VREF | The Truth About the Aviation Market

A parent takes out a home-equity line.
A student wires tens of thousands of dollars to a flight school.
The school has experienced instructors, airline partnerships, manufacturer affiliations, national press coverage, and every outward sign of credibility.
Then the school closes.
And the money is gone.
In this episode we look at the financial structure behind prepaid flight training—and why students and families may be taking on far more counterparty risk than they realize.
If you prepay $50,000, $80,000, or $100,000 for training that will be delivered over months or years, you are not just buying lessons.
Economically, you may be making an unsecured, interest-free loan to a private company.
And unlike the aircraft, instructors, maintenance, certificates, and checkrides, the money itself may not be protected by the FAA.
In this episode:The FLYT Aviation case in Georgia, where authorities allege that more than 70 students lost over $500,000 from prepaid accounts, scholarships, and financing programs
Why Jason says the defendants are entitled to their defense
Four flight-school failures or closures discussed across roughly 12 months, across Georgia, Texas, Missouri, and Florida
Why students can become unsecured creditors when a school fails
How a change in ownership can expose a gap between student account balances and the cash actually backing them
Why airline partnerships, manufacturer designations, experienced instructors, and national media coverage can create a “prestige halo” without telling you where your money sits
Jason’s criticism of the pattern he describes as: “Promote on the way up. Report on the way down.”
Why the FAA regulates the training but not necessarily the prepaid balance
The economics of America’s aging trainer fleet—and why a school may be operating 40-, 50-, or nearly 60-year-old aircraft with extremely high airframe times
A nine-aircraft trainer fleet Jason is currently appraising, including aircraft with roughly 11,700 to 18,000 hours and multiple engines at or around TBO
Why the cost of a new trainer makes replacement difficult for many schools
How prepaid student balances can become part of a school’s working capital—funding airplanes, overhauls, payroll, and expansion
Why that same structure can become dangerous when enrollment slows, ownership changes, lenders tighten, or the school fails
Jason also gives families a practical checklist before sending money:
Don’t prepay if you don’t have to.
If you do, cap your exposure.
Pay by credit card when possible.
Ask where the money sits—and get the answer in writing.
Read the refund clause before anything else.
Check the legal entity, ownership, lawsuits, BBB history, FAA status, and current student experience.
And understand what protections actually apply if the training is financed.
If you—or your child—are considering flight training, this is one to hear before the wire goes out.
Because the market doesn’t care what the brochure promised.
It only cares where the money is.
Fly safe. Stay smart.

Last episode, Jason explained why nobody should wire eight figures directly to an aircraft seller without escrow.
This episode asks the uncomfortable follow-up:
Why will some of those same sophisticated buyers wire $250,000, $500,000, even $1 million directly to a jet-card company with no escrow, no collateral, no public financial statements, and no guarantee the money is still sitting there when they need it?
Because the industry calls it a deposit.
Jason calls it what it really is:
An unsecured, interest-free loan to a private company.
That doesn’t mean jet cards are scams. For the right traveler, they solve a real problem, and reputable providers deliver exactly what they promise.
But the structure deserves far more scrutiny than it gets.
In Episode 58 of The Truth About the Aviation Market, Jason strips away the marketing and follows the money.
In this episode:
• Why a prepaid jet-card balance behaves more like a loan than a bank deposit
• How Marquis Jet helped create the modern jet-card model by selling access to the NetJets fleet
• Why NetJets repeatedly restricting or stopping card sales during periods of high demand matters
• What it means when a provider with aircraft, pilots, and deep capitalization decides it cannot responsibly sell more promises
• How brokers can sell a fixed hourly rate while buying aircraft in a floating charter market
• Why a profitable spread on an ordinary day can become a loss during Christmas, spring break, the Super Bowl, or another peak period
• How customer deposits can become working capital inside the business
• The difference between true escrow, a segregated account, and an operating account
• Why “segregated” does not necessarily mean the company cannot touch your money
• What the JetSuite bankruptcy revealed about trusting a name versus trusting the structure
• Why the flight can be heavily regulated while the customer’s prepaid balance is not protected like a bank deposit
• Why “our fleet” deserves a closer look when the company is legally a broker
• The risks behind prepaid empty-leg memberships and flight-credit programs
• The nine red flags Jason says should make a buyer slow down before wiring money
• The six due-diligence steps he would take before sending a provider even $1
• Why you should verify the legal entity, UCC filings, actual Part 135 operator, account structure, principals, contract terms, peak-day rules, and expiration provisions
• Why Jason recommends starting with the smallest block, shortest term, and—when available—a credit card instead of a wire
• Why his preferred alternative may be simpler: go directly to the Part 135 operator at your home airport
Jason’s conclusion is not that jet cards are inherently bad.
It’s that they can be a good product wrapped around a financial structure most people would never accept anywhere else in their financial lives.
If you handed a private company half a million dollars as an unsecured, interest-free loan, you would want to know where the money sits, who controls it, what protects you, and what happens if the company fails.
Changing the word from loan to deposit shouldn’t change the questions.
Before you wire, ask:
Where does my money sit?
Who can move it?
Who actually operates my flights?
What happens to my balance if the company disappears?
Because the market doesn’t care what the brochure called it.
It only cares where the money is.
VREF.com
Fly safe. Stay smart.

