Ferry flying
Ferry flying refers to delivery flights for the purpose of returning an aircraft to base, delivering a new aircraft from its place of manufacture to its customer, moving an aircraft from one base of operations to another or moving an aircraft to or from a maintenance facility for repairs, overhaul or other work.[1]
An aircraft may need to be moved without passengers from one airport to another at the end of that day's operations in order to satisfy the next day's timetable – these are known as positioning flights, although strictly speaking these are still a type of ferry flight. Positioning flights may also be necessary following a major weather event or other similar disruption which causes multiple cancellations across an airline's network resulting in many aircraft and crew being 'out of position' for normal operations; the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull or the mass evacuation of US airspace following the 9/11 attacks being significant examples of this. Some airlines permit fare-paying passengers to travel on positioning flights.
Ferry permit
A ferry permit is a written authorization issued by a National Airworthiness Authority to move a non-airworthy civil aircraft from its present location to a maintenance facility to be inspected, repaired and returned to an airworthy state.[1]
Ferry pilots
One famous ferry pilot was Louise Sacchi, who flew single- and multi-engine planes 340 times across both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, breaking several records in the process.[2]
- Other ferry pilots
- Helen Marcelle Harrison Bristol
- Lettice Curtis
- Maureen Dunlop de Popp
- Luis Fontés
- Joan Hughes
- Amy Johnson
- Jim Mollison (Amy Johnson's husband)
- Robert Neale
- Robert Olds
- Jadwiga Piłsudska
- C. W. A. Scott
- Diana Barnato Walker
See also
- Air Transport Auxiliary
- RAF Ferry Command
- Women Airforce Service Pilots
- United Kingdom aircraft test serials
References
- 1 2 Crane, Dale: Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition, page 210. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. ISBN 1-56027-287-2
- ↑ "Highlights of Louise Sacchi's Aviation History". The Ninety Nines.