Alexis 0:01

Hello everybody and welcome to the Smoko Podcast. My name is Alexis Armstrong, your host. The Smoko Podcast is the place to celebrate and highlight women, trans women, and non-binary folk working within stem and trade occupations. So please tune in, take a break, join us. We're on smoke Go. Today, we're extremely lucky to be joined by the lovely Stephanie Honan, who is an academic chair at the School of Transportation for S, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. She's come full circle that she was a alumni of their diploma program in avionics technology, and then she's returned as an instructor and now an academic chair in the School of Transportation. Her specialty is repairing and maintaining the electrical system, so this is communication, navigation, data systems. For all things airplanes and avionics. It's absolutely incredible. So I can't wait to talk about avionics She has an extensive history of working within the industry as well where she has worked as an installation technician and she was lucky enough to go down to Antarctica and were lucky enough to talk with her today about Antarctica and about her experience there. Stephanie, it is an honor to have you on the show.

Lisa 1:06

Thank you so much for having me. It's, really exciting for me to be here as well. I love the name of your podcast, by the way, smoko. That's awesome.

Alexis 1:13

Thank you. We called all of our break smokos and they just became like a, an institution really.

Lisa 1:21

When I was down in the Antarctic, I was down there with the British Antarctic survey and they called their brakes smoko. It connected with me for sure. Oh, thank you. I

Alexis 1:28

appreciate that. I don't know who coined at first if it was the Brits or the Ozzie. But, they definitely did a very good job of naming their breaks. And Stephanie to get us started is I was wondering if you could explain or talk about how you discovered aviation, because I just think it's so cool that this is what you ended up pursuing and this is your specialty.

Lisa 1:48

Yeah, of course. It's a family business aviation. So my grandfather was a pilot. He actually trained in the Air Force. He flew Lancasters, did not fly them in active combat, but he did fly the Lancaster. And my father followed in his footsteps, and was a pilot. So he was pilot for, I started out actually being a water bomber. That's where he got his hours, learned to fly larger aircraft, moved up to doing, small charter with a company called Time Air. That anyone in Southern Alberta would probably be familiar with. They were really big out of Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. And then he was lucky enough, to be in one of the final hiring sprees that Air Canada had in the eighties and the eighties. It was pretty hard to get a job in aviation. It was a very competitive industry. He was super lucky to end up getting a spot with Air Canada, his options were he was gonna go, air Canada or he was gonna go to the military. So luckily he didn't, end up in the military. Cuz that probably would've changed my life considerably. Yes, it would've. Yeah. But then interestingly enough, when my father worked for Time Air, my mom was, raised in Medicine Hat and she actually was a part of the cabin crew for Time air. Oh, okay. Yeah. Back in. That day they called her a stewardess. nowadays more, politically correct term I think would be the flight attendant or the back cabin crew. That's where they met, was on, was time, air, flying airplanes. That's really cool. So it's super sweet. So aviation was in my family. Nothing that I had ever really thought of when I was younger. I was always fascinated with airplanes. Funny enough, to me the smell of the jetway, so like the bridge out to the airplane. Where you can smell that airplane smell, the jet fuel, the cold air. And then there's always a mixture of cologne, because of, people going on the airplanes and everything like that. That smell to this day instantaneously just reminds me of my dad. Cuz when my dad would come home. From flying, that's what he would smell like. He'd smell like the jet way of it, of an airplane. just his suit is, from being out on the ramp and checking the airplane and stuff like that. So his flight suit. Would smell like that. So always loved that. I always loved aviation. Never really had thought as a small child that was gonna be, I never had aspirations to become a pilot. I was never like, I wanna do this. I wanna be a pilot just like my dad. I was just always fascinated by it. But then as I started to age and started to look at, what am I gonna do? When I get out of, high school, I had struggled in my last few years in high school. My parents had moved me to a new high school, that I was completely unknown to me. So had a hard time. Which affected obviously my performance within school. So I wasn't really in a position where I had probably the best marks to be entering into a university or something like that. The trades trade school was a viable option for me and I had thought as well about potentially becoming a pilot. My dad had explained to me, that I would be very good at it. I would probably end up advancing very far within the career because of the fact, that I would be good and that I was a woman. So recognizably, it's a very obviously male dominated industry and any women that show promise, they try and obviously get them into the industry. Especially in large carriers like Air Canada, west Jet, that sort of stuff. They want female pilots. For diversity within the workforce, obviously. So he had explained that and he said, but you're gonna start your career out, making nothing, living up north. Yep. Probably being a rampy in the freezing cold, sleeping in the back of a hanger on a cot. He's like, it'll be hard. But you know, you'll go far. Or you can go into the maintenance side. And you will also go far. But it'll be more reliable from off the back cuz my dad knew that side of the industry. He actually had started out his career as a mechanic. Oh, okay. In order to just get his foot in the door to get someone to let him fly airplanes, essentially. And funny enough, my dad had just come back from a trip where he had been in Toronto and they needed to have their fms, which is their flight management system, updated. So that's typically an avionics job. Okay. So they called and they said, their flight management system required an update. So while they were doing just switch over of passengers, an avionics technician came out and it was a young lady, maybe a few years older than me. So he started talking to her and asking her about her job and what she did and how she liked it. So he came back and. He said, you know what? I think you should probably look into avionics. Probably more up your alley. And he said to me like, you're all so small, so they'll probably stick you in a lot of like fuel tanks and stuff like that if you go into me. Yes, that's true.

