Up Front

I’m delighted to report that this issue introduces two new columnists to Business Jet Traveler.

You’re probably already familiar with Joe Sharkey, a BJT contributor since 2005, whose New York Times business travel column has reached millions of readers every week for the past 16 years. Joe was on assignment for us in 2006 when the Embraer Legacy 600 he was riding on collided with a Brazilian airliner and had to make an emergency landing in the Amazon. (Read his harrowing account of the accident here.) Joe’s first bimonthly column for BJT concerns the end of the Mad Men era and the beginning of the business jet age.

Also debuting in this issue is financial journalist Chana R. Schoenberger, who has ­written for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News and Forbes. Be sure to read her first BJT column, which provides sage advice about a subject that tends to make parents exceedingly uncomfortable: how to talk to your kids about money.

Another must-read in this issue is editor Jeff Burger’s “A Look in the Rearview Mirror.” Jeff was inspired to write the piece after browsing through some 1970s and early 1980s editions of BJT’s oldest sister publication. You’re bound to be alternately amazed and amused by how much certain things have and haven’t changed. Don’t miss the last item in Jeff’s piece—it’s proof that today’s wildest dreams can be tomorrow’s pot of gold.

P.S. Thank you to everyone who voted in our fifth annual Readers’ Choice survey. Stay tuned for the results, which will be published in our next edition.

Jennifer Leach English is BJT's editorial director.

Last February, we invited some of our Florida subscribers to join us at the National Business Aviation Association’s regional forum in Palm Beach. It was such an enjoyable experience that we decided to issue a similar invitation to New York City-area ­subscribers to attend the NBAA’s June forum at Teterboro Airport (photos above). The readers who came to each event were able to tour a full range of aircraft and talk with manufacturers, charter operators and other bizav service providers. We, in turn, had the privilege of chatting with some of you about the magazine and your experiences with private lift.