"Top To Bottom" magazine is now on the shelves and is selling well apparently. It would seem there actually is a market for a magazine catering to the weekend wombat who spends most of his time thumbing a lift back up to launch.
Issue One went on sale in January and here at Pie we've been putting into practice their great tips with considerable success. We are happy to report that our XC distances have positively crashed since trying some of TTB's tried & tested advice, and in such a short time too. Just in case you haven't read it yet we won't spoil too many surprises, however, we couldn't call ourselves a respectable investigative magazine if we didn't mention a couple of titbits from deep within these well thumbed pages.
The "Don't fly with more than you can carry back up" article has been a real eye-opener and most of the handy hints have now been adopted by the flying crew here at Pie. Our very own editor, Rod "Falta de Huevos" Bailout, was overheard saying, "Fuckin' hell, is that in kilo's? Pamela love, can you send someone in to help me out this friggin' harness, and get me that bloody magazine will you."
We also took great pleasure in pointing out the "All the gear and no fucking idea" article to one of our more annoying local pilots Jeremy "Gadgets" Smythe, and surprisingly we haven't seen him, his Range Rover or any of his flashing LED's at our local sites since.
Best of all, we felt, was the ass-kicking advice from TTB columnist Matt "Weekends" Wittler about what to do if you forget to turn your vario on before launching. Simply priceless, and why we never thought of it before is beyond us. His tip regarding your gloves, however, does need to be re-read a few times to be sure it really sinks in.
Yet again we got lucky, and managed a scoop telephone interview with Piers "Puffer" Morgan, TTB editor. He's obviously feeling quite pleased with the early results, "It's unreal really", he said, "It was an idea I had while on the toilet reading XC Mag. The photos are sexy all right, but I just couldn't relate to it anymore. It just wasn't me I was reading about and I knew I'd have to leave work really early to get to Valladares before sunset."
He went on to confirm, "Sales are booming, we've had to issue several print-runs just to meet the demand. Unexpectedly, we found that many of the subscriptions have come from the readership of our existing magazine "Bombing Out", aimed at the XC beginner. With TTB we think we're really hitting the mark for the weekend pilot. We're sure we've got the level just right and the investment we've already made is... Oooh. Er, hang on.... To the top? Yeah, that's right.... er, I'll call you back!"
And that was that. Incidentally, here at Pie we're looking for someone who could assist us in testing the "Top 10 Tips on thumbing a lift from 1.25km away" as we simply can't get the bloody wings down to the ground that fast. Any takers?
Pie in the Sky
Funnier than the 1782 "Montgolfier Brothers Bottled Gas" webcast
Funnier than the 1782 "Montgolfier Brothers Bottled Gas" webcast