Alexis 6:32

Confined spaces will be your new best friend.

Lisa 6:34

Yep. Yeah, exactly. he's it'll be a little bit cleaner, a little bit easier on your body, a little bit more like you're inside the airplane more and stuff like that. My dad, was a huge influence to me. He was, obviously a very important person in my life and I had huge respect and I think obviously wanted to make my dad proud. Yeah. So that really drove me as I was like, yeah, that then I think I will. And so I came into the program, into avionics. And I loved it. Sat really was, it was a. Turning point in my life. Like I mentioned, I wasn't on necessarily the best path, and I came to SAT and it changed everything for me. I forever have a huge love for the institute.

Alexis 7:15

That's such a cool story. Thank you for sharing it. It's just, it's so beautiful in so many ways. I love thats, and the program was such a big turning point in your life. I know My sister's currently at SAT and it's for her the same thing. Like it's changed her life from now on and she Yeah. Loves the program so much. So I love that you had the same experience, but I also love how serendipitous kind of the. Your story was in a way that it happened to be a young woman in avionics that your dad could be like, yep, this is like my daughter. My daughter is basically this woman, or very similar, have similar, passions and goals and that kind of conversation. That one maintenance like took you to avionics. I also love that it was passed down and it was a, from a family of pilots. It's very cool to have that mentor with your dad and to be able to talk to him and have someone in the industry and give you good counsel about, how the industry works. And maybe from my understanding, is there two kind of branches when you're looking at taking care and maintaining a plane? Is there avionics and then, mechanical is one kind of more engineering and mechanic based, and then one's more calm and technology based. Is that kind of the difference between

Lisa 8:30

them? There's actually three. Different streams. Okay. You're very right. So avionics is, Essentially, computer systems, electronics, navigation communication within the airplane. Wow. So essentially you're an aircraft electrician, as well as like the systems maintenance. And avionics actually can take two different streams as well, where you can do on aircraft maintenance, or you can do on the bench, which is taking the broken component out of the airplane, fixing it on the bench, and then bringing it back. Or you're the person on the airplane that's actually fixing the airplane side of the system. So there's two different streams there. Maintenance yes. Is more, it's more the, there, like you think engines like, engines, fluids, so your hydraulics,

Alexis 9:12

Nuts and bolts. Of, of the plane. Yeah.

Lisa 9:14

Okay. And more and more with the way that aircraft are advancing and becoming more and more electric, you're seeing more of a blur between those two as to what is a maintenance job and what is an avionics person's job. So that's been a really interesting development within the industry. And then the. Third, trade that we have within our industry is structures, which is like the actual structure of the aircraft. So like something, a bird strike that smashes the front of the wing in, that's a structures person that comes out, and fixes that, or, corrosion and need to replace parts of the aircraft because of that, or modifications to an airframe. Anything to do with the structural part of the aircraft is a structures technician that does that. They tend to be more the artistic,

Alexis 9:58

ones designer. Very cool. There's kinda three, three systems of it and I could see, I think I do have a question later about the future of the industry, but I could see that kind of blur because technology and data is becoming the most be all, end all thing and almost every single industry. So I could see that blur. When it came to, to sat and with your program, that it was this life-changing beautiful moment and set you up for the rest of your life. I was wondering if you could speak to how it felt returning as an educator and having this full circle moment of being an alumni of the avionics technology diploma program, and then returning as an instructor and now as an academic chair at the School of Transportation. How was that experience? Has it been surreal coming back as an educator?

