![EAA AirVenture Oshkosh [Credit: Tripp Thurston]](https://www.flyingmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_8773.jpg)
In Monopoly, the “Get Out of Jail Free” card sits in your hand doing nothing until the exact moment you need it. Then it’s worth everything.
The aircraft market in the second half of 2026 has handed serious buyers something similar: stabilizing rates, permanently restored bonus depreciation, and a brand-new aircraft certification category that takes effect during Oshkosh week itself. If you’ve been watching and waiting for the right moment, this is it.
Play it right and you’re closing on a new Cessna 182, a Cirrus SR22T G7+, or a completed Van’s RV-15 before Thanksgiving with a tax deduction that changes the math entirely. Play it wrong and a backlog on an avionics upgrade slips you into January, and 2026’s opportunity belongs to someone else.
The Card: 100 Percent Bonus Depreciation Is Permanent
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, permanently restored 100 percent first-year bonus depreciation for business aircraft. No phaseout. No sunset clause. No retroactive clawback. Our deep dive guide is available at flyingfinance.com/aircraft-finance-bonus-depreciation/ with state by state income tax considerations.
What that means in practice: Place a business aircraft in service before December 31, 2026, and you can deduct its full purchase price in year one. That date is not when bonus depreciation expires. It is the last day to apply it to your 2026 tax year. The provision itself is permanent. What expires is your 2026 opportunity.
A December 31 placed-in-service date that slips to January 2 because your avionics shop has a six-week backlog is a significant and entirely avoidable mistake.
At a 37 percent effective tax rate:
| Aircraft | Purchase Price | Year 1 Tax Savings |
|---|---|---|
| Cirrus SR22 G7 | $975,000 | $360,750 |
| Cirrus SR22T G7+ | $1,175,000 | $434,750 |
| Piper M350 | $1,300,000 | $481,000 |
| TBM 960 | $5,620,000 | $2,079,400 |
| TBM 980 | $5,820,000 | $2,153,400 |
| Pilatus PC-12 NGX | $5,900,000 | $2,183,000 |
The card is in your hand. The question is whether you play it before December 31.
“Placed in service” means the aircraft is airworthy and in active business use, not simply purchased and not sitting in an MRO queue. Your aviation CPA needs to be part of this conversation before you sign a purchase agreement, not after. FLYING Finance can refer you to trusted aviation tax advisors.
Why Oshkosh Is the Right Entry Point
AirVenture 2026 runs July 20-26 at Wittman Regional Airport (KOSH), the same Wisconsin field Steve Wittman built his racers on and that EAA has called home since 1970. Half a million people. Ten thousand aircraft. And somewhere in the middle of it, the transaction that changes your flying.
FLYING Magazine and FLYING Finance will be on-site at Booth 2004.
Cirrus has one of the most significant presences at the show every year. Their party is legendary, their demo aircraft are on the line, and the community of SR22 and SR22T owners at Oshkosh is the most concentrated group of qualified piston buyers anywhere in general aviation. The Cessna product line draws its own crowd. Piper, Diamond, Beechcraft—the certified piston category owns the buying conversation at Oshkosh, and the bonus depreciation numbers make that conversation more compelling than usual this year.
A $1.175 million SR22T G7+ represents $434,750 in year-one tax savings at a 37 percent rate. That’s not a footnote. That’s nearly half the aircraft.
Build your timeline backward from December 31 before you shake hands at the show. A Cirrus SR22T with a panel installation that starts in October, or a Piper M700 waiting on that seven blade prop entering the holidays and runs into January doesn’t qualify. An aircraft you close in August and fly for business in September does.
The buyers who close are the ones who arrive pre-approved. A FLYING Finance pre-approval is a soft credit pull—no impact to your credit score. Start at flyingfinance.com/airventure-financing/. Takes less than 5 minutes. Your rate is locked for 30 days with 90 days to identify your aircraft.
