Brad Garlinghouse circles Van Nuys in a local test hop

Brad Garlinghouse’s Bombardier Global 6000, N100RP, departed and returned to Van Nuys Airport (KVNY) on the evening of May 27 — a round trip that lasted minutes and peaked at just 900 feet. The flight path traced a tight loop over the San Fernando Valley, typical of a maintenance check or pilot proficiency run rather than a cross-country journey.

No newsworthy event in the Los Angeles area this week explains the hop; Brad Garlinghouse’s home base remains the Bay Area, with a secondary residence in Fort Lauderdale. The brief sortie aligns with the aircraft’s recent pattern of short positioning flights out of KVNY and nearby Riverside, suggesting routine upkeep between longer trips to New York and Miami earlier in May.

Without a conference, court date, or public appearance to pin the flight to, the most plausible explanation is an avionics calibration or crew currency flight — the aviation equivalent of a desktop audit. The Global 6000, added to the Ripple CEO’s fleet in late 2023, continues to log the kind of quiet, non-newsworthy hours that keep a high-value asset ready for the next real mission.