Lisa 10:45

So it was actually terrifying, to take that leap to move out of, out of industry into standing in front of a class of 32 people and thinking, wow, now you know, I'm supposed to be the sage on the stage that knows everything and I don't feel like I do. That quickly went away and it was. It was very cool to be able to reach so many people and be able to share the stories and things that I had done and share the things that I'd learned within the industry. I adored being an instructor. It was fantastic job. Just getting to interact with the students, getting to, teach. I loved the courses that I taught. I taught a lot of the, basic electronics, the OMS law the good stuff. Yeah. And then I did all the installation. I did a lot of, heavy maintenance when I was in the industry, so a lot of like rebuilds of aircraft. So I did a lot of like install, wow. Work. So I became the install instructor. Amazing. And absolutely loved it. Coming to work at SAT every day. It is honestly probably one of the best facilities, within the aviation programs. We have probably the best team that I have ever worked on. Just an amazing group of people working here. And I was incredibly fortunate that when I came into, this role, I came into the role under a very strong female leader. So a fantastic mentor, to be able to build, the foundation of how to be an instructor on. She left and moved on to a different school within sat, and I got another incredibly strong, female leader, Linda Holden. it was incredibly wonderful being able to watch both of them rise within the institution cuz they both came from an instructor position and rose within the institution. And to obviously receive their mentorship and just, learn from them. That was wonderful. It was, a really exciting, thing, to be able to be part of that process of growing the next generation of technicians. So then the next step for me was to move to, Obviously the chair role. It had always been my goal, as a personality type. It's funny, I've done a lot of personality Yes. Quizzes, probably all of that. In the instructor role and in the leadership role. I did, a, skills assessment, where they assess your base of skills, what are your strong things, what do you always lean to? And my two top skills were, an was achiever and discipline. I actually did it in a leadership academy. And when I had it out, the facilitator for the leadership academy walked by and he was like, wow. That is very rare that you see achiever in discipline as the top two. You must be a dog with a bone. And I was like, oh, yes,

Alexis 13:27

This is exactly what I was like, made to do this was like for me. That's perfect.

Lisa 13:31

So I've always had that, just, I wanna try something new. I wanna try something more. I wanna grow. So when the chair, the opportunity to become the chair came up, I was very excited to obviously put my name in for that. And I was fortunate enough to get the role. And it was very dynamic. I took the role in 2019 and then three months later, COVID hit.

Alexis 13:56

Oh my goodness. Oh no, I didn't put the math together. That's the time to start the new, the new gig and the new role. That's insane.

Lisa 14:03

So it was a huge learning curve. Because I was trying to just learn the position as well as navigate all of the complexities that Covid threw into it. But it was fantastic because I think I learned more than I would've otherwise. It was very stressful and very hard, and there were days where I was like, I think I've made a terrible choice. I should've stayed as an instructor. But I knew that it was where I wanted to be. I wanted to be in a position. Where I could use my skills, to bring the program forward and have a wider influence on what it is that we do here at SAT and what we're doing for the aviation community. And be able to really drive our programs into the next stage of where we need to be.

Alexis 14:46

I feel like you probably did get just thrown into the pressure cooker with c o d and you're, I think it's an understatement to say oh, I learned so much more than I think I would've otherwise. I think you probably learned like 20 years of being an academic chair probably in a couple of months because it was just so stressful. For everybody. And I couldn't imagine changing regulations, changing kind of government policies, being in education with students and are we open? What's gonna go on with virtual learning, especially when say is so hands-on, your programs are so in person and hands-on. I could just see that being very hard.

Lisa 15:18

And we have, the added challenge in the aviation portfolio is we're externally regulated by Transport Canada. So we're an approved ATO O here at sat. Which means that not only do I answer to sat, but I answer to the higher power of Transport Canada as well. And Transport Canada does not recognize online learning as a viable learning. They backed off a bit. For our theoretical courses. But in order for us to maintain accreditation, we needed to deliver every single hour of our practical hands-on practical, in a hands-on environment. We had no ability to reduce hours. Oh my goodness. So that was, yeah. Yeah. That was insane because the second that we got back, that we were permitted to come back on campus, we, yeah, we jumped back in, it was July 13th. It was actually my birthday, that they opened Happy birthday to you. That they opened the campus back up and I had full hands on deck and we were in campus. We were on campus since. July of 2020 and we had been on campus and then, as things started to open up and, they started to talk about bringing some other schools back on campus. They're, developing all these programs, so like integrate instructors back onto campus. And my instructors were all like, we just came back. There was no program for us. And I'm like, no, there wasn't that. We just jumped

Alexis 16:32

right in. You're the first ones that had to come back I didn't realize that you guys had to, go by the rules and regulations of Transport Canada. It does make complete sense that's there. I just had no idea that was part of the program. Another layer of complexity and another layer of complexity within your first year of academic chair. Very, very wild. I did love your story about the full circle moment of. If I could speak to it, is how important it is for female mentorship and to have those representation of like strong, female leaders and female mentors that kind of help you within the industry. And I think that's so beautiful and such a wonderful thing about sat, is the amount of female leadership And maybe we've touched on these already, but maybe if people are unaware about, say and unaware about the avionics program in the School of Transportation, could you touch on what you guys teach? And maybe that's gonna be too broad of a question cuz you guys teach everything, but in the avionics, what do you get out of the degree? What do you get outta that diploma program?

