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

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. If you’re getting value from this show, please support the show via PayPal, Venmo, Zelle or Patreon. Support the Show by buying a Lightspeed ANR Headsets Max has been using only Lightspeed headsets for nearly 25 years! I love their tradeup program that let’s you trade in an older Lightspeed headset for a newer model. Start with one of the links below, and Lightspeed will pay a referral fee to support Aviation News Talk. Lightspeed Delta Zulu Headset $1199 Lightspeed Zulu 3 Headset $899 Lightspeed Sierra Headset $699 My Review on the Lightspeed Delta Zulu Send us your feedback or comments via email If you have a question you’d like answered on the show, let listeners hear you ask the question, by recording your listener question using your phone. News Stories

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