ALEXANDRIA, Minn. — When Kerry McCauley learned about ferry pilots from a friend of his, he thought it sounded like the coolest job in the world.
“I vowed right then that I had to become a ferry pilot because that is what I wanted to be,” McCauley said.
McCauley then spent 30 years of his life as an international ferry pilot, flying more than 65 different airplanes and logging around 10,000 hours.
“If you’ve got an airplane that’s in one part of the world or country and it needs to go to the other part, that’s where you would get a ferry pilot,” McCauley said. “My particular specialty is international ferry flying. Basically, if somebody has an airplane that’s in Alexandria and somebody in Singapore buys it, and the new owner isn’t stupid enough to fly a small single-engine airplane over the ocean, you need to find somebody stupid enough.”
Kerry McCauley, left, spoke at an event hosted by Alexandria Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 702 on Nov. 20, 2025, at the Alexandria Technical and Community College. Next to him is Josh Schafer, president of the organization. (Celeste Edenloff / Alexandria Echo Press)
And McCauley said he was stupid enough.
Minnesota native McCauley spoke on Nov. 20 to a full auditorium at the Alexandria Technical and Community College in Alexandria, Minnesota. He shared several stories about his time as a ferry pilot, some of which can be found in the two books he authored: “Fairy Pilot: Nine Lives Over the North Atlantic” and “Dangerous Flights: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?”
At a young age, he said he sort of started seeking out dangerous things. Just like learning a new language or learning how to ski or something else, McCauley said the earlier you start it, the better you become.
“I started really early and I started having a lot of crazy stuff happen to me so I kind of fed into that sort of stuff,” McCauley said. “I learned to take the fear and the panic in a situation and just set it aside. I’m going to deal with that later. Right now I’ve got a problem to solve and then I just kind of get going on the problem because you never know you just might get lucky.”
McCauley said his friend’s dad owned an international aircraft delivery company that was based out of St. Paul. He ended up talking to the man and a bunch of other ferry pilots at a wedding. McCauley said he convinced his friend’s dad to hire him and he got the job.
The process to become a ferry pilot took him about three years, he said.
A great way to start his career
For his first flight, he was asked to go to Portugal. His response: “Like over the ocean?” He was told yes, that is what the job of being a ferry pilot is. His response: “Oh, you’re going to have me ride with somebody and learn the ropes?” He was told that he would be flying alone. However, his boss would be with him, but he would be flying in another plane.
Kerry McCauley, left, an international ferry pilot and a friend of his, next to a Thai Regional Airlines airplane. (Courtesy of Kerry McCauley)
“I hadn’t even flown over Lake Michigan at this point in my career,” said McCauley, adding, “I was pretty intimidated right off the bat.”
He said it wasn’t as dangerous as it sounded because they were to start in St. Paul and first fly to Bangor, Maine. Next, they would fly to St. John’s, Newfoundland, which he said is at the easternmost point of Canada. The next morning, they would take a long 1,800-mile flight to the Azores, a small cluster of islands out in the middle of the North Atlantic.
“When I was sitting on the end of the runway and getting ready to go (for the 1,800-mile trek), the nerves started going,” said McCauley, adding that he totally understood what his boss had told him. His boss said that a lot of ferry pilots, when they get to that point of their first trip, they lose their nerves and taxi back, shut the plane down, leave the keys in it and jump on the next flight out of there.
“I was saying, ‘No, not me.’ But I was too stupid to do something smart like that, so I took off,” he said. “As soon as I took off, I realized I made the best move of my life. It was awesome.”
Always have your survival kit
McCauley shared several stories of things that went wrong, especially in the beginning before GPS was invented. He said he was just like Charles Lindbergh with nothing but a map and a compass. He did eight trips before finally having GPS capabilities.
As a self-described “survival nut,” McCauley said he would customize his survival kits for each flight. If he was going to be crossing a large forest, he would have a forest survival kit. If was going to be crossing large bodies of cold water, he would have his ocean survival kit. And then if he was going to be crossing a vast desert, he would need desert survival gear or when crossing over a jungle, he would have his jungle survival kit.
“If you crash on land these days, eventually someone is going to find you and you probably won’t starve to death,” he said. “But, if you go down in water, that’s a whole different story because you might die instantly.”
When crossing water, McCauley said he would wear a survival suit, which is a thick neoprene suit that zipped up all the way and the only thing showing was your face. Inside the suit, he would make sure to have his handheld radio, GPS, signal flares or laser pointer, strobe light, extra water, maybe a little bit of food and possibly a flask for morale purposes.
How dangerous is it really?
He gets a lot of questions about if ferry flying is really that dangerous. When he first started, in the 1990s, he said they would lose about three airplanes — and three pilots — a year. He got his job because there was an opening, and not in a good way.
“So, yes, it’s pretty dangerous,” he said. “There’ve been a lot of planes that I have flown that were pieces of junk that I probably shouldn’t have been flying. But that’s what leads to adventure. And it’s one of the things I love about being a ferry pilot. It’s awesome.”
McCauley said being a ferry pilot has provided him so many opportunities — flying low over the African savanna, over Greenland ice caps, and so many more places. He said the best way to see the world is in a small airplane.
“There’s nothing like flying in a small airplane,” he said. “You just get to do some of the most amazing things that you don’t really get a chance to do in any other circumstances.”
And maybe one of the most amazing times he has ever had was when he got to buzz the pyramids in Egypt, not once, not twice, but three times. Perfect for a ferry pilot.
Besides being an author and pilot, McCauley is also a skydiver and has done more than 20,000 jumps. He was on a Discovery Channel TV show called “Dangerous Flights.” Those videos and more can be found on his YouTube channel, youtube.com/@KerryDMcCauley/videos. Both of his books are available on Amazon.
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