413 Cirrus G3 Vision Jet: CPDLC Datalink + 6-Adult Cabin (Matt Bergwall) — AOPA President Job + GA News

Today, we're covering two stories that matter a lot to pilots, but in totally different

ways.

First, Sarah's just announced the Visionjet G3, and I'm going to go deep with Matt Bergwall,

executive director of the Visionjet product line.

We'll talk about what's actually changed, including this is my favorite CPDLC or ATC data

link that can deliver reroutes, text that you can load into the aviomix.

They've also redesigned the cabin, so it's now a six adult airplane, and they've got

a small speed bump.

But before we get to Sarah's, I'm going to pull the curtains back on something you probably

haven't heard elsewhere, and that's what the president of AOPA really does every day.

I interviewed for the job twice, so I'll walk you through what the board is looking for,

why the role is equal parts, CEO, fundraiser, and constant traveler, and why it's a tougher

job than you might think.

Plus I'll have more of your emails.

Hello again, and welcome to Aviation News Talk, where we talk in general aviation.

My name is Max Truss.

I've been flying for 50 years on the author of several books in the 2008 National Flight

Instructor of the Year, and my mission is to help you become the safest possible pilot.

Last week in episode 412, we talked with Rob Mark about the crash of November 1-7 Delta

Tango, a Sarah's SR-22T that appeared to be training for an emergency approach to a landing

in a field, but got slow installed.

So if you didn't hear that episode, you may want to check it out at aviationnewstalk.com

slash 412.

And if you were new to the show, welcome to Laji Foundis.

And so that you find us every week, take a moment in whatever app you're using to listen

to us right now and touch either the subscribe key or in Spotify or the Apple Podcast app,

the follow key so that next week's episode is downloaded for free.

And my thanks to these two people who just signed up to support aviation news talk in

the past week.

Thanks to Ron Fox who signed up via Patreon, and I'll read his email right after the news.

And also thanks to Kyle Decker who made a one-time donation via PayPal and also sent

a nice email.

And again, I'll read those right after the news.

And if you've been listening for a while and feel like you're getting value from the

show, well, I'd greatly appreciate your support.

We lose supporters every month when people's credit cards expire and they don't go in and

update the expiration dates or constantly looking for new supporters just to make up for

the ones that we're losing.

There are four different ways you can donate either monthly via Patreon or one-time donations

via Venmo, Zell, and PayPal.

And to do that, just head out to aviationnewstark.com slash support.

Coming up in the news for the past week of January 26, 2026, AOPA is looking for a new

president.

FAA controller training is under scrutiny and we've got more from our bad boys file.

All this and more in the news starts now.

Some multiple sources, AOPA announced on February 4 that president and CEO Darren Pleusence

has stepped out of the day-to-day top job and into an advisory role while the board of trustees

searches for AOPA's next leader.

AOPA said it has become, quote, increasingly clear, the CEO role should be based full-time

in Frederick, Maryland, inside of Pleusence, commuting from Ben Oregon.

He was appointed president in January of 2025.

AOPA said day-to-day operations will be jointly led by CFO Jill Baker and senior VP of membership

strategy and growth, Katie Pribble, serving as acting co-presidents during the transition.

The organization said its advocacy work and member services will continue uninterrupted.

The move to backlash among some pilots and members, have reef.com described Pleusence

as exit as a surprise dismissal and reported sharp criticism of the board across pilot

forums and social media.

In an interview with Avbrief, Pleusence said he could not discuss details of the board

deliberations, but said he intends to support AOPA from the outside and urge members not

to take their frustration out on AOPA staff.

Avbrief also reported Pleusence told them he has a house in Frederick and spends two weekends

a month that his family home in Ben.

Rumors about what drove the decision have added fuel, AOPA noted that Sirius Aircraft co-founder

and former CEO Dale Clatmire joined the board of trustees earlier that week, and Avbrief

reported Pleusence called it unfounded to suggest Clatmire drove the outcome.

Avbrief also cited anonymous sources saying it had direct knowledge that AOPA retained

a crisis management firm on a $250,000 retainer while noting it has not been able to confirm

that directly with the association.

On February 7th, the board published an open letter to members acknowledging the volume

of calls and emails in emphasizing fiduciary oversight, organizational stability, and continuity

of AOPA's mission as the search proceeds.

And from Avbrief.com, OIG to audit controller training.

The Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General wants to get to the bottom

of ATC controller shortages and is launching a major audit of systems used to recruit

trained and deployed new controllers.

Neltus Smith, principal assistant inspector general for auditing and evaluations, said

she will concentrate on the FAA's latest efforts to swell the ranks of controllers, which

are down 3,500 from the full complement recommended for running the system.

Quote, acknowledging this challenge in February 2025, the Secretary of Transportation announced

a campaign to supercharge controller hiring the memo says.

The campaign closed in March 2025 and attracted more than 10,000 applications of these

more than 8,300 applicants were referred to the FAA Academy for testing, resulting in

approximately 600 trainees, the highest number of academy students in history.

Smith said she wants to find ways to help the agency achieve its goal of hiring 8,900

controllers in the next three years.

Quote, our objectives are to assess one FAA's efforts to address the Academy instructor

shortages, training capacity limitations, and trainee failure rates, and two, the Academy's

progress with updating the air traffic controller training program curriculum.

The audit will begin within the next month.

From avweb.com, FAA recommends more spatial disorientation training for pilots.

The FAA is encouraging part 91, 91K and 135 operators to expand spatial disorientation

or SD training for pilots, according to a recent information for operators or info guidance.