Lisa 17:31

So the lovely part about our programs is because like I mentioned, we are Transport Canada accredited. So for the generalized public's knowledge, you don't actually need a license to work on an airplane, which might Whoa make some people go. Yes. Oh my God. Yes, completely. You do not need a license to work on an airplane. You do need a license to sign out an airplane. So to certify it as airworthy, you need to be a licensed individual to obtain a license within the industry. There's two different methods that you can go about doing that. You can either just, hopefully someone will hire you, sight on scene, no skills into the industry and allow you to work. I don't know if I want that, but, okay. Yeah. You can work for 48 months. You can go to Transport Canada, write all the Transport Canada's exams. Which are very large comprehensive exams covering all of the competencies that they determine need to be understood in order to be an engineer. For an aircraft. And then you can have appropriate work experience, have a filled out log book, write all these exams, and within 48 months you can then get your Transport Canada license. That's a long shot cuz probably not a lot of companies are gonna hire someone with no skills or experience in the field. It's

Alexis 18:51

like trying to pass the bar without going to law school. Like it is possible, but it's difficult. Very, very difficult.

Lisa 18:57

Exactly. It would be a huge challenge and a huge undertaking. So the benefit thats has is we have an approved curriculum. That's why we're an a t o. So we're an approved training organization, which means that we have structured our programs in such a way that Transport Canada's come in and looked at the curriculum that we deliver, and they've said, yes, this meets with what we expect, an engineer should know. So they have certified us. All of our examinations are certified. So the benefit of coming tos is you come to sa, you progress through your program with avionics. That's two years. Aircraft maintenance, that's two years and structures, that's one. Then what you get at the end of that I issue a letter of accreditation What that gives them is it exempts them from writing all of the transport candidate examinations except for the cars, which is the Canadian Aircraft Regulations exam. And it credits for aircraft maintenance and avionics. 18 months of work experience. Towards a license. And for structures it credits. 10. Fantastic. When you get out into the industry, now you have this basis of knowledge. There's much more, there's a way higher likelihood that you're gonna get hired. You, can then get a job. So that is the benefit of coming to Satan. That's what we do at sat, is we provide an approved curriculum, that, will get you essentially a leg up in the industry.

Alexis 20:15

And you have an instant kind of streamline into the industry and also have this big base of technical and theoretical knowledge, but also hands on experience, which is so lovely about the program. It's very cool that you have this program in place. And maybe speaking to your role as an academic chair, and maybe we've already talked about it a little bit of your favorite part or definitely what was a challenge when you first started with Covid, but, what is your favorite part of your job right now about this position? And then maybe what's something that you discovered along the way that you didn't think of when you first started your role and you transitioned from instructor to academic chair?

Lisa 20:54

I think my favorite part of the job is getting to see the big picture. I actually like getting to stand back. I getting to see the big picture, getting to know, all of the programs and actually I like the regulatory side of it as well. Being the p r t, the person responsible for training and understanding the regulatory side of it. That, that has been, a really exciting part for me to learn more of that. Something that I didn't think I realized is how, being the academic chair, cuz we're at a satellite facility, which means we're not at the main campus. We're actually out at the airport. We literally train right off the end of the airfield. And we can see WestJet, we can see, Calgary International Airport from our facility. But that provides a huge disconnect as you don't get a lot of the culture of sat. We have our own sort of independent culture out here. So I think one of the things that was exciting for me about becoming the chair is it gave me an opportunity to en mesh myself more within the culture of sat. Versus just our own independent culture that we have out at Aero and to see the difference and I think it really made me realize the culture out at the Aero Center. I think some of the very special things about the Aero Center and about the culture that we have out here by also seeing what the culture is at the main campus and main site.

Alexis 22:06

I didn't realize that you guys are a satellite campus and right on. On the airport. I worked on a satellite, community from College Station, Texas, which is where we were based, but I was on a boat and I never saw Texas. To this day, I have never been to the state of Texas, even though I was an employee for more than five years. And the boat, or like any satellite, it does become its own kind of world and it has its own quirks and it's nice to go back and to meet people from the other side that you're like, oh yeah, we're actually all together and from the same institution. Stephanie, thank you so much for talking about st and talking about the program and talking about your education and your work as an academic chair and an instructor. I just think it's, so cool, but it's only kind of one aspect of your story, cuz I, I know that you've also worked for years in the industry and You worked in the field of aviation working for both the Western Avionics and then Rocky Mountain Aircraft. And like you were saying before, it was all like installation specific. You became the girl for installation. And I was wondering if you could describe what that meant and what that means. What are the roles and responsibilities that are tied to that?