Somewhere today, someone may wire $40 million to an aircraft escrow company they’ve never visited, run by people they’ve never met—and barely think twice about it.

Why?

Because aviation runs on trust.

More specifically, it runs on a small group of title and escrow firms, many clustered around the FAA Aircraft Registry in Oklahoma City, that move enormous sums of money and coordinate the paperwork behind aircraft transactions every day.

Most of the time, the system works extraordinarily well.

But Episode 57 asks a more uncomfortable question:

What actually protects your money when trust isn’t enough?

Jason Zilberbrand breaks down how aircraft escrow really works, why Oklahoma City became the center of the title industry, how a multimillion-dollar closing can pivot in roughly 90 seconds, and what the Wright Brothers Aircraft Title case teaches buyers about the difference between trusting a name and verifying the structure behind it.
In this episode:
• Why an aircraft sale is fundamentally a standoff between buyer and seller
• How escrow allows two strangers to transact without either side moving first
• Why the money is only half the job—and title paperwork may be the more important half
• How the FAA’s race-notice system makes filing order critical
• Why an unreleased lien from decades ago can stop a transaction cold
• How Oklahoma City became the center of aircraft title and escrow
• Why so many title firms, lawyers, and filing specialists still cluster around one federal registry
• How a modern business-jet closing can involve both Oklahoma City and the International Registry in Dublin
• What actually happens during the final 90 seconds of a major aircraft closing
• How back-to-back transactions work—and why your wire may effectively fund both legs
• The warning signs that an intermediary may be in your deal without appearing clearly in the paperwork
• Why lenders, OEMs, dealers, and escrow firms view back-to-backs differently
• Why escrow fees are surprisingly small relative to the amounts being transferred
• Why the buyer of a $110,000 piston aircraft may face more title risk than the buyer of a nearly new Gulfstream
• How an $85 title search can uncover orphaned liens, missing releases, probate problems, and broken ownership chains
• Why Jason says cash buyers should stop handing over checks at the FBO without title work
• What the federal Wright Brothers Aircraft Title case revealed about the danger of relying on reputation alone
• How aircraft-related investment transactions used the credibility of the word “escrow” to create a false sense of security
• Why the correct lesson is not “escrow can’t be trusted”
• Why the real protection is the structure behind the account
• Alternatives to traditional aircraft escrow, including aviation law firms and bank trust departments
• And the five questions every buyer should ask before wiring a deposit or closing funds

For current aircraft values, historical trends, operating costs, fleet data, and independent accredited appraisal services, visit VREF.com.
The market doesn’t care what you wired. It only cares what got filed.
Fly safe. Stay smart.

An owner has been paying into an engine program for 11 years.

More than $1 million contributed.

The airplane is worth roughly $3 million.

And the overhaul those payments are supposed to protect him from is still four to five years away.

