379 Ferry Pilot Flying, Everything Explained with Sarah Rovner + GA News

Aviation News Talk podcast

Glass Cockpit Publishing

General, G1000, Leisure, Gps, Ifr, Glasscockpit, Safety, Sr20, Trescott, Flying, Tips, Cirrus, Aviation, News, Max, Sr22, Garmin, Waas, Perspective

4.8 • 730 Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Max talks with ferry pilot Sarah Rovner, founder of Full Throttle Aviation, about her adventures and challenges flying planes across continents. Sarah stumbled into ferry flying when she helped deliver a plane and quickly found herself flying everything from gliders to agricultural aircraft across Central America and even the Atlantic. Her unique edge wasn’t just piloting—it was handling the complex international paperwork required for cross-border flights.

Sarah explains the nuances of flying foreign-registered aircraft, using handlers, and dealing with customs and regulatory hurdles in countries like Mexico and Canada. She shares hair-raising tales like flying over the Arctic in winter in a Cessna 210, discovering a failed axle, and performing repairs in subzero temps. She’s faced oxygen failures, ferry tank malfunctions, and the infamous “ice bridging” during Atlantic crossings.

Despite the flat-rate pay and frequent mechanical delays, Sarah loves the freedom, camaraderie, and adventure. She also trains and mentors pilots, including retirees and aspiring time-builders, emphasizing the importance of judgment over just stick-and-rudder skills. Her company now provides aircraft imports, paperwork, and check rides, and she encourages others interested in ferry work to learn multiple aircraft types and fly smart.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Would you like to get paid to fly airplanes to exotic destinations across the country and around the world?
0:07.5	It sounds like a commercial, doesn't it?
0:09.8	Well, one way to do that is to ferry aircraft.
0:12.7	And today we're talking with Sarah Rovner about her experiences from tail-draggers to the Arctic while working as a global ferry pilot.
0:20.1	And we've also got an analysis of the
0:21.7	helicopter that crashed into the Hudson and New York in discussion about two Honda jet accidents
0:26.4	that occurred this week. Hello again and welcome to Aviation News Talk where we talk in general
0:30.6	aviation. My name is Max Truscott. I've been flying for 50 years. I'm the author of several
0:35.4	books in the 2008 National Flight Instructor
0:38.1	of the Year. And the mission of this podcast is to help you become the safest possible pilot.
0:44.0	Last week in episode 378, we talked about engine out scenarios and best glide strategies,
0:49.9	including your emails. So if you didn't hear that episode, you may want to check it out at AviationNewstalk.com
0:55.5	slash 378.
0:57.2	And if you're new to this show, welcome.
0:59.2	Glad you found us.
1:00.6	And now in whatever app you're using to listen to us now, touch the subscribe key,
1:04.9	or if you're using Spotify or the Apple podcast app, the follow key,
1:09.3	so that next week's episode is downloaded for free.
1:12.0	And my thanks to these two people who've signed up this week to support Aviation News Talk,
1:16.4	Mike Romeo Lima has signed up to make a monthly donation through a Patreon,
1:21.1	and Thomas King is doing the same thing through PayPal.
1:24.2	If you'd like to hear your name next week, sign up now to support the show
	...

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