The info sites the NTSB, which continues to identify spatial disorientation as a serious

safety concern, high-profile accidents, including the 2020 helicopter crash that killed

Kobe Bryant and eight others, showed how SD can have fatal consequences.

Following the crash, the NTSB directed the FAA to evaluate training methods and convene

the panel to assess simulation technologies for effectively preparing pilots to recognize

and manage SD.

FAA's guidance suggests operators include a mix of scenario-based and maneuver-based training,

combining ground school, simulator sessions, and in-flight practice to help pilots recognize

avoid and recover from disorientation.

It also notes conditions where SD commonly occurs, such as low light, lack of visual

references and changing weather, and stresses reliance and instruments over sensory cues.

While not mandatory, the FAA says enhanced SD training can address human factors issues,

which contribute to 70% of aviation accidents.

And also from avweb.com, FAA sets 25-hour cockpit voice recorder standard for new aircraft.

The FAA published a final rule that extends required cockpit voice recorder or CVR retention

from two hours to 25 hours.

This new requirement will apply to newly manufactured aircraft already subject to CVR-equipment requirements.

The rule, first proposed in 2023, is intended to preserve additional flight deck audio for

incident and accident standards and aligns US requirements more closely with existing

international standards.

The FAA said it's final rule that the change, quote, provides accident investigators, aircraft

operators, and civil aviation authorities with substantially more CVR data to help determine

the probable cause of incidents and accidents and prevent future incidents and accidents.

Regulators cited investigative deeds raised by the NTSB, which has recommended longer duration

CVRs after multiple events were relevant recordings were overwritten under a two-hour loop.

The rule notes that 25 hours is within current recorder capability and references prior

adoption of similar standards by IKO and ESSA.

Aircraft built on or after May 16, 2025 operating under part 121, or that are configured as

transport category aircraft types are situated with 30 or more passenger seats are required

to have a 25-hour CVR meeting these standards.

New aircraft with 29 or fewer passenger seats and a maximum takeoff weight of 59,525 pounds

or more will need to comply with getting February 2nd, 2027 while aircraft at 59,524 pounds

are less will need to comply by February 2nd, 2029.

And finally from our bad boys' file, this comes from globalera.net, a Texas man who had

been falsifying aircraft maintenance records and flying an unairworthy aircraft for years

was sentenced to probation this month in federal court.

The man was sentenced January 7th in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas

to one year of probation.

In addition to his one year probation, he was also fined $1,000 and a $100 special assessment.

He was turned back in September 25 and pleaded guilty for making and using a false statement

in aircraft maintenance records.

According to investigators, he repeatedly operated the aircraft over several years despite

not holding a valid medical certificate and without completing the required annual inspection.

Authorities said after the aircraft was involved in an accident, he attempted to conceal

the lack of a proper inspection by submitting fraudulent maintenance documentation.

Investigators determined he forged another mechanic's certificate number and signature

on an annual inspection record and then presented the falsified paperwork to the FAA.

Prosecutors did not release details about the nature of the accident or whether anyone

was injured.

And here's the irony in case you missed it.

A $1,000 fine is actually cheaper than getting an annual.

Coming up next a few of my updates, including my insights into what it takes to be president

of AOPA plus some of your emails, all right here on the Aviation News Talk podcast.

Now, let's get to the good news.

First, this comes from Beck Hydmas.

He says, Hey, Max, I wanted to send you a message reporting I have acquired my commercial

pilot certificate out of K E I K. That's eerie municipal in Colorado.

I wanted to send you a thank you as a lot of your ADM topics have enhanced my ability

to perform risk management.

Additionally, your accident analysis has aided me in enhancing my safety in each flight.

Keep the blue side up.

Well, congratulations to you, Beck.

And here's the email from David Weeks.

He writes, Hi, Max.

I enjoy the discussion of flap retraction after landing in my former life as an American

pilot ex-US air ex-America West doing anything in all capital letters other than actuating

speed breaks and thrust reversers before clearing the runaway with something that would

get you immediately busted on a sim-ride or a line check, yeah, makes total sense to

me.

While you mentioned the AFM for the SR20s and 22s, it didn't mention that the service still

has the retract flaps for maximum brake effectiveness wording in the most recent revision to the

AFM.

It has been removed from the short field landing section, but both the rejected takeoff

and engine emergency on takeoff below VR still have this verbiage caution for maximum

brake effectiveness, retract flaps, hold side-stick control full-back, and bring the

airplane to a stop by smooth even application of the brakes.

The pilot information manual says it takes 10 seconds to go from flaps 100% to 50%, and

another 10 seconds to go from there to the up position.

If you are already braking hard, you'll be slow long before the flaps have come up much.

It's a really good point.

In my opinion, it's still a big mistake for stairs to allow raising flaps, even in those

two abnormal checklists, best regards, David Weeks.

David, you make great points, so yeah, let's everybody continue to stay on the bandwagon

to get people to stop raising the flaps after every landing, just observe that people are

doing that.

Now, last week I mentioned that I saw something a week or so ago that I hadn't encountered

before, and that it wasn't new to the industry, and I was sure that some of you hadn't encountered

it before.

And since I was familiar with it, I wasn't surprised when it happened and was able to deal

with it.

I'm not going to talk about it in detail this week since we've got some other important

topics to cover, but I will tell you what occurred, which was that I was flying an ARNAV approach

into Hayward and the Vision Jet.

At some point, the LPV and then Theater in the HSI turned from magenta to yellow, and

then a yellow L-slash V-navon theater appeared in the HSI, and then later it turned magenta,

which was not quite the sequence I was expecting, and I'll talk more about that in the future

show.