Lisa 23:11

So I worked in more heavy maintenance, as an install technician. So Rocky Mountain Aircraft, they're a heavy maintenance facility. They don't operate their own aircraft, they just maintain aircraft, either their own aircraft that they then lease out or they maintain aircraft for other, for other, companies. And their specialty is the Twin Otter. It's a very, twin Otter is a very unique airplane. I love it. It's a funny little airplane. What is the Twin

Alexis 23:34

Otter? If I have the right one in my mind, is it the one with the two dual props that they're like float planes

Lisa 23:38

almost. They can be put on floats. Yeah, they are a workhorse. They're like the 67 Chevy of the airplane world. It's like they run no matter what. I've been in so

Alexis 23:48

many of them with mine. I think they're like the main one that gets you to camp. Oh yeah. Okay. I know what you're talking

Lisa 23:53

about. You know, you can put 'em on tundra tires and land them on gravel. You can put them on skis and land them on snow. You can put them on floats and land them on water. They take a massive payload for the size of aircraft that they are. you can load them up to 14,500 pounds, which is a lot of weight for an airplane of its size. And they are a stole aircraft. So de Havelin sort of claim to fame was, manufacturing stole aircraft, and stole stands for short takeoff in landing. So the Twin Otter, you can search it, anyone that's interested, go ahead and look at some of the crazy videos on YouTube. Of how fast, of how short of a distance they need to take off and to land. And that is all due to the design of the airplane, mostly the fact that they have these gigantic long, thick wings. With giant flaps. So they have a massive wing area versus the size of the aircraft. But they're incredibly slow. You're not getting anywhere fast in a Twin Otter, but you can bring an awful lot of stuff with you, and go anywhere that you want. If a Twin Otter can't get you in there, the only other option is a helicopter at that point in time. Because if a twin Otter can't land there, probably nothing else can. So super unique, interesting airplane. Very much a workhorse of the north. If you did a lot of work up north in mining, you definitely, I would hedge my bets. You've probably flown on at least one or two twin otters in your life.

Alexis 25:12

I think all I've flown on is twin otters. As you were describing it. I was like, yep, that checks, that checks mining. Yep. A hundred percent.

Lisa 25:19

They're noisy. Oh, bouncy slow.

Alexis 25:23

They workhorse. I think that's perfect. Description of them. It felt like stepping back into the sixties, I thought someone was about to start smoking the first time I went, I think in a toilet.

Lisa 25:32

And that probably wouldn't be unheard of, especially with some of the crusty people that they get to apply these things around. I've flown with some pretty unique characters and worked with some pretty unique characters working with this airplane. But Rocky Mountains, thing was maintaining, and mostly doing, they owned a fleet that they leased or an awful lot of heavy maintenance. Cause twin otters, due to the nature of what they do and where they go, they crash an awful lot. And so they need to be rebuilt when they crash. And they're also a incredibly valuable airplane. But until de Havelin started manufacturing the 400 series just a few years ago, they were in high demand because there were only so many of them made. And so, if you could find a fuselage, and a lot of them were things where, you know, like we had aircraft that had been recovered from the jungles in Africa. And they knew that these things were out there. And literally someone trekked into the jungle and made the effort of pulling this thing out of the jungle because that's how valuable they were.

Alexis 26:32

That's absolutely crazy that's the length to go. But I guess that they're so limited in their workhorse.

Lisa 26:36

So essentially, in a rebuild, a lot of times what we would do is we'd have projects, we usually called them our hangar queens. It was something that had been pulled out of a jungle or a desert or somewhere, or crashed or, that we at Rocky, that they would piece back together, and repair because that was their specialty. They're the specialist in heavy overhaul of Twin Otters. Quite often it, the thing would get new wings. There's companies that'll build wings for them. But as long as you have the fuse laws, you can essentially build a new twin Otter out of it. And they would go through, strip it all down, take everything out, start repairing, all of the skins. And by everything I mean, everything, all the wires, all the, lines. Cuz if something's been sitting in the jungle for years, nothing inside of it is good anymore. So we'd tear them down to the bear structures would start to work to rebuild them. And then it would be our job to go in. So at Rocky we could rebuild the harnesses, for them. So we had, the ability to build a whole new wire harness and rewire the aircraft in its entirety. So from absolutely nothing, put a whole brand new wire harness in it and completely rewire the whole aircraft and also install a whole new avionics package. New instrumentation, communication, navigation equipment. It would start with nothing and we would rebuild it, to being a flying aircraft that then would be either sold to somebody or on lease. So that's sort, that's where my sort of wheelhouse started, was in, in that, in heavy maintenance. And then I moved to, Western Avionics after, working at Rocky, and I moved into the installation shop over there. So doing installs on. Various other kinds of aircraft. But this time mostly focused on just avionics. So not rebuilds of the full aircraft, just the avionics suites.

