PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Ferry Pilots from "Dengerous Flights" TV show on Discovery
Old 1st Mar 2013, 14:40
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Sir Niall Dementia
 
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I did a year of ferrying and loved it. I arrived with ATPL and a few thousand hours, but no ferrying experience and no other job available. My boss made sure I was VERY conversant with that company's SOPs (European company, doing mostly Trans-Atlantic trips) and I flew mostly west-east using my US license (mainly US reg aircraft).

It was challenging, I flew to airfields I had previously only read about, I met some great people (One of the re-fuellers at St Johns and his randy husky come particularly to mind)

As a job it does not provide a secure income, and I met people who had to fly THAT DAY to ensure getting paid, it can be very lonely and can screw up your personal life (I know we're at the Bloggs's tonight darling, but I'm stuck in Reykjavic waiting for the the weather to clear), but on a clear night, getting relays from the airliners above me, watching the Aurora and looking forward to sunrise I wouldn't have swapped that seat for my previous job at all.

I always treated the aeroplane as if I owned it, so that at the end of the flight I hope I had cherished as much as its' new owner would. I sometimes see aeroplanes I ferried and my mind goes straight to that trip and the pleasure and achievement that flying a small aircraft all that way brought.

When I retire from my present job I'd like to do it again for a couple of years, if I can find anybody to take me on.

SND
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