And let me read a couple of your emails, these both come from new supporters from the

past week.

First one comes from Ron Fox.

He writes, Hi Max, thanks for your analysis of the Cirrus SR-22T November 1-7 Delta Tango

accident, and that's the accident I discussed in the last week's show episode 412.

He says, the CFI was my aviation mentor and good friend.

I'd gotten back into GA after a 25-year hiatus and purchased an SR-20 G6, although I was

signed off.

I wasn't extremely comfortable in the aircraft having all my previous experience with steam

gauges.

A mutual friend introduced me to him while he was still working on his CFI.

He spent countless hours with me, including two trips back and forth to South Florida,

helping me hone my skills.

After he received his CFI certificate, I trained with him for my commercial rating.

I had more than 60 hours in the cockpit with him.

He was an excellent pilot, and I've been baffled for the past several years, trying

to understand how he let that aircraft stall in this accident.

It all makes sense now, and it's a big relief to me to understand the circumstances.

I sincerely thank you for figuring this out.

I'm not alone.

He helped and mentored many in the Chicago land area.

Thanks again, Ron Fox.

And I did produce a video of that, which shows in detail exactly what happened.

At the moment, that's available for Patreon supporters.

You can get that to I going to aviation news.com slash support and signing up to support

the show.

I will get that published publicly, but I've just been so short of time.

I have not gotten to it, but I promise I'll get that posted publicly at some point here.

And also thanks to Kyle Decker, who made a generous donation.

He writes, thank you for all your wonderful aviation content and education you provide.

Big AGA pilot fly as a hobby has been a dream of mine for many years, and your podcast

has been a regular listen for me for several years.

I earned my private in 2019 in my IFR this past October at KVYS Illinois Valley Regional

Airport.

By 13-year-old son and I listened to your podcast every Monday evening on the way to our

civil air patrol squadron meeting, your in-depth discussion of various GA topics are contributing

to the betterment of the GA community and making all of us safer and more effective pilots.

Thanks again for all you do, Kyle.

Kyle, thanks so much for that.

Now I'd like to share a few thoughts about AOPA and the President's job as that's been

in the news this past week.

Now this is something that I've never talked about publicly, but I did interview for the AOPA

President's job twice.

And one of those times I did get fairly far along in the process, but ultimately wasn't

selected.

But let me take you back even further and tell you about my first visit to AOPA headquarters,

which was sometime in the early 1990s.

And before that, in the 1960s when I was just a kid, my mother would drive my sister

and me to visit her parents in Virginia, and that trip always started from Northern Pennsylvania,

headed down US-15, which eventually goes right through Frederick, Maryland.

So I'd seen this picturesque town many times before, and I also quickly learned the difference

between Frederick, Maryland and Frederick'sburg, Virginia, two cities that are often confused.

Now in the mid-1990s, I was driving through Frederick, and on a large decided to stop

into AOPA headquarters for a visit, I was greeted warmly and given a tour throughout

their facility, which is right next to the Frederick airport.

It's a two-story building, which was relatively new at the time.

And most of their employees work there, though as I recall, there's also a separate smaller

office in Washington, D.C., where many of their advocacy staff members work.

That group, by the way, performs one of the organization's most important functions,

which is working with regulators such as the FAA and lobbying Congress.

They also have a number of people spread around the country that work with state legislatures.

Now, that headquarters building is two stories high in the president's office is on the upper

floor.

There's a staircase in an open atrium that leads from the first to the second floor,

and it's in this atrium that AOPA presidents in the past have occasionally addressed

the headquarters staff when there have been important announcements.

My strongest memory of the visit is stopping by president Phil Boyer's office.

I was disappointed that he wasn't in, but I talked with his secretary, and I saw his

unoccupied desk.

And then I don't recall how this happened, but I did find myself sitting in his chair

behind his desk, and for a few minutes imagining what it must be like to run one of the most

important organizations in general aviation.

Now, that left a lasting impression.

And I remember thinking at the time that I would love to do that job.

I'll talk about Phil Boyer in a minute, but first let me explain the historically AOPA

presidents have stayed in office for a long time.

The first president was C. Townsend Luttington, who served for 13 years from the organization's

founding in 1939 to 1952.

Then Doc Hartentraft, Jr. was president for 25 years from 1952 to 1977.

Next was John Baker, who either role for 13 years from 1977 to 1990.

Then came Phil Boyer, who served for 18 years from 1991 to 2009.

Now, Phil always seemed like the model AOPA president to me.

His previous job had been as the senior vice president with ABC television in New York.

And before that, he was a VP and general manager of the ABC TV affiliate in Chicago.

Before that, he worked at the TV station in Sacramento.

Each year, he would go on the road and hold a number of town hall meetings in major cities

across the country to which members were invited.

I attended several of these, and they were really quite memorable.

They were typically held in a rented hotel ballroom, and there would be perhaps 300 plus members

in the room.

He always brought a professionally produced multi-projector slideshow, as I was the state

of the art of the time, for high level presentations given by corporations.

And his background of television always came through.

He was very engaging in his presentation style, and he had great vivid images to illustrate

his talks.

He would give all kinds of statistics for GA and AOPA, and he talked about the legislative

challenges we faced and what the organization was focused on doing to affect change on behalf

of GA.

Later, he would take questions from the audience.

The town halls were held in the evening, probably around 7pm, maybe 6pm, or recall exactly.

But during the daytime, Phil was always busy holding meetings with airport managers,

legislators, and regional staff.

