I still do not worry too much about grammar until I think I have written everything I want to say. As well as the flight itself, I try and include something of amusement and something about technique. It is often the first time I successfully use a technique that it's method and effectiveness becomes clear to me, the main reason I believe articles written by 'new' pilots often have special value. By now I hope my article is more or less complete, if inaccurate and messy, and start looking for anything missing or repeated. Hard work! I find about two or three hours on any one day is well enough.

Now comes the most difficult part. I set about a sequence of working through the article to try and get the grammar right, reading it through again and adjusting it to try and make it read nicely. I do this repeatedly over a period of about a week or more until I can read it through freshly without wanting to change it. For longer write ups the process probably takes around twenty hours over a week or more. Time and effort well spent. There is nothing worse than spotting a bad mistake in something already printed.

I approach technical articles a little differently from flight write ups. Usually I want to make specific points and begin with a numbered list. I next think about the background and type this in front of the list and write about any other consequences or related stuff at the end. At this stage I sometimes realise that I have not really got an article and abandon it, otherwise it gets subjected to the same daily cycle of reading and adjustment as my other stuff.

Diagrams can be useful in technical articles but are difficult to get right with many computer drawing systems. Colours can be helpful but their appearance tends to vary according to the medium they are displayed or printed on so I stick to monochrome.

Some articles just sort of grow.

1) Don't worry too much if you think what you have to say has been written before. There are always new pilots coming through the system and the more experienced often need reminding of the basics. Good pilots always try to keep their minds open and refresh their basic skills regularly.

2) There are many 'grey' areas in flying about which it is difficult to make hard and fast rules. You will often find these fudged, ignored or covered by implication rather than statement in some books and 'official' publications. By definition you are likely to be writing about something not covered in 'standard texts'. It is quite all right to present two or more views on a subject. Make the reader use his or her brain a bit.

3) Illustrated by the last sentence, in these days of political correctness, I often have difficulty deciding whether to use the traditional male gender or phrases like 'he or she'. Writing a long piece the repeated use of phrases line 'him or her' becomes tedious and can destroy the flow. A good get-out is to use 'the pilot', 'the reader' or 'the member' but these can be wearing too. Although it sometimes bothers me, I usually end up using male gender words for the general case. I am afraid PC readers of my stuff will have to live with that until the English language evolves a bit more. Use whatever you are most comfortable with. You will not be able to please everybody.

4a) Try and keep your sentences short because although the occasional long and rambling sentence is acceptable I often find that an article is improved most by cutting unnecessary bits and pieces out of longer sentences and breaking them up into shorter ones.

4b) Keep sentences short. Although rambling sentences are sometimes OK, they can often be improved by cutting bits out or breaking them up.

5) Use a text font you find easy to work with. My eyes are not what they were so I prefer larger sizes. The editor will usually change the font anyway.

6) I often find Microsoft 'Word' too complex and automated. Just when I am at a critical bit a dancing paperclip or other Bill Gate's abomination jumps out at me. For most purposes I use the simpler 'WordPad' program and save my files in 'Rich Text' format (with file names ending in .rtf instead of the usual .doc or .txt). They can be opened in 'Word' for spell checking and other operations not possible in WordPad.

7) For some reason I often find it easier to spot errors in text printed on paper rather than read off the screen. Sometimes diagrams print very poorly and it is worth a trial print for this too.

8) If you write for the DSC magazine your piece will almost certainly be printed as written but most submissions to Skywings are too long and have to be cut in some way. This is quite normal but sometimes dents my ego. Accompanying pictures or illustrations are almost essential for an article to appear in Skywings or other 'commercial' magazines.

Remember these techniques are my personal preference. They work for me but everyone has to find their own style, which takes time and practice. I was recently asked to comment on somebody else's writing. It was great, but entirely different to what I would have written. Perhaps that's what made it so good!