Alexis 28:16

Rocky Mountain. It just sounds so unique. It sounds very different and it sounds like every single day was something new especially if they're coming from all over the world and all over, like conditions because they're so valuable Very different than a true avionics or what you'd be used to of just avionics. And I'm sure you probably have a favorite plane and a favorite rebuild that you had of being like, this one came in completely destroyed and we sent it out. It sounds like there was no typical day. It sounds like everything was all over the place. What was a good day for you when you worked in industry and what was a bad day?

Lisa 28:48

I think a good day is when things are going well. Things are going well, the project's chugging along, you're able to source the parts, you're on time, things are getting built. When progress is made in a sensible order, and things are, working along the way that they should. Bad days for me was always when things would come up that, Usually at bequest of a customer or because something else came up that was unbeknown to the company, that needed to happen, where you are undoing work you've already done. Oh, that's the worst. That was always very frustrating. Ones where, I'd done a significant amount of work. And then we'd get notification that either we needed to change something, because a customer wanted something changed, or, the customer had changed. They want something different now with this airplane. And so now you're redoing a lot of stuff. At times the stress of when something wasn't working properly and then everyone's there breathing down your neck being like, when are, when is it gonna get fixed? And when you don't have the answer, when you're just, you're, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what's wrong. I don't know why this thing won't work.

Alexis 29:53

Give me time. I need time to figure it out.

Lisa 29:55

And with aviation it's time and money is always of the essence. In aviation, just cuz the amount of money that you're looking at spending time becomes a real big issue. Time is always very critical as to we need to get this done and get it out. I would've never loved line maintenance where that's an airplane comes in and you need to fix it and turn it around. I was not a fan of that kind of pressure.

Alexis 30:15

I agree with that being a bad day. When I worked as a marine technician, a lot of our job on this, like deep seed drilling vessel was creating specialized equipment. But because it was specialized in one-on-one, sometimes it would break obviously. And we're just in the middle of the ocean. We have only the resources that we have and we had to fix it. And then you have the same situation of people. Being like, when is it done? And you're like, I don't know, man. Like we're, we're doing our best. We have limited resources. I understand that it's costing time and money because it's a 24 7 drilling operation, but right now, it's just like time, some peace of quiet. I don't think I have the personality for it as well, for line maintenance. I think that pressure definitely gets to me. And I think sometimes I've been a little bit sassy with customers of being like, you need to please go for a walk and I'll fix this if I can't. It is a pressure. So I could see that being, being very stressful. One really cool thing that I would love to speak about is your time working down in Antarctica and. My understanding is you were working for the British Antarctic Survey. Yes. And you were there doing maintenance of their plane. Could describe the experience of working in Antarctica. I have only been on the coast of Antarctica. I still count it, but I've never been on the continent. How was that experience and then how was that project? Was it different from an avionics perspective? Was it completely a different world?

Lisa 31:33

So that was my experience with line maintenance was working in Antarctica. That's what I did, down there is I was, their avionic support for the base. So the British Antarctic Survey operates, four twin otters and one dash seven, is their fleet of aircraft. And they have a base that the aircraft operate out of is Rother Research Station, which is right on the peninsula of Antarctica. That little piece that like sticks out? Halfway, kinda halfway down the peninsula is where, Rother is located on an island. The first time that I got to Antarctica and I stepped off the airplane, Antarctica has a wild, breathtaking beauty to it that you would never be able to understand until you went there. I tell everybody, if you ever have the chance to go there and actually go to the continent, do it. There's something about just the quiet and the mystery and the very raw, terrifying beauty of Antarctica. Because it's so untouched. It's very unique. And where Roth is, it's a gorgeous location cuz it's on the peninsula. So it is on a mountain range. And it's right off the sea. So you have, the sea there. So tons of animals, tons of wildlife. And obviously they have a hanger and a runway, which is. Very cool. It's pretty unique to get a hanger down in Antarctica, so that's pretty neat. Unheated, it's the hanger, it's still building. It's same thing. It's a

Alexis 32:53

structure in Antarctica, which is very hard to find.