In a typical swing, he'd hit four cities in a week, and then head back to the headquarters

for four to six weeks before making another swing through another part of the country.

So from the outside, he appeared to be doing a great job of splitting his time between

traveling the country, connecting with members and stakeholders, and being back in the

headquarters managing staff.

Now, the town hall meetings reached many thousands of pilots each year, and they appeared

to be a very effective way to connect with members.

Unfortunately, those town hall meetings were discontinued after Phil left the job in

2009.

In early 2008, it was announced that Phil Boyer would be leaving the job.

The Board of Trustees hired an executive search firm and they were responsible for locating

potential candidates and interviewing them for the job.

So like many top jobs, the AOPA President's job is not a job that's posted that you

can apply for.

Typically, they find you.

Now oddly by 2008, I had totally forgotten about my visit to AOPA, and the thoughts I'd

had sitting behind Phil Boyer's desk, and that I would like to have this job.

And when it was first announced that Phil would be leaving, I didn't give it any further

thought.

But months later, I realized that it was something that I wanted to do and that I should pursue.

Now from the get go, I knew it was a long shot, but I've always believed a person should

have stretch goals and include ones that may seem like a bit of a long shot, because

if you shoot high, well generally, you end up achieving more.

So I found a way to become part of the candidate pool and ended up being interviewed by one

of the principals from the executive search firm.

He was a recently retired Air Force general and we had a good meeting.

Prior to the meeting, I had assembled two two-inch binders with all of my research about

AOPA, as well as plans for what I would do in the first 90 days if I were selected, and

the names of a few people that I wanted to bring into the organization.

I did make it to the shirtless, but ultimately Craig Fuller was hired and he was president

for five years.

Had I been selected, I was prepared to move to Frederick for five or ten years, though.

Definitely would have rented out my house in California as I would have wanted to return

here afterwards.

Having that decision that I would move to Frederick was an easy one, as my mother who lived

in Northern Pennsylvania, was getting up in years and it would have been a short flight

from Frederick and a GA plane to get up there and visit her.

What I learned after the new president was hired was that the Board of Trustees really

wanted to hire someone with prior experience in government.

The Board was great in many regards, but in my opinion, the Board at the time felt that

there were critical legislative issues coming up and that would be helpful to have a president

with experience working in government.

I Craig Fuller served for about four and a half years, so at the time that was by far the

shortest tenure of any AOPA president, and what it was announced that he would be leaving

I thought, well, what the heck, why not try one more time?

So I got ahead multiple interviews, but didn't make the short list.

This time it appeared the Board was looking for something different.

They made it clear that they were looking for someone who previously managed the staff

or company of 200 people or more.

I'd certainly manage people when I was at Hewlett-Packard, but never had a staff that large.

I did run two different nonprofit member organizations.

One was Los Medicos Volodarius, which I could never pronounce correctly, but it's Spanish

for flying doctors.

I was president of that organization for three years and helped grow to over 300 members,

but members is not the same as staff and they were looking for someone who'd managed

a large staff.

Why the change in what they were looking for?

Well, in my opinion, while Craig Fuller had the experience in government that they were

looking for at the time, I don't believe that he had managed a staff the size of AOPA,

but Mark Baker, who they did select in 2013, had previously been president of a company

that had approximately 200 employees, and he was selected.

He served for 11 years, so presumably the Board of Trustees were happy with his work as

at the time.

The job typically came to the five-year contract, so he must have been renewed at least once.

As I disappointed to not get the job, yeah, a little, but not hugely so.

To me, the most important thing was to have someone in the job who was effective, and

while I think I would have done a great job, I also felt that the Board of Trustees had

selected good people, so I really couldn't quibble with that.

When the job opened up again in 2024, I didn't pursue it as I'm really enjoying the life

I've built here, which, by the way, includes talking to you.

As president, I probably would have had to give up the podcast and also wouldn't have

the time to teach in serious aircraft, including the Vision Jet, which I absolutely love.

So I have no idea what the Board was looking for when they hired Darren Pleusence, but I'm

guessing they'll be looking for something a little different this time around when

they hire his successor.

I'm sure they'll find a number of good candidates, and we'll soon have one hired.

What does it take to do the job well?

Well, if I'd gotten the job, I would have followed the Fill Boyer model and brought back

the town hall meetings.

I think that connection with members through local events is important.

Job clearly requires a significant amount of travel to connect, not just with members,

but also with legislative bodies and regulatory agencies, but it also requires a strong presence

in Frederick to leave the staff.

Another major component is meeting with donors.

While members pay a lot in dues, AOP also relies heavily upon donations, and those donations

have never been more important.

One of the big challenges when I first saw the job was that AOP was rather quickly losing

one of its major sources of funding.

In the 1990s and the early odds, a lot of that funding came from advertising pages in

AOP a pilot magazine.

The advertising revenue more than covered the cost produced the magazine, and it was

a major source of revenue for the organization.

But as you've probably noticed over the last 20 years, magazines of all types have gotten

thinner.

And that's because of Google and Facebook and other digital ad platforms.

Advertisers have shifted billions of their dollars out of traditional media, including

magazines, radio and television, into digital advertising via the internet.

They like it because they can directly correlate dollar spent on advertising to the sales

they get, something that's much harder to do with magazine advertising.

So AOP A relies heavily upon large donors, and they're always looking for new sources

of revenue.

But here's the most important thing you should know about AOP A.

While you may not agree with everything they do, I implore you to support them by becoming

a member or if you are a member, maintaining your membership.

The advocacy work that they do for us with state and federal government is incredibly

important.