So he asks:

“At this point, am I buying protection—or am I funding somebody else’s overhaul?”
In this episode:
• Why engine-program enrollment should be analyzed as a financial decision—not treated as a universal virtue
• The four contract details owners often overlook: funding structure, exclusions, transfer fees, and escalation
• How a seemingly manageable hourly rate can become dramatically more expensive after years of compounding
• Why the phrase “full coverage” may not mean what owners assume it means
• Why transfer fees can act as retention mechanisms at the exact moment an owner wants to sell
• What VREF data reveals about how common engine-program enrollment actually is
• Why only about 26% of the broader business jet and turboprop fleet is enrolled
• Why enrollment can rise to 75–90% in financeable midlife jet fleets
• How lender requirements may explain part of the value premium associated with “on-program” aircraft
• Why program concentration tends to follow the engine—not the airframe
• How one provider can effectively control the enrolled population of an entire aircraft type
• Why that creates market-structure risk when one renewal change can affect most of a fleet at once
• What decades of transaction history show about enrollment gradually eroding as aircraft age
• Why roughly one in five buyers walks away from a program at closing
• How that behavior changed during the 2020–2022 cash-buying boom and shifted again as financing returned
• Why some owners walk away astonishingly close to the engine event they spent years funding
• The threshold test Jason uses to decide when continuing to pay may no longer make financial sense
• How that decision changes depending on whether you’re a seller, keeper, or buyer
• Why lapsing should be treated as effectively permanent
• And the six questions every owner should ask their program provider in writing
The bottom line:
An engine program has:

A term.
A counterparty.
An escalating payment stream.
A transfer value.
A risk exposure.
And a break-even.

You run the math on every other major aircraft expense.
Run it on your engines too.

For current aircraft values, enrolled-versus-unenrolled value adjustments, operating costs, historical trends, fleet data, and independent appraisal services, visit VREF.com.

Get Your Free Special Report on The Engine Program Market here: https://vref.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/VREF-Special-Report-The-Engine-Program-Market-Aug-2026.pdf

The market doesn’t care what you paid in. It only cares what the promise is worth.

Fly safe. Stay smart.

An owner has been paying into an engine program for 11 years.

More than $1 million contributed.

The airplane is worth roughly $3 million.

And the overhaul those payments are supposed to protect him from is still four to five years away.

So he asks:

“At this point, am I buying protection—or am I funding somebody else’s overhaul?”
In this episode:
• Why engine-program enrollment should be analyzed as a financial decision—not treated as a universal virtue
• The four contract details owners often overlook: funding structure, exclusions, transfer fees, and escalation
• How a seemingly manageable hourly rate can become dramatically more expensive after years of compounding
• Why the phrase “full coverage” may not mean what owners assume it means
• Why transfer fees can act as retention mechanisms at the exact moment an owner wants to sell
• What VREF data reveals about how common engine-program enrollment actually is
• Why only about 26% of the broader business jet and turboprop fleet is enrolled
• Why enrollment can rise to 75–90% in financeable midlife jet fleets
• How lender requirements may explain part of the value premium associated with “on-program” aircraft
• Why program concentration tends to follow the engine—not the airframe
• How one provider can effectively control the enrolled population of an entire aircraft type
• Why that creates market-structure risk when one renewal change can affect most of a fleet at once
• What decades of transaction history show about enrollment gradually eroding as aircraft age
• Why roughly one in five buyers walks away from a program at closing
• How that behavior changed during the 2020–2022 cash-buying boom and shifted again as financing returned
• Why some owners walk away astonishingly close to the engine event they spent years funding
• The threshold test Jason uses to decide when continuing to pay may no longer make financial sense
• How that decision changes depending on whether you’re a seller, keeper, or buyer
• Why lapsing should be treated as effectively permanent
• And the six questions every owner should ask their program provider in writing
The bottom line:
An engine program has:

A term.
A counterparty.
An escalating payment stream.
A transfer value.
A risk exposure.
And a break-even.

You run the math on every other major aircraft expense.
Run it on your engines too.

For current aircraft values, enrolled-versus-unenrolled value adjustments, operating costs, historical trends, fleet data, and independent appraisal services, visit VREF.com.

Get Your Free Special Report on The Engine Program Market here: https://vref.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/VREF-Special-Report-The-Engine-Program-Market-Aug-2026.pdf

The market doesn’t care what you paid in. It only cares what the promise is worth.

Fly safe. Stay smart.