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Q: What is your education and background?

A: I am a certified Aircraft Maintenance Engineer – Structures category and specialize in composite technologies. I have a long history in the aircraft industry and an even longer history working with composites. Composites, for those that might not know, are specialty materials and processes such as carbon fiber, Kevlar and fiberglass with related processes. I have been involved in many different projects including prototyping modified aircraft and I have even been fortunate enough to have owned my own aerospace maintenance training company. A long story for another time!

Q: What is your area of interest?

A: Aircraft of all shapes and sizes of course! If it flies it fascinates me….  I love facts about aircraft that boggle my mind; like the fact that a 747-8 weighs 970,000 pounds and gets off the ground and stays in the air!

Q: When did you know that you had found your discipline?

A: The minute I walked through the doors of the maintenance training school I attended to get my AME-S licence, I knew I had found what I was looking for. I was able to take my hand skills and combine them with something I had a genuine interest in. The rest is history.

Q: Why did you choose to work at Okanagan College?

A: To be honest, it was the people in charge of the aerospace programs that blew me away. These days it’s often quite hard to find people that truly love what they do and where they work. I could see that they had a love for the school and that they school looked after them. This made it seem like a family that I wanted to be a part of. Another big key to my wanting to work at OC was that I could see that the OC believes in and supports the aerospace programs. I cannot express how important this is to me. As instructors, we are passionate about what we do. It’s a true blessing that OC is behind us every step of the way as we share our passion.

Q: What do you like most about what you do?

A: I love the relationship of instructor and student. As an instructor I have the opportunity to share my passion through the skills I have learned and our students trust us enough to take those passion/skills and apply them to their own lives as they embark on their new career. As instructors we truly get to create a form of DNA imprint on our students. You can tell when a student was trained by a certain instructor by the imprint left on them through their training. I love that someday, down the road, I will run into one of my students and hear stories of where their training has taken them. That is a great moment.

Q: Favourite teaching experience?

A: I think it is that moment when you see the light bulb go on in your students head. When the have that “Aha” moment and that elusive concept finally sticks and takes root. I love it when that happens.

Q: Who gave you the best advice you ever received?

A: It was my manager in the training department of the aircraft maintenance organization I was working for at the time. I had really messed up and was “called to the carpet” for a talking to. I was prepared to be fired. As he started to talk I knew that I could lose my job, but he dealt with it in such a way that I felt valuable in spite of my mistake. He concluded with the thought that in every mistake there is a golden nugget of knowledge to be learned. Success always comes with failure, so embrace it. When I grow up as an instructor, I want to be like him as a leader.

Q: What advice do you have for new students?

A: Make sure that you pick something you are passionate about and not just something that will get you a job. Then, do whatever it takes to remain passionate about what you are studying. In my career there have been many times that have forced me to want to give up. In those moments you need to find a way to remember why you are doing what you are doing in the first place. For me, when things get tough, I just go sit in the cockpit of an aircraft and remember that I love aircraft and that I am one of a small number of people that have this opportunity. This helps me reset and get past whatever is stalling me out.

Q: Why do you think people should study Trades?

A: People will always need things to be built or fixed. If you like working with your hands, then the trades are where you need to be. It doesn’t matter which trade, as long as you are passionate about it.

Q: If you could go back in time, is there anything you would do differently?

A: Is this a loaded question? Haha. Too many things that I would do differently. What comes to my mind at the moment is that I think I would not look for the approval of others so much. I have accomplished a lot in my career and life, but I still feel that I could have done more if not for listening to the voices I hear in my head. Voices of those that say I can’t do something or that it’s not possible. You are your own person and you run your own race. You are the one you face in the mirror, so own what you are doing and do it so you are proud of yourself first.

Q: Where are you the happiest?

A: In the mountains, on a paddleboard or under the hood/behind the steering wheel of a fast car.