Airline Captain Heidi A. Porch talks about her memoir Ditching the Sky about a ferry flight engine failure 540 miles from Hawaii, a Cold War rescue, and the long road from ocean ditching to the 747
From Literary Aviatrix: The Power of Story - Women in Aviation by Liz Booker - Pilot, Writer, Aviation Diversity Advocate
February 27, 2026 · 1h 2m · Season 6 · Episode 6
About this episode
Heidi A. Porch discusses her memoir 'Ditching the Sky' and her experiences as a pilot during a critical engine failure over the Pacific Ocean.
Send us Fan Mail Heidi Porch was 540 miles east-northeast of Hawaii when her engine began losing oil pressure. She was 500 feet above the Pacific when she turned off the master switch and prepared to ditch. In this episode, Heidi joins me to talk about Ditching the Sky, her gripping memoir of ferrying single-engine Cessnas across the Pacific in the 1980s—and the day her engine quit over open ocean. We talk about: Growing up with a dream of becoming an airline pilotBuilding time as a glider pi...
People in this episode
Host: Liz Booker
Guest: Heidi A. Porch
Topics covered
- aviation memoir
- engine failure
- ocean ditching
- female pilots
- Cold War
- ferry flights
Keywords
- aviation
- memoir
- engine failure
- female pilots
- Pacific Ocean
- Cessna
- Cold War
- ferry flight
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Ditching the Sky
Places: Hawaii, Pacific
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