The New Category: What MOSAIC Actually Means for Buyers This Week (and What It Doesn’t)
Here is something that will trip up buyers at this year’s show: The MOSAIC rule you heard about at last year’s Oshkosh was the announcement. What takes effect July 24, 2026 (the Tuesday of show week) are the aircraft certification provisions. The ones that actually change what gets certificated as a light sport aircraft and what financing rate applies.
Here’s what changes on July 24: The FAA strikes the old 1,320-pound weight limit and replaces it with a stall-speed framework. A fixed-wing airplane qualifies as a light sport category aircraft with a VS0 (flaps-down stall speed) of no more than 61 knots calibrated airspeed. Sport pilots operating these aircraft are limited to those with a VS1 (clean stall) of no more than 59 knots CAS. Up to four seats. Maximum cruise of 250 knots CAS. Retractable gear now permitted. Night flight allowed with a BasicMed or standard medical and a night endorsement.
Factory-built aircraft certificated under the new Part 22 framework—aircraft like the Bristell RG MOSAIC—finance at the light sport rate of 6.92 percent through FLYING Finance. The alternative is the EAB experimental rate of 7.46 percent. On a $295,000 Bristell RG financed over 20 years at 15 percent down, the difference is roughly $75 per month—$900 per year, $18,000 over the life of the loan.
What MOSAIC does not do is reclassify every aircraft with a low stall speed as light sport. This is where it gets interesting at Oshkosh, because two of the most anticipated aircraft at this year’s show—the Van’s RV-15 and the Bearhawk 5—stall well below both thresholds and were designed with MOSAIC flying privileges in mind. But they are not, and will never be, Part 22 light sport category aircraft.
The RV-15 stalls below 45 knots and takes off in under 400 feet. The Bearhawk 5 is a 300-horsepower, six-seat, tube-and-fabric STOL taildragger recorded stalling at less than 40 mph. These are EAB aircraft—experimental, amateur-built—and they finance just above 7 percent. Asking a Bearhawk builder whether he wishes his aircraft were a Part 22 light sport is like asking an F-350 owner whether he wishes his truck were a hybrid. The category is beside the point. The mission is the point.
Both aircraft are fully financeable. The build log is the key document—a complete, organized build history is the equivalent of a title chain on a certified aircraft. Lenders want to see it, and sellers who have it close faster.
Current FLYING Finance rates (live at flyingfinance.com/aircraft-loan-rates/):
- Certified piston: from 6.46 percent
- Turboprop/single-engine jet: from 6.37 percent
- Light jet: from 6.00 percent
- Light sport/MOSAIC Part 22: from 6.92 percent
- EAB/Experimental: from 7.46 percent
The August-October Window
After the show, there’s a window that tends to reward the prepared buyer. Summer flying wraps up. Sellers who didn’t move their aircraft at or after Oshkosh become more motivated. Pre-owned inventory that came to market in spring is fully disclosed by fall.
The flying itself makes the argument too. Autumn color tours from a high-performance piston or EAB at low altitude are genuinely something. Football weekends. Family trips before the schedule locks back into school. The shift from high-density altitude summer conditions to smooth, crisp fall air is something any pilot feels in the seat of the pants.
The compression toward December 31 picks up in November. An aircraft acquired in September, placed in service in October, beats an aircraft acquired in November with an avionics backlog staring at the calendar. Build in the buffer.
The Honest Answer
Bonus depreciation doesn’t expire December 31. Your 2026 opportunity does. Those are different things, and conflating them is how pilots end up in February talking about what they should have done in August.
The Get Out of Jail Free card is permanent. The window to play it for this tax year is not.
Pre-approval takes less than 5 minutes at flyingfinance.com/airventure-financing/. Find us at Booth 2004 at AirVenture. Kimsey Bell is at 423.402.8982 and Jackson Moore is at 615.263.9828 if you want to talk before you land at Wittman.
FLYING Finance is the aircraft financing division of Firecrown Media, publisher of FLYING Magazine. Rates current at flyingfinance.com/aircraft-loan-rates/. Payment figures are estimates at stated rates and standard terms. Consult your aviation CPA for guidance on bonus depreciation eligibility, placed-in-service requirements, and structuring.
