Narrative:

Was given a two hour callout to reposition a plane. I asked the scheduler assigning me the assignment if it were a reposition flight or an actual ferry flight to which I was informed it was a reposition flight. I report to the airport as scheduled and on the ride to meet the airplane at the handstand I review the logbook and notice a sign off in it mentioning the plane was safe to operate under a special flight permit. I asked the operations agent driving us to the plane if this was operating as a ferry or repositioning flight and she was under the impression it was to be a repositioning flight. I look on the release for any indication that the plane was to be ferried on a ferry permit and no remark was noted at the time. I call dispatch to speak with maintenance control for clarification. They proceed to tell me it is an actual special flight permit ferry flight for a small dent in the number one engine cowling. I ask where the ferry permit was as it was not in the maintenance logbook and am told they could email it to me. I asked for a printed copy to be sent to the plane as is required per the fom as well as to leave in the logbook to be abundantly clear the plane was operating on a ferry permit. I called dispatch to inform them that we were indeed operating a ferry flight and requested they add a remark in the release for it. I was told multiple times by both dispatch and maintenance that they could just email me the ferry permit so I could review it. It was surprising to me how I was handed a signed off maintenance log and told the plane was a normal repositioning flight. If I had not looked at previous write ups I would not have noticed the sign off indicating the plane was to operate under a ferry permit. I easily could have just taken the plane with no ferry permit and flown up to ZZZ1 in violation of our fom and fars. We received the paper copy of the permit as well as the required printout. I called the chief pilot to ensure they were aware of this ferry flight as the fom required the chief pilot or one of the designees to be informed before a line crew could fly it. Seeing how disorganized and misinformed everything was I wanted to ensure they were aware of the flight; which they were. After a thorough review to ensure there were no operating limitations we flew to ZZZ1 with no further issues.I think there needs to be better policies in place requiring maintenance; dispatch; css; and station operations to communicate more effectively. I feel as a reserve I have been assigned a significant number of repositioning flights that are always very disorganized and misinformed. If I had just done the minimum required logbook check I would not have noticed the sign off mentioning the special flight permit. If I had not noticed that we would have simply preflight the airplane and departed illegally and very possibly unsafely should there have been operating limitations. Luckily today we had no operating limitations but that may not always be the case.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Captain reported that a ferry flight was missing the Ferry Permit.

Narrative: Was given a two hour callout to reposition a plane. I asked the scheduler assigning me the assignment if it were a reposition flight or an actual ferry flight to which I was informed it was a reposition flight. I report to the airport as scheduled and on the ride to meet the airplane at the handstand I review the logbook and notice a sign off in it mentioning the plane was safe to operate under a special flight permit. I asked the operations agent driving us to the plane if this was operating as a ferry or repositioning flight and she was under the impression it was to be a repositioning flight. I look on the release for any indication that the plane was to be ferried on a ferry permit and no remark was noted at the time. I call Dispatch to speak with Maintenance Control for clarification. They proceed to tell me it is an actual special flight permit ferry flight for a small dent in the number one engine cowling. I ask where the ferry permit was as it was not in the maintenance logbook and am told they could email it to me. I asked for a printed copy to be sent to the plane as is required per the FOM as well as to leave in the logbook to be abundantly clear the plane was operating on a ferry permit. I called Dispatch to inform them that we were indeed operating a ferry flight and requested they add a remark in the release for it. I was told multiple times by both Dispatch and Maintenance that they could just email me the ferry permit so I could review it. It was surprising to me how I was handed a signed off maintenance log and told the plane was a normal repositioning flight. If I had not looked at previous write ups I would not have noticed the sign off indicating the plane was to operate under a ferry permit. I easily could have just taken the plane with no ferry permit and flown up to ZZZ1 in violation of our FOM and FARs. We received the paper copy of the permit as well as the required printout. I called the Chief Pilot to ensure they were aware of this ferry flight as the FOM required the Chief Pilot or one of the designees to be informed before a line crew could fly it. Seeing how disorganized and misinformed everything was I wanted to ensure they were aware of the flight; which they were. After a thorough review to ensure there were no operating limitations we flew to ZZZ1 with no further issues.I think there needs to be better policies in place requiring Maintenance; Dispatch; CSS; and Station operations to communicate more effectively. I feel as a reserve I have been assigned a significant number of repositioning flights that are always very disorganized and misinformed. If I had just done the minimum required logbook check I would not have noticed the sign off mentioning the special flight permit. If I had not noticed that we would have simply preflight the airplane and departed illegally and very possibly unsafely should there have been operating limitations. Luckily today we had no operating limitations but that may not always be the case.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.