Congress and state legislatures are constantly coming up with new proposals that would

be costly to GA pilots, and AOP A is one of just a handful of organizations that are

fighting for us.

If you think flying is expensive here in the US now, you only have to look overseas to

see how bad it could be if we eventually get more of the kind of restrictions that are

found overseas.

AOP A's member hotline is also a valuable service.

Over the years, I've called them about legal issues and about medical issues, and they've

always come through for me, and I'm constantly recommending the hotline to pilots who are

looking for help with these kinds of issues.

So regardless of how you feel about Darren Pleusen's exit from AOP A, I personally hope you'll

continue to support the organization that I look forward to seeing them continue to support

General Aviation.

Coming up next, our conversation with Matt Bergwall about the Series Vision Jet G3, all right

here in the Aviation News Talk podcast.

And now let me tell you a little about Matt Bergwall.

Matt's a graduate of the University of North Dakota, which has one of the largest university

aviation programs in the US.

For the past 19 years, he's worked for Sirius Aircraft in a variety of marketing positions.

And for the past three years, he's been the executive director of my favorite airplane,

the Series Vision Jet.

And now here's our conversation with Matt Bergwall.

Matt, welcome to the show.

Great to see you again.

Yes, great to be here, Max, thanks.

Well, it's been a minute.

I looked it up.

We had you here last in 2019, that was seven years ago, talking about the SF50 G2.

So here we are now again, talking about the G3.

Well, let's talk about performance first.

What can it do better than the G2?

So the biggest change is in the G3 airplane, and just in terms of performance or capabilities.

The big thing is, it now can hold six adults in the airplane.

You still have seven seatbelts.

But with that, six adults can now comfortably fit into the airplane.

We'll talk about that a little bit more a little later.

The second thing is, we actually increased the MMO of the airplane by a .01 Mach.

You're asking, well, what does that mean?

It's about seven knots of two airspeed or so.

And when you get at kind of cruise altitudes, and it's usually when the temperatures are

a little bit on the colder side, also you get that in that distance as well.

So you get a little bit of extra airspeed when you're coming in on arrivals, which

can kind of help out with even traffic flows.

The way we got that extra Mach, you know, people have been kind of asking about this quite

a bit, is really, we just kind of sharpened our pencils.

And we were able to do some extra flight tests.

Then we were able to see, oh, yeah, we do have the necessary criteria and performance kind

of buffers that we could actually increase that Mach number just to be a little bit more.

If you picked up a little speed in VMO, then I guess that probably increases the range

ever so slightly.

It does a little bit and it's a little hard to actually quantify that totally, but with

that being said, it's those times when you're flying those cold weather and you actually

see that throttle kind of pull back a little bit, it's just nice to have that little bit

of extra airspeed.

And then again, on the arrivals too, it is nice because you just kind of get into the

flow of traffic a little bit better.

Well, one thing that you've added, which I'm excited about, is CP DLC, which I have

not used in the past, actually wrote about it in my G3,000 book because it was available

with some of the other OEMs that had the G3,000.

So delighted to see that it's now available in the SF50 as well.

Go ahead and talk from A to Z about the CP DLC, just kind of explain what it is and kind

of walk us through how a pilot would use it at every step throughout a flight.

Yeah.

So CP DLC, or we call ATC data link, is something that has actually been in the airlines

know for quite some time, especially kind of for oceanic routes.

And then, you know, the United States, we're starting to get that capability more and more

kind of within our center, all of our centers now have it.

We're also seeing that about 60 or so airports, the bigger airports in the United States can

also have a pre-demparture kind of clearances, you know, available kind of through all the

same network.

What we found is probably the biggest benefit of a kind of CP DLC is you can take some

pretty complex clearances, whether you're on the ground, you're able to actually get that

textually.

And with that, you can see exactly what that clearance is, the arrival, the routing,

and if anything has changed, you can actually even push that right to your avionics.

So it's a pretty seamless thing, instead of having right down kind of everything that,

you know, the ATC is saying and making sure you actually, you know, read it back, you

know, right, it's now just right there, it's kind of front of you, you can kind of take

your time and make sure it's right in the avionics, and then you're on your way.

When you are in route, boy, it's nice for a few different reasons, you know, one is sometimes

you might be busy, you might be talking to somebody and don't quite hear, you know,

when ATC called your tail number, but right now it's hard to miss them because it's just

a little light that kind of comes on with a little chime and says you have an ATC message.

So then you go on your avionics and you see what that message is, it can be a frequency

change, which simple enough, you just put the, you acknowledge it and then you just push

that frequency and it goes right into your avionics and you check in with the next controller.

Or I mean, what I love it for the best is, hey, it's, you can get a reroute, that's all

just right done there.

So instead of the dreaded, oh, are you ready to copy a reroute?

It's now just right there on your avionics and it's no, and it just pushes right to your

flight plan and then just have to acknowledge and go direct to wherever the next way point

is.

It's great.

Yeah, I'm really excited about the ability to have reroute's handled that way.

I flew to Southern California on Monday at NSF 50 and I always tell folks, you know,

it seems like whenever I go to Southern California, we can always count on a reroute.

And shortly after I said that, we got the first of what turned out to be two reroute's

on the way down there.

The irony is they ended up giving me what I had filed anyway, which they, you know, didn't

give me.

So I still can't figure out why ATC doesn't understand that, yes, I figured out what you want

and I filed it, but you won't accept it.

You'll just give it to me later.

So kind of inefficient, well, that's pretty slick.

And you mentioned centers.

Is it also available, for example, in some terminal areas, nor can also so count things

like that?

So approach facilities do not have it yet in the terminal facilities.

