✈️ The VIP Seat Weekly

Your business aviation hot takes, served fresh.

March 26th, 2026 | Season 3 Episode 12 Companion

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1️⃣ The Falcon 10X Is Real, And It's Spectacular

The Scoop: After five years of speculation, mockups, and quiet delays, Dassault Aviation officially rolled out the Falcon 10X on March 10th at their facility in Bordeaux-Merignac. More than 400 customers and industry leaders were there for the unveiling. The ultra-long-range, twin-engine jet boasts a 7,500 nautical mile range, a top speed of Mach 0.925, and what Dassault calls the largest cabin ever designed in a purpose-built business jet, measuring 6 feet 8 inches tall and 9 feet 1 inch wide. Cabin altitude at 41,000 feet is maintained at just 3,000 feet with 100% fresh air circulation. It is also the first business jet built with a fully composite wing, and it is powered by Rolls-Royce Pearl 10X engines rated at 18,000 pounds of thrust. Flight testing comes next, with entry into service targeted for late 2027.

Our Take: Look, the 10X is impressive. It goes toe to toe with the G800 in several categories, and the cabin pressure and interior innovations are genuinely unique. But there are some things worth thinking about here. Dassault's delivery track record needs to be part of this conversation. They missed their Falcon delivery guidance for the third year in a row in 2025 (delivering 31 against a target of 37), and their current backlog sits at just 73 jets against 37 deliveries. Compare that to their Rafale fighter backlog of 46 billion euros, and it becomes clear where the priority lies. Everybody at Dassault is reportedly cross-trained across both military and commercial aircraft programs, meaning workers can shift between the Falcon line and the Rafale line. That flexibility is great for Dassault, but as a Falcon customer, you wonder how much attention goes to business jets. It's beautiful, but you would not pick it out of a lineup of Falcons as its missing the classic Tri Jet appearance and the nose is redesigned. Still, if we could afford one, we would absolutely buy one. And Taylor Swift probably already has one on order, because she's a Falcon girl. Grant Cardone would not even have to rebrand his jet, since it already comes with "10X" on the front.

Links: Dassault Official Press Release | Reuters

2️⃣ AOPA Drama: New Board Chair… Same Old Problems?

The Scoop: The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has elected Luke Wippler as its next board chairman, replacing Jim Hauslein, who is not seeking reelection. Former Chair Bill Trimble (32 years) and Larry Buhl (22 years) are also stepping down ahead of the May 12 annual meeting. This comes in the aftermath of former President Darren Pleasance's ouster, which has turned into a PR… situation. The organization is also proposing bylaw changes including updates to the trustee nominating process, proxy requirements, board size, and the establishment of term limits.

Our Take: If you have not been following this saga, here is the quick version. Darren Pleasance was hired as AOPA's sixth president in September 2024, effective January 2025. He had 8,000 hours, 50-plus aircraft types, part ownership in a P-51, and an executive resume including McKinsey, Google, and Cisco. The staff apparently loved him. But AOPA has been hemorrhaging members for 20 years (down 25% from the peak, with 15,000 lost in 2024 alone), and after Pleasance wrote a letter encouraging board members to be more engaged, things went sideways. The board did not take kindly to it, and he was let go. Since then, roughly 2,000 members have canceled, and 6,000 have withdrawn their proxy votes. That may only be about 3% of the membership, but in an organization where proxy votes have historically never been withdrawn, it is significant. The tricky thing here is that Darren, as an individual, can go on podcasts and tell his side of the story, while AOPA as an institution has to be more measured. So one side of the narrative is dominating the conversation. There is almost certainly more to this story, but the organizational lesson is this: if you do not handle internal disputes well, they become external PR issues very quickly. Wippler is a Cessna 182 amphibious float guy and an EVP at US Bank with nearly 25 years in financial services. He is being positioned as the next generation of leadership and is planning to be at Sun 'n Fun in person. We wish him luck. He is going to need it.

Links: AvWeb: AOPA Board Elects New Chairman

3️⃣ Huge Win for Independent Repair Stations: 145.109(d) on the Chopping Block

The Scoop: Brian Tyminski, President of Tym's LLC, broke the news on LinkedIn from the Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA) symposium: the FAA is reportedly moving to remove the requirement for "current" maintenance data from 14 CFR 145.109(d). This regulation has required every repair station to maintain current copies of OEM manuals for every component they work on, even parts as basic as oxygen cylinders, and even when the latest version of a manual no longer contains schematics for the part version they are actually repairing. According to Tyminski, this announcement came directly from Chris Parfitt, Manager of FAA AFS-340.

