Deviation Approved: Ep. 005 Kerry McCauley
Deviation Approved Episode 005: Kerry McCauley
Kerry McCauley, Former Ferry Pilot & Author of Ferry Pilot: Nine Lives Over the North Atlantic
Overview
“Most pilots should try to learn as much as they can from other pilots,” says Kerry McCauley. “Learn how they get into and out of trouble. That’s how you can let their experience teach you.” A former international ferry pilot and author of Ferry Pilot: Nine Lives Over the North Atlantic, Kerry has answered the question, “What could possibly go wrong?” time and time again. As the title of his book suggests, Kerry has managed to survive countless mishaps and close calls throughout the years, which makes him the perfect resource for anyone and everyone who is interested in pursuing a career in aviation.
Kerry explains that, ever since he was young, he has been an adventure seeker. Whether it be skydiving, scuba diving, skiing, or any other exhilarating activity, he has always been drawn towards experiences that test his personal limits. Although he originally started racking up flying hours to become a commercial pilot, Kerry admits that this job didn’t fulfill his indefatigable search for adventure. After 30 years of delivering small used aircraft to locations around the world, Kerry has now “settled down” and owns and operates a skydiving school along with his wife and kids.
Tune into this week’s episode of Deviation Approved for a conversation about aviation adventures, successes, and catastrophes. Get a sneak peek into Kerry’s riveting flying career, which he writes about in detail in his recently published book. As Kerry explains, it is absolutely crucial for pilots to learn as much as possible from other pilots to inform their own experiences. And there is truly no better way to start the learning process than by listening to Kerry’s enthralling tales!
Quotes
“When a pilot starts his flying career, he’s got two bags: a luck bag and an experience bag. And when he starts out his luck bag is full, and his experience bag is empty. And every time you do something stupid or you just get lucky, you take a little bit out of the luck bag and put it in the experience bag. And the trick is to get the experience bag full before the luck bag runs out.” (5:56-6:22)
“We all just get right back into the air. That’s just what skydivers do, a lot of times the same day. We just like, ‘We’re gonna jump again, we’re not gonna let this stop us because it’s what we do and who we are.’ And all of us know that if we’re the ones that go in, we would not want our friends to stop jumping. We would want them to keep going.” (14:43-15:04)
“Here I am on my very first trip with my brand new boss, who is not by nature a really nice guy...and we’ve spent all morning busting our butts trying to get these planes off. And we’re ready to go, and I made the mistake. It wasn’t that something broke on my plane. I broke it. And now I’ve gotta tell him I broke it, and I don’t want to go until we fix it.” (31:57-32:24)
“That’s a lot of what we do in ferry flying. There’s a lot of duct tape involved and a lot of jerry rigging stuff, you know, figuring it out. It’s just kind of par for the course. You just make it work somehow.” (42:56-43:09)
“Airline pilot – that’s where the money is, stability, retirement, that whole deal. But, I need adventure in my life. I need challenge. When I saw just how boring airline flying was, I thought, ‘I don't know if I could do that for the rest of my life.’” (58:38-58:56)
“You never know when you’re going to come across that one little nugget of information that might save your life someday.” (1:03:14-1:03:20)
Links
https://www.facebook.com/kerrymccauleyauthor
https://www.instagram.com/ferrypilot.book/
Amazon Affiliate Link Supporting the Podcast:
Buy Ferry Pilot on Amazon