It's about six years.

So the busier airports, you can get the air clearances on the ground.

And then all that the centers in the United States has this capability.

Okay.

And then to use it, you end up logging in, I think, talk about that.

How does that work?

Yeah.

So you do have to have a kind of a subscription.

Garmin actually makes this pretty easy where you just register with them and you get

on a subscription list.

But then it's just logging on to, if you're in the United States, it's like, I think

it's KUSA takes care of the whole United States and there's a message at, when you've logged

on and say, hey, just acknowledge here, you know, we established this link, you say Roger.

And now you and ATCR, yeah, this connection and they can start text messaging you essentially

to the instructions.

And I guess the thing we want to make clear is that using this is not going to actually

change the flight control itself in other words, when you get a reroute, it's not going

to automatically start the airplane flying.

You're going to have to accept that and then that's going to make the change.

Yep.

Exactly.

So you do have to accept it with ATC.

You have to actually then also push it to your avionics and also activate it to your

avionics.

So there's a few different steps that do happen before, you know, anything does change with

your flight profile.

So it's similar to, I guess, uploading a flight plan from your iPad.

Exactly.

Great.

Tell us about any other avionics changes that you may have done as you've updated the plane.

Oh, there's a lot of them.

With this last update, as I kind of mentioned, the clearances on these busier airports,

these same busier airports also have something called deatus.

So when you go to your weather display at your Garmin avionics, you can actually get the

atus right there, which gives you the textual description of, you know, whatever, hey, this

is Delta at Memphis, let's just say, usually you're reading, especially those busier airports

you're probably listening to atus, you know, five or six times to actually get everything

because there's other radio chatter happening.

But now it's just, it's just textual as well.

So you can read it all, make sure you understand kind of all the different elements there and

get your airplane kind of set up and to figure it as needed.

And you can also get atus kind of well in advance too.

So if you're thinking going to a busier airport and like, what runway are they using, I'm

not sure the winds are variable or whatever.

You can very easily start planning your flight hours even before you actually, you know, reach

that destination.

So it's helpful, especially in those busier airports.

So let me just to clarify that.

So for a deatus, we can get it at some airports when we're on the ground.

Are you saying we can also get it in the air for those airports as well?

Yep, exactly.

That's fabulous.

What a wonderful benefit.

Exactly.

Some other benefits too with the avionics, it's the little things, right?

When you're flying through the flight level, you're going, you know, from, you know, 18,000

or if you're in a different country too, whatever, you know, that flight level changes, you

can program it into your avionics.

It does automatically switches to standard or as you're going down, it will switch to whatever

you're pre, you know, frequency is, there's no longer kind of any interaction.

Again, it's a little things though.

It wasn't much work in the first place, but it's just one more thing you don't have to worry

about.

We now have something called 3D Safe Taxi, which is on our PFD, which kind of gives you

almost like a, you know, 3D representation, essentially a synthetic vision, but while

you're on the ground, this has been in RSRs for, you know, quite some time now, but it's

nice.

We had a, you know, a capability down on the vision jet, just some extra situational awareness.

And we also have something called Taxiway Routing, where it will essentially just kind of put

in whatever the tax route is and you just follow like a, you would a GPS in a car.

Very helpful.

And again, kind of giving you some extra situational awareness.

And boy, there's a lot of little things too, like visual approaches.

Oh, this is a great one.

For our visual approaches, we can now put in a base and download legs.

So in, it's one thing, when you start flying the, like the vision jet quite a bit, majority

of your patterns end up becoming straight ends.

But, you know, there's always that occasion is like, oh, enter, you know, a right downwind

from, you know, runway 22 and you're like, oh, boy, I haven't done this in a while.

Well, you can actually program that where you can have a right downwind.

It has, it sets you up, like, at a beam point for that right downwind.

And it just gives you all the guide and says that the altitude just will be at the glyphosilver

which is supposed to be at and you'll be able to just kind of have, again, another aid

to kind of help you transition you from that in-round environment to the landing environment.

That is really big.

I got to tell you when I'm doing SOE training with new vision jet pilots, there are two

areas that I've said consistently.

I've seen them, you know, a week in the past one is doing arrivals because a lot of them

are coming up from pistons and I don't do many arrivals.

But the other one is absolutely that.

They do so many long straight ends that when they get a baseline entry, boy, they just don't

know exactly where to aim for that baseline and they either show up most of the time high

on the final, sometimes low.

So having that altitude guidance really takes out a lot of variability and really I think

increases the odds that you're going to get a stable approach in landing.

Absolutely.

It is one of my favorite features that guess work is just gone.

Yeah, that's good.

I'll tell us about some of the changes inside, some of the cabin changes that have occurred.

Oh, this is something that I think a lot of you, especially our previous vision jet owners

will really appreciate is just the amount of refinement that has gone on in the interior

of the airplane.

Kind of mentioned at the very beginning that we now have seating for six adults.

The way we accomplished that is in the very back row, we went from one kind of captain seat

to two smaller seats to actually replace that with a bench that now can fit three people

in the has three seat belts, which could be two adults would fit comfortably back there

or two or three kids or whatever that combination might be.

So it offers even just a little bit more flexibility for who can be flying with you and that

has actually been something that you've heard quite a bit from our customers that, hey,

there's this times where I just need to have six adults in here, whether it's family members

or three couples or kind of anything along those lines is like, I know I'm not going

to be flying that far.

Like, I'm not worried about that.

I just need to be able to fit the six adults.

So we're pretty happy to be able to bring this into our airplanes.

This actually took a lot of effort to be able to put this bench seat in there.

