Episode 6- Kerry McCauley

Kerry McCauley got his inspiration to start flying from his uncle Kerry who was a Navy pilot and Kerry's namesake. At 17 he joined the Army National Guard and became a UH-1H "Huey" helicopter crew chief. Kerry did 12 years in the Guard becoming a winter survival instructor, Air Assault school graduate and was awarded 2 Army commendation medals. In 1986 Kerry got his skydiving license and private pilot's license and within 3 years was a free fall instructor and commercial pilot. In 1990 Kerry was hired by Orient Air and made his first solo trans-Atlantic crossing delivering a small twin-engine plane from Minnesota to Lisbon, Portugal. In 1998 Kerry and his wife Cathy started Skydive Twin Cities which soon became the biggest skydiving school in Minneapolis. Since then, Kerry has made over 20,000 jumps and raised 2 children who are also skydiving instructors.  

In the 30 years since that first trip Kerry has made over 100 ocean crossings, flew over 50 different kinds of aircraft, to over 60 countries and landed in every continent but Antarctica. Kerry's ferry flying career took a new turn when the Discovery Channel hired him to be one of the main characters on their hit TV show "Dangerous Flights" The TV show was a hit and ran for 2 seasons and was slated for a third when an aircraft accident claimed the life of one of the cameramen and the show was cancelled. In July of 2020 Kerry published a memoir about the early days of his career called "Ferry Pilot. Nine lives over the North Atlantic" The book was an instant hit, selling over 4000 copies in 6 months and is currently the number one best seller on Amazon in the aviation category. Kerry is currently finishing up a novel on a Blackhawk crew chief in Afghanistan and working on his second book on ferry flying.  

Kerry can be found on Instagram @ferrypilotbook and his website https://kerrymccauley.com.