78 TBM Aircraft Gather in Phoenix for TBMOPA 2026 Annual Convention Focused on Aeronautical Decision-Making

The TBM Owners and Pilots Association (TBMOPA) devoted its 2026 Annual Convention in Phoenix, Arizona, to three days of activities built around sound aeronautical decision-making. More than 300 attendees took part, among them TBM owners and operators and their guests, equipment and service suppliers, and representatives of Daher Aircraft, the TBM manufacturer and a key sponsor of the association.

A total of 78 TBM aircraft landed at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, spanning the TBM 700, TBM 850 and TBM 900 series. They arrived from across the United States as well as from Canada, the Bahamas, Switzerland and South Africa. Nine were TBM 980 aircraft, the latest version, for which Daher Aircraft began deliveries to international customers in January.

The convention theme covered the decisions a pilot faces in flight, from the initial go/no-go assessment through hazard identification and risk management. In interactive sessions called "Passport to Safety," owners and operators joined roundtables to share experiences and discuss practical ways to apply sound decision-making in their own flying. The program opened with a review of the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia accident investigation by Nigel Packham, a former NASA associate director for safety, who examined the critical decisions and missed opportunities that contributed to the loss of the spacecraft and its seven crew members during re-entry.

Nicolas Chabbert, CEO of Daher Aircraft, said more than 1,330 TBM aircraft have been delivered to date as the in-service fleet and pilot community continue to grow. He led an 11-member Daher delegation from the company's operations in France and the United States, and told attendees that its safety commitment shows in continuous improvements to TBM capabilities and in reducing pilot workload through technology. His presentation closed with key points built around the acronym PSCD: prepare and develop scenarios; stay alert and compare scenarios; and decide. TBMOPA President JJ Suárez said flight safety is a shared responsibility and thanked Daher Aircraft for its continuing partnership.

A ceremonial "graduation" recognized the first class of pilots to complete the TBM Advanced Aviator Program (TAAP). The program is voluntary and encourages TBM pilots to meet a comprehensive annual training and proficiency standard, with the aim of building a safety culture within TBMOPA.

The TBMOPA Foundation raised $360,000 this year through live and online bidding. The money supports aviation-related scholarships and initiatives such as the association's safety seminars and videos. Daher Aircraft again contributed to the auction with a getaway package to the Bahamas, flown by TBM or Kodiak, which drew a winning bid of $7,500.

Owner-flown turboprops sit in a part of business aviation where the pilot is often also the owner, with no flight department, chief pilot or dispatcher standing between a go/no-go call and the aircraft. In that setting, safety culture has to be built by the owner community itself, and manufacturer-sponsored associations are one of the few channels able to do it. A convention that puts a NASA accident-investigation review, peer roundtables and a manufacturer CEO's decision framework on one agenda shows how that channel works in practice.

The TAAP graduation is the more structural signal. A voluntary annual training and proficiency standard gives owner-pilots a shared benchmark that sits outside regulatory minimums, and it is the kind of benchmark that insurers, lenders and prospective buyers of used aircraft can later point to when they assess a pilot or an airframe. Whether it gains that weight depends on how many pilots enroll beyond this first class.

The next point of evidence is the size of the second TAAP class and whether TBMOPA publishes participation figures for it. The fleet figures given at the convention, more than 1,330 delivered aircraft with 78 present in Phoenix and nine of them TBM 980s, show a community large enough for such a program to matter at scale.