It's not just kind of putting in and we actually wanted to make sure that we made that experience

the best it possibly can be.

And we spent a lot of time even just kind of with the team in Duluth and the edge of your

team where we had like a mock up where we're always were taking the seat.

We had our sitting people of all sizes in this back seat and figuring out, hey, what

does the ankle have to be like?

Do I have enough leg room?

Okay.

If I don't have enough leg room, what can we do?

And so we ended up actually moving the second row about two inches just by redesign of

the seats.

We didn't change like the hard points at all on the floor, but just by changing the

redesign of the seat, we're actually able to get about two extra inches of overall

room.

And then it's kind of even the simple things where we're actually having a little cutaway

where you can easily put your feet.

So if you kind of think about it, it just those little things make it actually a good

experience to be even in that third row of the airplane.

And you still have the great views that you kind of expect from a vision jet.

And it was very well thought out and our engineers did a fantastic job and it was great

collaboration with all the various teams just to make sure we got that right.

Let me see if I understand the bench just a little bit more.

So it sounds like this is a single unit.

It's not separate pieces, right?

So you pull the whole thing in or out, right?

Okay.

And does it fit into the existing hard points and would someone, for example, with a G2 be

able to buy that and retrofit that new bench?

So this is one of those features that really kind of shows the difference of what a G2

aircraft is in a G3.

The main reason why we had to change a lot in the structural aspect of the airplane in

order to get this bench seat to work.

For example, like the backrest is actually now kind of permanently in airplane.

And the bottom bench is what kind of comes out to get that floor space.

So when you take all the seats out, if you're hauling kind of a lot of it, some of our

customers haul a bunch of dogs or whatever, you can just kind of take all of them all out.

You still have the floor that's open.

But with that though, we did have to kind of change some structure in that very back row,

which kind of makes it special for for the G3 airplane.

Okay.

Understood.

I think they can't be retrofitted to somebody who's got a G2 and says, oh, I want that

new seat.

So when people are sitting in that seat, it sounds like two adults would be kind of on

the outside of the bench and they've got a lot of shoulder room.

Or if there's a third small child that could sit between those adults and or you could

have three kids in the back, am I correct on that?

Exactly.

And if you want to look at it, if you're familiar with the SR series, we have the three

seat belts back there as well.

And it is as similar as just whatever you can physically kind of put in where people

are not overlap in shoulders.

Okay.

So I mean, honestly, if you have three small adults, three small adults can fit back there

too.

If you can physically sit side by side and not overlap shoulders.

Understood.

Okay, great.

Any other changes on the inside for the cabin you want to mention before we get to the

outside?

Yeah.

So we also took the opportunity to redesign all of our seats in the airplane.

And if you know the only thing about aviation, when you touch the seat, it's actually a lot

of work.

A lot of testing that kind of goes in just to ensure that it can take the proper loads

and various kind of flight situations.

So it does take a lot of time.

It does take a lot of effort, but it was also a great opportunity to again kind of create

some refinements in our overall product and the seats being one of them.

We changed our mechanisms.

There are a lot more smoother whether it's reclining the seat.

If you're bringing the seat back as you're kind of coming into the airplane, before it

was a two-handed operation and so you kind of were outside and tried.

Now it's just a one-hand, you take it and the whole sleet kind of slides back.

Oh, that's great.

I think our customers are going to appreciate this that ease and just be able to have things

in one hand, be able to grab the handle, move the seat back in the other hand, hop in

your pilot seat and get into the flight position.

Got it.

So that would be the pilot seat and the co-pilot seat, both of those now instead of using

two hands, you can just use one hand to slide them back and forth.

Yep.

So when you're kind of coming into the airplane, when you're coming out of the airplane,

it's still a two-hand operation, which is very deliberate because when you're in the

flight position, you never want that seat to slide back on you.

And that's what you have to kind of do is have the two hands, so you kind of unlock that

stop and then bring it back.

It's like, okay, it's still a little bit.

I see.

Okay.

There's a few other things.

We also change how our customers consume when you kind of an entertainment.

So we decentralized it.

So we now have various places where we actually change up the trade tables.

They actually come out of the side now versus the center console where you also have like

a little flap that you can put electronic device that you can consume also.

Each one of the seats, you have a little cover that you can take off that exposes something

that's called a cold shoe mount.

I know it's pretty popular in the camera world, but that allows you to have a wide amount

of adapters that you can use to essentially mount in whatever your personal electronic

devices, whether it's an iPad and iPhone, it can be magnets, it can be clamps, whatever

so you can actually have that to kind of right there, you know, bio, again, whatever

what customer wants or the passengers want, they can customize it.

Excellent.

All right.

Good.

A lot of changes on the inside.

Let's talk about the outside.

What's different on the outside?

So when you start looking around the airplane, you know, one of the first things you'll probably

will notice is we now introduce the Spectra Wing Tip lights on the Vision Jet.

We have them on the SR.

We've had them for years.

The thing that actually kind of helps identify a serious now, that's, you know, especially

at night on the ramp, is there is a signature halo light that kind of goes on the wing tip

that when you're on the ramp and that airplane lights up, it's like, man, that's a serious.

We also increase the overall brightness of the landing light by about almost three times.

So it's something that's pretty noticeable during those dark nights and you can, it's

bright as day.

As you kind of continue around the airplane, you'll notice that we now have a kind of

an option that actually goes with all of our color schemes of having a black deice boot.

We've kind of transitioned kind of from what we have as a silver deice boot to the black

deice boots.

And there's some advantages there.