Lisa 32:56

And the Rother research station was set up, very nicely. The buildings and stuff there were all very nice. So I was based outta there for six months. Maintaining the aircraft. It was, an absolutely wonderful experience. One where I had a ton of growth. I learned a lot about myself because I was young. I was only 23 years old when I went down there and I was responsible for the whole fleet of aircraft and pretty much anybody that came through Antarctica, cuz Ken Bork Air operates through there. And there's a couple other operators, that operate heavily in Antarctica and anyone that would come through. If they have had avionics problems, they usually would ask me because I was the only avionics person I believe, on the whole continent.

Alexis 33:33

Honestly, that checks. Yeah.

Lisa 33:35

It was, a huge amount of responsibility. The first time I'd ever been very far away from home, been very far away from everything that I knew, and that was very outside of my personality to do something like that. I'm tend to be a play it safe type of person, and it was a huge risk that I took to just jump in both feet and say, yeah, I'll go and I'll do this for six months. So it was super interesting to get to work on the airplanes. I met some really great people actually. Funny enough, one of the instructors that currently works with me here at ST was actually one of the individuals that I went down to Antarctica with. So it was, Yeah, just a fantastic experience. And then getting to live with, essentially the British was really interesting as well because it was living with a different culture. Just getting to learn the things, that they do and things about their culture and, the different, like they always had, smoko being one of the things, all of the breaks were smoko. Every Sunday they had a fancy dinner. And then they'd have fancy dress parties, which to us, you think you'd dress up in nice clothes, no fancy dresses. You dress up in costumes so much. Met a lot of really fascinating people with really fascinating stories down there. I could talk for hours about the people that I met. Honestly, I might have

Alexis 34:43

you back on the show just to

Lisa 34:44

do that. Yeah. And I definitely would love to. I flew with one pilot that I could tell stories that you would think this cannot be true, and I will let you know a hundred percent they are. He was the biggest character, and it was funny when you mentioned about the jumping on the Twin Otter and thinking someone was gonna light up a smoke. So this pilot he did smoke on the Twin Otter. And, I just, I have to tell this one, story. Because it is hilarious. We get on the Twin Otter and we're flying and we hit some weather. And so the weather, it just rocks. The Twin Otter, everything that we have inside just goes flying like our garbage that we had and there exploded. All the manuals that we were carrying, we were ferrying this aircraft. Just everything exploded, went everywhere. And he always kept his smokes in his, flight suit pocket. It was hard enough we hit this weather hard enough. His smokes went flying out of his pocket and the first thing he gains control of the airplane and the first thing he goes is, find my smokes. I was like, can we just concentrate on getting out of the weather? Like I will get you your smokes. Yeah. Do you not know? It just

Alexis 35:51

happened to us. Like we just got rocked, man. It's so funny because like even that little story, they remind me of sailors and I feel like that's the experience of it. Like I feel like every single guy that I've ever worked on a boat with has been the same kinda weird, crazy cast of characters. I don't know if it's the isolation, I don't know if it's just like that's what draws them there, but there are just this like funny cast of characters and that's so funny that he was smoking on a twin honor because in a weird way, I feel like that plane is made to smoke on because it just like when you walk on it, it just, it does feel like the 1970s, I don't know how to explain it. It has that energy to it, which is ridiculous. And so That's so funny that was your experience down in Antarctica. What a leap of faith of you saying I had never done that. I had never pushed myself out of my comfort zone or gone away from home. I think you went the furthest away from home that's physically possible. Like it's one of the most remote places in the entire world, so that's crazy that you took that leap. I'm so happy that you did, cuz it sounds like such an amazing experience, but also the role, no wonder you had pressure in that job cuz like the role and responsibility of it, especially in Antarctica, it's such a dangerous environment and a dangerous field survey that you do have to make sure that everything. Works perfectly. And is maintained perfectly of limited resources, I'm sure. Being so isolated. That amount of pressure and responsibility at that age is insane at 23. What helped you with that?

Lisa 37:17

Honestly, it was just the drive to, it was a relationship that I'd built with definitely the pilots for sure. The pilots, you wanna make sure that the aircraft are safe cuz these guys, you live with them every day. They matter to you and you know that they're flying into dangerous places. So you want the aircraft to be the best that they possibly can be. And I think it was just, the excitement of getting to do something like that and the desire to want to be great at it, to show that, I think always in my career, I pushed myself to be good and independent and the top that I can be. Because reality is, as a woman in a male dominated career, I think you get painted with the brush immediately of that jaded look of, is she gonna be able to do it? There's bias. Oh, it's girl. Yes. Bias, she's just a little girl, what's this girl gonna do? my dad was a fear supporter of me. I was never, I was never a princess. I was never his little princess. I was always, he was always like, you're smarter and you're better than that. So do better. Yeah. So I carried that through, obviously, into, throughout my life. I think it's part of that wanting to make him proud and parting to wanna make myself proud to and show everybody that yeah, I can and don't doubt me for any other reason other than if I show you that I can't.

