Many people think my life is wonderful, and that everything comes easy for me. The truth is--my life is incredible, even though I get rejected everyday. Here is a recent rejection letter from Pacific Flyer. I wrote the publisher about writing an article about my first time in a biplane for their magazine.--Cherie

Here's what Pacific Flyer had to say:

Dear Cherie:

Unfortunately, when writing for a trade publication such as ours, authors must keep in mind that we have 100,000 experts. None, to my knowledge, have been reticent about notifying us when something we've written is not absolutely factual.

For example, it's "biplane," not bi-plane (same for warbirds). The Navy Stearman is really an N2S and was built much stronger that the PT-17 "Kaydet" (a name first coined by the Canadians for their version) used by the Army Air Corps. The 300 hp engine is also a
recent civilian addition as none originally came with anything larger than 225 hp and some nowadays even have 450 hp engines.

Students sat in the front seat because there was no radio
communications in those days; instructors used a tube called a Gosport, which ran from his mouth to the student's ear (one way only) and instructors liked to use their hands, a small stick or some other object to get the student's attention by slapping him upside the head
when he did something wrong.

Students sat in the back while soloing because of weight and balance. If the student (or anyone) sat in front, the airplane would be nose heavy. That could be difficult and potentially fatal in case of an aerobatic maneuver gone wrong. (Same thing with the Piper J-3 Cub.)

As an aside, newspapers use only one space between sentences in order to cram more words in the news hole.

I'm sure the general reading public would enjoy your story but aiming it at our experts is going to require some homework; such is the curse of specialty publications.

I'm glad you had a good time, however. It's one of my favorite airplanes.

Best regards,
Wayman Dunlap

(P.S. I have a lot of time in Stearmans and N2S's and I can tell you, the pilot could have made you deathly sick if he'd wanted to.)