Ep012:

Crash Landing in the Pacific (Part One)

Eleven hours into a solo flight to Hawaii, Heidi Porch faced every pilot’s nightmare — falling oil pressure and nowhere to land her single-prop Cessna. With more than a thousand miles of open Pacific ahead, she had to prepare for the one decision no aviator wants to make: ditching. A veteran who’s flown everything from gliders to 747s, Heidi shares how years of disciplined training — breaking in engines at high power, practising failures mid-ocean, and flying gliders where you never get a second try — built the calm that guided her through the moment she cut the power and committed to the sea.

What followed was a masterclass in survival. Heidi talks us through escaping an inverted cockpit, righting a tangled life raft, and facing a long night alone on the Pacific as swells built and rescue plans took shape. Along the way, she unpacks the mindset that separates panic from clarity — the physics, psychology, and preparation that kept her alive when everything else failed. This story is a two-parter.