Dr. Sandra Cabot

Medical doctor, author, media commentator, and accomplished aviator Dr. Sandra Cabot seems to have packed several lives into one.

When she is not flying aerobatics for fun in her two-seat Victa Airtourer, you might find her piloting her Falcon 50 trijet on business missions across the globe, running her growing health products empire.

“My schedule is always full,” says Sydney-based Dr. Cabot. “And I’m not finished yet.” 

Dr. Sandra Cabot. (Photo: Kiren)

Her latest adventure is an unexpected one: rock star. Together with her friend and performer Holly Natasja, she recently released a cheeky new music video featuring the Falcon—“a sexy sports car of a plane”—as its centerpiece.

Dr. Cabot describes herself as “a woman of a certain age,” adding with a smile that she is “over 70.” Her path has been anything but ordinary.

At 17, she planned to become a veterinary surgeon but switched to human medicine after a year. Between studies, she even auditioned for the musical "HAIR," though, as she admits, stage fright got the better of her.

She credits her mother’s tough love for keeping her on track. “If you don’t settle down and study,” her mother warned, “you’ll have to work in a supermarket and pay me back for your scholarship.” Six years later, Cabot graduated with honors in medicine and surgery, later specializing in obstetrics and gynecology.

At 29, she discovered her passion for flying after taking a flight from Sydney’s Bankstown Airport. Within a year, she was piloting a Beechcraft Bonanza and dreaming of owning a jet.

Before that dream could be realized, she volunteered as an obstetrician in India, returning home inspired but broke. Since banks at the time would not lend to single women, she decided to self-fund her ambitions by writing a book on women’s health.

“I marched into a publisher’s office and said, ‘I’ve written half a great book that will sell a million copies.’ He laughed and said, ‘Who do you think you are, Jackie Collins?’” she recalls. “He was right—it only sold about 50,000 copies.”

Undeterred, she began self-publishing books on integrative medicine, blending conventional and natural therapies. Her radio talkback program followed, but her “cheeky” tone soon got her fired.

In 1996, Cabot became fascinated by the growing number of patients with fatty liver disease. She developed a natural treatment formula, Livatone Plus, and detailed her findings in The Liver Cleansing Diet. The book became a runaway success, earning her both praise and controversy, and won the Australian People’s Choice Award for most popular non-fiction book of the year.

Today, Cabot operates distribution centers in Sydney and Phoenix, presents health seminars across Australia, and plans to take her message to the U.S.—flying herself there, of course.

Alongside her medical career, she earned multiple pilot qualifications, including an airline transport pilot’s license, allowing her to captain jets. Her fleet has included a Cessna Citation II, a Bravo, and a Beechcraft Baron before she acquired her “dream aircraft,” the long-range Falcon 50.

Her planes have served more than business. She has flown nearly 200 Angel Flights, helping rural Australians reach medical care, and used her aircraft to transport organs for transplant. For six years, her Falcon operated over 600 emergency medevac flights across the Asia-Pacific, including as far as Vladivostok. 

Dr. Sandra Cabot. (Photo: Kiren)

When aviation rules grounded her from commercial international flights after age 65, Cabot repurposed the Falcon for business travel and private charters.

That is how she met Holly Natasja, a seasoned executive assistant in the music and media industries who had fallen ill after years of corporate stress. A pilot friend referred her to Dr. Cabot—known online as “the liver doctor.” The treatment worked, and a friendship grew.

Holly soon joined Cabot’s team as her personal travel assistant and flight attendant. One day, during a return flight, music filled the cabin. Holly began to dance, and Sandra joined her.

Cabot told Holly about the unexpected attention she received from men after buying the Falcon. “Before I owned it, I didn’t get much notice,” she laughed. “Then suddenly, my phone wouldn’t stop ringing with men wanting to fly it, buy it, or just see it.”

The story sparked an idea. Holly wrote a playful song about “Falcon envy,” teasing that “all the boys want me for my Falcon 50.” The result is a spirited, tongue-in-cheek music video starring Holly, Cabot, a pilot friend, and the gleaming aircraft itself—still turning heads nearly 30 years after it first took to the skies.

“The Falcon is a superstar,” says the flying doctor. 

It takes one to know one.