Alexis 38:37

Don't doubt me right away, just because of like a preconceived bias. I really resonate with that. And thank you for sharing. I love that was the advice Because sometimes I think back of my career and I'm like, I feel like everything that I've accomplished in my life has been because of spite. Like, sometimes like yeah. It's just like, like people being like, no, you know what, you can't do that. You can't go into geology, you can't go into mining. This isn't for you. I feel like my entire motto could be like, and I took that personal,

Lisa 39:04

tell me I can't, and I'll show you, I can. Right.

Alexis 39:06

Exactly like that. Stubbornness. My dad's like one of my biggest inspirations, as, your dad is to you. And I feel like he always had that as well of just being like, prove 'em wrong. Of course you can do that. Keep going. I love that mentality. I really resonate with it. Maybe if we can get lofty, if I can ask you a couple lofty questions. In the future of aviation, but what's exciting you right now about the future of the aviation industry? What does that look like?

Lisa 39:34

I think one of the biggest things that excites me about the future of aviation is just the advancements that aviation is making. It is becoming so much more electrical, so much more, technology and computer based, down to, even like the engines and the mechanical components, the hydraulics, the brakes, the way that they're starting to build aircraft, they're diverting away from a lot of the traditional methods and using a lot more electrical and computer controls. That really opens up the industry to advance and to change. And it's not an industry of brute force. It's not an industry where you need to be big and strong. There are certain things that you do need that for. There is always gonna be heavy components on airplanes, but I think that. In the view of an industry that's really a great sort of stem or non-traditional industry for women to get into. Aviation is fantastic for that simple fact that it isn't about brute force and ignorance, it's about finesse and it's about, having those delicate hand skills. And I think too generationally in the industry, we've lost a lot of kind of the old guard and we're seeing a lot of younger, people rising up within the industry. My husband works in the industry as well, actually. Okay. He's also one of my biggest supporters. And I think that helps huge, to be a woman in a non-traditional industry and to rise up is to have people that rally behind you and support you. And he's always been of the viewpoint that, Like diversity on the hangar floor, especially more women on the hangar floor, is better for the industry? It helps to bring in different perspectives, different viewpoints, different method of doing things. That's incredibly beneficial. With the way that aviation is going, it's one of those careers that I wish more women would consider and would get into because I think the more women we see in this industry, the more the industry is going to become, a better place for women to work in completely. And it's an industry desperate for a workforce. Both maintenance and pilots. We're crying for people. We've lost so many people just due to retirements and due to covid. So it's just huge prospects in this industry right at the moment.

Alexis 41:55

I could see it being this like empty vacuum a little bit, especially since Covid, I feel like it. It was an industry that was rocked So I could see it being the desperate for people and desperate for people to enter this field. The future of avionics and the future of aviation is that it is gonna be a huge hub of innovation for technology. And because of that, it has this brilliant kind of opening that it can be perfect for increased diversity and increased women working within this fields because it's moving. I do wanna ask one more question if I can, and that's what's something that brings you joy about working in aviation?

Lisa 42:30

What I enjoyed about working in aviation is when you saw the product of your labor fly away. Just that moment of I did that, yeah, that was me. That airplane is flying because of, not solely obviously the work that I did there was, a great team of people involved. I didn't build the airplane all on my own in any way, shape or form. But then my hand was in it and that airplane wouldn't be flying and it wouldn't be doing what it was doing if I hadn't been here and done what I did. that very visual satisfaction of, of your job, of what you have accomplished. I always loved that. Just, seeing them. Go from being a fuselage in the back of the hangar with nothing in them to sitting out on the ramp, engines running, ready to taxi and take off and fly. That very concrete, product of your labor was what I really enjoyed.

Alexis 43:24

I feel like it aligns to your other answers though, earlier in this interview when you spoke about big picture, I feel like that's a big picture thing and like you get to like actually physically see it and see the impact that you've created come to life. Brilliant answer. Thank you so much for coming onto the show. Stephanie, I feel like I learned so much. Thank you so much for coming onto the show. I really appreciate it. It was, wonderful speaking

Lisa 43:47

with you. Well thank you so much for having me, Alexis. I really enjoyed this, it was, a really fun experience for me as well to get to be on this. I'm so flattered and honored, that you wanted to interview me.

Alexis 43:58

It was an honor to have you on the show I really appreciate it, and thank you guys. If you're listening, thank you so much for listening. This was The smoko podcast with Stephanie, and thank you again for coming on the show. Bye guys. We'll see you next week.