First of all, it looks great with most of our color schemes because most of our customers

have been choosing more darker colors.

The second thing is that actually a lot easier to maintain if you think about it, every

single line guy with a hose is what black.

So if you ever get any kind of little scuffing right there, it's, you know, A, it's hard

to notice and then B, it's, if you do have anything, it's pretty easy to just kind of wipe

it down.

And then the third thing is actually, I kind of found myself, I wasn't really anticipating

this, but it's a lot easier to also see any kind of airframe ice that's accumulated on

the airplane with the black boots again and just a little extra level of awareness.

Yeah.

That makes a lot of sense, especially being able to detect the ice.

Do I understand the black boots are an option or the old G3's now ship with black boots?

Generally speaking, it is an option.

What kind of depend on the color way, pretty much what your color of your wings are.

So if you have a lighter color wing, silver is still available.

But then if you have a darker wing, it would be the black boot.

Generally speaking, though, it seems like almost all of our customers are going towards

more kind of a darker pain scheme.

One other thing, too, that's probably worth noting is right by the passenger side of

the airplane, you'll notice we no longer have this mechanical air-conditioning door.

And it's now just kind of a grill or a event, but we notice in the past, it's kind of funny

because we went from G1 to G2, one of the things that we're kind of taking care of is some

of the noise on the inside of the airplane.

And the thing that was creating the most noise was the engine at that point.

And then, so we put some extra insulation in and then we were able to quiet down that

cabin.

Now, like, it's like a game of whack-a-mo when you think about sound.

It just seems like whatever the next loudest thing is is now, you know, that's the thing

is like, oh, we have to fix that.

Well, it's when the AC door opened up.

So when the AC, when the compressor kind of kicks in, the door opened up and just kind

of disturbed the airflow.

And you just kind of had this change that could be a little startling if you weren't

used to it.

So now just having this vent just or this grill, you just don't have that disruption anymore

and you just never have this change of sound in the airplane.

So it took care of, you know, that now I'm just waiting for the next thing now, it's the

next noiseiest thing in the airplane.

I'm sure we'll find out soon enough as, you know, more of these G3s get up flying.

We're pretty excited about that and being able to bring that onto the airplane.

Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that.

I observed that usually it's somewhere around 14,000 feet where I get that change and

get the noise.

I'm always telling new pilots, oh, yeah, don't worry about that.

So yes, it's definitely noticeable in every airplane.

So let me just ask you because I ever once in a while we'll see this.

Sometimes in an SF-50, when we land, that air conditioning door will still be open.

Big deal, not a big deal or...

It's not a big deal.

And in fact, it's, I'm not really sure what the reason is, but I know you can also just

kind of put a little pressure on it and it'll kind of come right back into place.

Ah, good to know.

All right, super.

I don't see that often, but I figured I've got the expert here a good time to test that

question.

Well, let's see.

For people who are thinking about, boy, I'd love to get an SF-50 G3.

What do you tell them in terms of general ballpark price to be thinking about?

Now, I'll just go right to the top.

So our top-level trim and, you know, foil-loaded airplane is about $3.68 million.

And then talk about the jet stream and how that works and what people might want to think

about when ordering that as well.

We have a jet stream program, which is an all-comprehensive ownership program, which takes care of your

maintenance, when you schedule maintenance, any un-scheduled maintenance, takes care of

all your subscriptions.

So you're not managing, you know, six or seven different subscriptions.

It's all taken care of kind of within the program and kind of within the service team.

Also, any kind of recurrent training on an yearly basis.

So it's just this is all comprehensive program, which quite honestly, especially if you're transitioning

from a piston airplane to a turbine airplane and you're just kind of even worried about

and, hey, what this cost might be, this program will very much help you understand what those

costs are and, you know, feel comfortable with that transition into turbine ownership.

Yeah.

So it really makes the cost more predictable, right?

So you actually can kind of figure out in advance, oh, this is pretty much what this

is going to cost me.

What kind of things are not covered by jet stream?

So the things that are not covered by jet stream are gas, fuel, oil, kind of those

those type of consumables, software, kind of wear and tear.

So you know, see that, you know, as five years old, if it starts showing somewhere, that's

one thing that's not covered.

But generally speaking, you know, most of the things that in terms of ownership is part

of jet stream.

Right.

And how many say 50s have you shipped today, then roughly how many to build a year now?

Oh, boy.

Wow.

We have about 730 digit jets flying throughout the world.

It hasn't even been quite 10 years yet.

So it's quite a bit.

And you know, we are looking at, you know, over 100 airplanes now, kind of being delivered

on a yearly basis.

Yeah.

That's fantastic.

Well, it's certainly been fun for both of us to be there near the beginning.

I think I started flying serial number 27 or 28.

So I was happy to be one of the early vision jet pilots as I've said many times on this

show.

It is my favorite airplane by far in your smiling.

So yeah, I'm guessing it's probably your favorite airplane, too.

Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And I think what impresses me most is just the overall design.

I've always admired good design.

And as an engineer, I know how hard it is to get good design.

So anyway, all I can say is congratulations on just a fantastic product and your wonderful

success that you're having in the market.

Thanks.

I appreciate that.

We're joining us here today, Matt.

I'd look forward to seeing you again soon.

Thanks, Max.

How?

Then, my thanks to Matt Bergwald for joining us here today.

You can find out more about the vision jet at serousaircraft.com.

And if you're thinking of buying a new serous, especially an SR20 or an SR22, please contact

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So until next time, fly safely, have fun and keep the blue side up.

And remember that you can always go around.

If it don't look right, coming down, don't wait until your silence, baby, sliding

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