We’ve had amazing opportunities this autumn to visit with a number of our favorite folks who build and deliver airplanes, and I wanted to take a moment here to share some of the work we’ve done to feature those platforms in the light they deserve.
Because it’s not the airplanes, it’s the people behind them that make them shine so brightly for us.
Most of these video stories have posted on AvBrief.com, our prime collaboration in 2026 and moving forward, and we encourage you to subscribe to their newsletters if you haven’t had a chance yet.
I’ll kick this off with the first of two stories from my Best Day in a Long Time, October 12, when I had the privilege of flying the Daher TBM 980 in the morning and the Kodiak 100 in the afternoon with my good friends Wayman Luy and Jeff Lenorovitz down in Florida.
You know me… not a Florida fan but that’s the place where some of my favorite airplanes live, so I make the most of it. The BTS for this day was I’d just come back to the U.S. from Western Australia, Perth, visiting our granddaughter, Marli Sun, who had just turned 3. I was in LA for two days with my dear pal Pia, then on to Colorado for a hike, then on to Pompano Beach for a day primed with action.
The stories from the morning spent reacquainting myself with the latest version of that sweet dragon, the TBM 980, have posted now on AvBrief, and on our YouTube channel (that’s the short version, for those who want a taste, rather than the full entrée).
NBAA-BACE 2026 Video
I also had the chance to catch up with friends at NBAA’s main event in Las Vegas, from October 20-22 (yes, it has been a whirlwind), and post a couple of walkarounds and interesting stories from Dassault Aviation, Textron Aviation, and Gulfstream.
(I’m so happy I’ve made the investment in learning video editing… I’m having a lot of fun doing it myself, from capturing raw footage to making VOs to weaving together the footage).
I met up with mon ami EVP Carlos Brana, with Dassault, to walk around the Falcon 6X, not unlike we did three years ago for another engagement, but this time after the French manufacturer has delivered more than 40 of the sleek and nimble long-range business jet.
Next, I met up with Jimmy Beeson, who is a vice president of product development at Textron Aviation, who took me around the Citation CJ3 Gen2 on display at BACE, and gave a taste of what’s to come with Gen3.
Finally, and this was so fun, Gulfstream hosted a panel of its experimental flight test pilots and marketing managers to go behind the scenes on the OEM’s amazing four-jet photo shoot in Iceland this summer, capturing the unreal—yet polar opposite to AI—landscapes and environments that you just have to go to in order to believe. It took me right back to my own photo work, as well as the amazing journey I took with Margrit Waltz in the TBM 940 five years ago this month.
So many of my best days… and many more left to come in 2027!