The weather gods smiled on the NBAA Business Aviation Regional Forum held at Van Nuys Airport in Southern California on Thursday. The following day, the skies opened up and poured rain on the valleys and snow on the mountains. Hosted by TWC Aviation, the forum drew more than 1,600 visitors, 116 exhibitors and 16 aircraft on static display. The largest jet was an Embraer Lineage 1000 and the smallest was the Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet prototype, which made its first appearance at an NBAA regional forum.

Four education sessions were held, covering excise taxes, insurance, aviation asset management and Jeppesen iPad apps. A general session, led by NBAA senior v-p of government affairs Lisa Piccione, highlighted challenges facing business aviation and also the strong support that Van Nuys Airport enjoys from local politicians, especially Los Angeles council member for the 6th district Tony Cardenas, who is running for a seat in Congress.