Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President of VREF In this episode of VREF: The Truth About the Market, Jason addresses a growing and troubling trend in aviation commentary: non-aviators publishing financial conclusions about aircraft maintenance—then disclaiming all responsibility for the consequences. This is not a debate about spreadsheets or abstract models. It’s about safety, risk, marketability, and accountability—and what happens when those realities are ignored. In this episode, Jason breaks down: Why [...]

Episode Summary Aircraft financing looks like a simple rate-shopping exercise… until you’re the one stuck in a bad structure, a surprise covenant, or a refinance that won’t clear because the original valuation doesn’t hold up. In this long-form, name-names episode, Jason breaks down how aircraft lending really works (spoiler: lenders underwrite exit liquidity, not your dream), the difference between banks, finance companies, capital/private credit, and credit unions—and where brokers add real value vs. hidden cost. Jason [...]

Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President of VREF Episode Overview In this episode, Jason breaks down a shift many people in aviation feel but haven’t fully named yet: the traditional progression from one aircraft to the next is gone. For decades, aviation ownership followed a ladder. You started somewhere reasonable, stretched your mission, and moved up as experience, income, and need grew. That ladder quietly disappeared — not because of failure, but [...]

Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President of VREF Episode Overview Artificial intelligence is coming for aviation — fast… But is the industry actually ready for it? In Episode 18 of The Truth About the Market, Jason tackles one of the most requested topics of the year and strips away the hype to examine the real constraints, risks, and opportunities AI presents across aviation. This is not a futurist fantasy episode. It’s a [...]

Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President of VREF Episode Overview In this end-of-year Christmas special, Jason steps back from valuations, depreciation curves, and transactional warfare to reflect on the year that aviation finally remembered gravity. Delivered through a poetic cold-open that rewrites ’Twas the Night Before Christmas for the aircraft industry, this episode blends humor, honesty, and hard-earned perspective as Jason unpacks the three forces that quietly shaped 2025: the privacy upheaval, [...]

Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President & CTO, VREF Episode Overview In this episode, Jason takes you deep into one of the most consequential — and least understood — shifts happening in aviation right now: the privacy war brewing between the FAA, public flight-tracking, ADS-B technology, corporate secrecy, celebrity security, and a century-old registry system built on transparency. For the first time in U.S. aviation history, aircraft owners can legally hide their [...]

Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President & CTO, VREF Episode Overview In this eye-opening episode, Jason reveals one of the least discussed — yet most influential — forces in every aircraft transaction: the broker. Not the airplane. Not the market. Not the valuation model. The broker. Using a fictional—but extremely realistic—2012 Citation CJ3, Jason demonstrates how six different broker archetypes can turn the same airplane into six completely different stories. The asset [...]

Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President & CTO, VREF Episode Overview In this episode, Jason breaks down one of the strangest dynamics to hit aviation in more than a decade — a market that’s slowing down and speeding up at the exact same time. Total transactions are falling… yet the best aircraft are selling faster than they have in years. If you want to understand the real state of the aviation market [...]

Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President & CTO, VREF Episode Overview In this Thanksgiving special, Jason steps away from depreciation curves, absorption rates, and market chaos to talk about something aviation doesn’t celebrate nearly enough: gratitude. But don’t worry — this isn’t some soft, sentimental detour. This is an episode about the real aviation world we all live in: the chaos, the beauty, the people who keep airplanes flying, the market that refuses to [...]

Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President & CTO, VREF Episode Overview In this episode, Jason pulls back the curtain on one of the most common (and expensive) patterns in aviation: the first airplane someone wants to buy is almost always more airplane than they actually need. From turbocharged SR22s to pressurized pistons with FIKI, Jason unpacks how identity, ego, and fantasy missions push first-time buyers into aircraft that outpace their experience, budget, and real-world [...]