About Australian Flying

Australian Flying

Overview

Australian Flying is Australia's general aviation magazine, written for the pilots, aircraft owners and enthusiasts who fly light aircraft for business, training and recreation. Published by Yaffa Media from Sydney, it describes itself — in its own words — as "Australia's premier General Aviation magazine, dedicated to educating and entertaining those at the sharp end of aviation". Each issue mixes hands-on flying technique and training advice with aircraft flight tests, technology and accessory reviews, safety analysis and news on the regulatory and industry issues affecting the general aviation (GA) sector.

The magazine appears in print six times a year and is supported by a news website that publishes daily, making it both a subscription magazine and a running news service for the Australian GA community.

History

Australian Flying is one of Australia's longest-lived specialist magazines. As the magazine itself recounted in a publisher's note in its September–October 2023 issue, its first edition appeared in February 1963 as Australian Flying Light Aircraft Monthly, put together by founding editor Group Captain Stanley Brogden in the offices of Warrington Publishing. A planned sale to a Melbourne publishing company did not proceed in 1965, and in April 1969 the magazine was acquired by the Yaffa Publishing Group — the publishing house now known as Yaffa Media, which remains its owner more than half a century later.

The magazine marked its 60th anniversary in 2023. That year it also received the Southern Cross Award from the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame, an honour the magazine reported as recognition of its decades of service to the GA community; its then editor, Steve Hitchen, credited the Yaffa family and the team at Yaffa Media, the editors and contributors over the years, its advertisers and its readers. Hitchen edited the magazine for 12 years, from 2012 to 2024, and remains on the masthead as editor-at-large — his long-running commentary column is titled The Last Minute Hitch — while the editor's chair has passed to Kreisha Ballantyne, a private pilot and aviation journalist whose appointment is recorded from 2024 and who is named as editor on the masthead of the March–April 2026 issue.

Ballantyne came to the editor's role from within the magazine's own ranks: she had been a senior contributor to Australian Flying from 2018, alongside work as a feature writer for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority's Flight Safety Australia magazine and earlier editorial roles on the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association titles Australian Pilot, Sport Pilot and AirSport. As a private pilot she has flown a wide range of types, from a powered parachute to a Pilatus PC-12, and her flying has included a solo flight across Australia and wing-walking on a vintage Stearman biplane — experience the magazine draws on in a title written largely by pilots for pilots.

Programming and Content

The magazine's content is organised around the practical life of the GA pilot. Flight tests evaluate new and notable light aircraft — recent coverage has ranged from certified types such as Pipistrel's airframes to light sport aircraft — and training is a constant theme, with contributors such as Jim Davis, a flying instructor of more than 15,000 hours and the founder of a major South African flying school, writing on technique and instruction. Safety coverage follows the Australian Transport Safety Bureau's reports closely: the website's October 2026 news file included ATSB findings on a Toowoomba training flight's fuel management, a Cirrus pilot's terrain-warning incident near Canberra, and the Sydney Airport ground-conflict investigations.

Beyond the news, regular strands include AirMail reader letters, technique and airmanship features, and coverage of recreational aviation and Recreational Aviation Australia, helicopters and the emerging advanced air mobility and drone sector. A weekly flying video is published on the website, and the contributor bench mixes journalists and working pilots — senior contributor Paul Southwick is a commercial pilot who has flown more than 100 aircraft types, while Brian Bigg, a journalist and pilot of more than 40 years, has himself published and edited two Australian aviation magazines. Political and regulatory advocacy forms part of the mix too: the January–February 2026 issue covered the revival of the Parliamentary Friends of Aviation group in Canberra and a Churchill Fellowship report recommending changes to Australian flight training.

Audience and Reach

The readership is the Australian general aviation community itself — private and recreational pilots, flight students, instructors, aircraft owners and the businesses that serve them, from flying schools and maintenance organisations to avionics and accessory suppliers. It is a practitioner audience: the magazine's own anniversary account places "the aviation community" at its heart, and its pages assume licensed or training pilots rather than the travelling public. No independently audited circulation or readership figure for the title was found in the sources consulted, so none is claimed here; the magazine is distributed nationally by subscription and through newsagents, with digital editions sold through Zinio, and its website carries news to the same community daily.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website, australianflying.com.au, operates as a daily news service for the sector, organised into sections for latest news, videos, flight tests, recreational aviation, helicopters and advanced air mobility. Items dated 15 October 2026 — among them a Kimberley airstrip upgrade and a Tasmanian operator's aircraft choice — were published in the days before this profile was prepared, confirming the site is current and active. Its video strand publishes a weekly flying video, with recent editions dissecting ATSB investigation footage and instrument flying scenarios. Full digital editions of the print magazine are available through Zinio, where the September–October 2026 issue is the current edition, and readers can write to the magazine through its long-established AirMail letters channel.

Ownership and Organisation

Australian Flying is owned and published by Yaffa Media, the Sydney-based, family-owned publishing group based at 17–21 Bellevue Street, Surry Hills. The Yaffa business was founded by David Yaffa, whose Yaffa Syndicate Pty Ltd was incorporated in 1925; the company marked its centenary in 2025. Under his son, David Yaffa Jnr, the group built a stable of business and consumer magazines from the 1960s onward, and Australian Flying — acquired in April 1969 — is one of the few titles from that era still published today: Yaffa's own centenary history notes that of the magazines it bought in the 1960s, only the business title Packaging News and the consumer titles Australian Flying and Sporting Shooter survive. Marking the magazine's 60th anniversary in 2023, Yaffa Media's managing director Tracy Yaffa said the aviation community was at the heart of the title and that the group was honoured to continue its role in it. Tracy Yaffa was the group's managing director at the time of the magazine's 60th anniversary in 2023. The magazine's editor is Kreisha Ballantyne, with Steve Hitchen as editor-at-large and Paul Southwick as senior contributor; its national sales manager, per its 2026 masthead, is Andrew Murphy.

Contact and Availability

Australian Flying is published six times a year, in January–February, March–April, May–June, July–August, September–October and November–December editions. Print subscriptions are handled through Yaffa Media's subscription service at greatmagazines.com.au or on 1800 807 760, and digital editions are sold through Zinio. Correspondence for the magazine is directed to Australian Flying, GPO Box 606, Sydney NSW 2001; the editor's published masthead email is kreishaballantyne@yaffa.com.au, and advertising enquiries go to the national sales manager on (02) 9213 8272.