600 Private Planes Deregistered, SACI Fallout and Telluride’s No-Margin Runway

This week on The VIP Seat, the internet declared aviation doom—and Jessie Naor and Preston Holland went digging for the receipts.First up: the SACI/Southern Aircraft Consultancy frenzy. Over 600 aircraft registrations were revoked, emergency town halls popped up overnight, and owners started calling brokers asking if their trust was about to “blow up.” Jessie and Preston unpack what foreign ownership trusts actually are, why the FAA’s rules feel like they were written in 1950 (because… they kind of were), and why this story sounded bigger than it really was—especially once you look at what aircraft were actually impacted.Then, the Telluride (KTEX) runway excursion—a high-altitude, no-margin airport that demands respect. The conversation dives into why these airports amplify small errors, how “pile-on” narratives form after incidents, and the uncomfortable reality that not everything makes it into official reporting systems.In Mile High Madness, Jessie shares the shark-mouth livery for Dan’s incoming Kodiak 900, and Preston delivers a perfectly unhinged ForeFlight joke… right as the show pivots into the very real story: Boeing Digital Aviation Services (including Jeppesen/ForeFlight) being sold to Thoma Bravo for $10.55B, and the early chatter around layoffs, “AI,” and what that could mean for safety-critical tools pilots rely on.Plus: a Talon Air ownership unwind inside the Vista ecosystem, and a surprisingly fascinating detour into small-country aircraft registries—San Marino, Aruba, and the private companies building them.Buckle up. It’s one of those weeks where the headlines are loud, but the details are the story.