Our Take: This is a massive deal, and ARSA deserves credit for years of lobbying on Capitol Hill to make it happen. Here is the core problem they have been fighting: a small independent MRO doing $2 million in annual revenue simply cannot afford $700,000 in OEM manual subscriptions. That is regulatory capture in action, where the OEMs are the only ones who can provide the required data, so they charge whatever they want. Think John Deere and the right-to-repair fight, but in aviation. The FAA has historically said they will not regulate pricing and will let the market handle it, but when you have monopolistic control over required maintenance documentation, there is no real "market" to speak of. Remember when Kenn Ricci came on the show and talked about the need for more PMA parts and third-party competition? This is part of that same ecosystem. The FAA's 2024 reauthorization bill included a provision creating a rulemaking committee specifically to address OEM data access issues, and that committee is reportedly active and making progress. 145.109(d) may be just the beginning. More competition, more options for operators, and downward pressure on maintenance costs would be net positives for the entire industry. We will be watching this closely.

Links: Brian Tyminski's LinkedIn Post

4️⃣ FAA Ends "See and Avoid" for Helicopter/Airplane Mixed Traffic

The Scoop: On March 18, the FAA issued a General Notice suspending the use of visual separation between helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft in Class B, Class C, and Terminal Radar Service Area airspace. Air traffic controllers are now required to use radar to maintain specific lateral or vertical separation wherever helicopter traffic crosses arrival or departure paths near major airports. The change, announced by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, follows a year-long safety review after the January 2025 DCA midair collision, plus more recent close calls at San Antonio International (February 27) and Hollywood Burbank (March 2).

Our Take: On one hand, we absolutely understand why this needed to happen. The NTSB's final report on the DCA collision cited overreliance on visual separation as a contributing factor, and the data review found close calls kept happening at controlled airports where helicopter and airplane traffic intersected. Something had to change. On the other hand, helicopters are not airplanes. They can hover, stop, and maneuver in ways fixed-wing aircraft simply cannot. Treating them exactly the same in ATC procedures is a significant operational shift. The FAA has said urgent medical and law enforcement missions will receive priority clearance, but that priority may still come with delays that did not exist before. And this is happening at a time when the ATC system is already under enormous stress. Which brings us to a quick note about LaGuardia. On Sunday night, an Air Canada CRJ-900 struck a Port Authority fire truck on the runway after landing, killing both pilots and injuring dozens of passengers and crew. ATC recordings indicate the fire truck was cleared to cross the runway and then told to stop just seconds before impact. The NTSB investigation is ongoing. Our thoughts are with the families of those crew members and everyone involved. These tragedies underscore just how critical ATC infrastructure modernization and proper staffing levels are, something Secretary Duffy has been vocal about as well.

Links: AvWeb: FAA Ends See and Avoid | FAA Announcement

5️⃣ A Million Satellites? Astronomers Say "Absolutely Not"

The Scoop: SpaceX filed with the FCC in January to launch up to one million satellites into Earth orbit to serve as AI data centers, and a separate company called Reflect Orbital has proposed 50,000 orbiting mirrors to beam sunlight onto ground-based solar plants. Astronomers and research institutions around the world are pushing back hard, warning that the combined effect would make the sky up to three times brighter and render ground-based telescopes significantly less effective. The British Royal Astronomical Society, European Southern Observatory, and numerous other organizations have filed formal objections with the FCC.

Our Take: This is one of those stories that is not business aviation, but it is too interesting to ignore. The core tension here: Starlink connectivity has been a game-changer for people in underserved areas and conflict zones around the world. But simulations suggest that if SpaceX's full million-satellite constellation were deployed, there would be more visible satellites than stars in the night sky for large portions of the night and year. That is a wild thought. The FCC accepted SpaceX's filing and opened a public comment period, but the scientific community is essentially saying the current regulatory framework is not equipped to handle decisions of this magnitude. It is a balancing act between global connectivity and internet access on one side, and the preservation of something that has been part of human experience since the beginning of time on the other. Neither side is wrong, but somebody is going to have to figure out where the line is.

Links: Space.com🔥 

Mile High Madness

The Wingless Wonder: A woman on social media posted a video of herself "buying a private jet" as an investment. One small problem: it has no wings. And no engines. And it looks... old. Really old. Our working theory is she is probably turning it into a bar or restaurant, but the content was presented as a legitimate aircraft purchase and it had us rolling. We also spent way too long debating what bonus depreciation looks like on an aircraft with no wings or engines. Can you put it into service? Does it qualify for 60% since it is missing about 40% of the airplane? Tax jokes are our specialty.

The BizAv Memes Incident: If you work for a publicly traded company, please think twice before you get into public arguments on social media about your company's share price and market capitalization. Not investment or legal advice.

Subscriber Shoutout: Big thank you to Jared Weiss for the kind words on LinkedIn this week! Jared is the Pilot Hiring Director at Executive Jet Management and gave us a shoutout to his network. We appreciate you, Jared.

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Jessie’s Links:
Private Aviation Safety Alliance
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Preston’s Links:
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Private Jet Insider (Newsletter)
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