In this episode of Talking Flight, we sit down with retired Delta A330 Captain Heidi Porch. She began flying at 16 and quickly found herself ferrying small aircraft across the Pacific. One of those flights ended in a dramatic ocean ditching 500 miles off the coast of Hawaii — a harrowing experience she recounts in her gripping new book, Ditching the Sky.

Captain Porch shares the highs and lows of her journey from teenage pilot to the left seat of a wide-body jet, and what it truly takes to succeed in the airline world.