Holding Short

Episode 65 is out today with guest Karl Loken!

Karl began his aviation career in 2007 with Air Georgian/Air Canada Express, as an Inventory Controller in supply-chain to support the Beech 1900D aircraft; concurrently training under Centennial College’s Parts Technician Apprenticeship red seal trade certification program. 

In 2013, he joined Sky Regional Airlines/Air Canada Express as a Lead Materials Coordinator, Stores & Material Control department at YYZ for the Embraer 175 fleet transition from Air Canada mainline to Air Canada Express operations.

In late 2014, at age 25, Karl was presented with an opportunity to join Emirates Airlines in Dubai, UAE to help develop the Materials Management Department for its new $120 million Emirates Engine Maintenance Centre (EEMC), the largest engine (Maintenance Repair Organization) MRO in the Middle East, which supports the power-plant repair and overhaul for the GE90-115B and GP7200 engines for the Boeing 777-200LR/-300ER and Airbus A380 respectively. He also leveraged the support of Emirates to complete a Master’s degree in Aviation Management.

After working for close to four years for Emirates Airlines, Karl in 2018 returned home to Toronto as Stores Duty Manager for Air Canada’s YYZ Hub. At Pearson International Airport, he managed the project development and transition of the logistics and supply footprint within the largest freestanding, commercial aircraft hangar in Canada (Bay 5), built at a cost of $90 million. In 2020, his role at Air Canada expanded to include serving as Regional Manager, SCM Operations at YYZ. His role further expanded to being promoted to General Manager, Logistics & Warehousing, and was responsible for Air Canada’s Logistics department across the various bases system wide.

Upon Karl’s return to Canada, he concurrently worked to also earn his Commercial Pilot’s License and Group 1 Multi IFR rating. He is now currently flying as a First Officer on the Dash 8-100/300 for Voyageur Airways.

He is a holder of an M.B.A in Aviation Management, an accredited Member of The Royal Aeronautical Society, and an accredited Member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport. 

He has been a member of the Urban Pilots Network (UPN) since 2007, and a member of Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP) since 2017.

Karl can be found on instagram @lokalizer1 and on Linkedin.

Episode 64 is out today with guest Pam Maskell!

Pam got her start in aviation a little bit later in life. While flying was always something that was of great interest, it wasn’t until she took a discovery flight for her 30 th birthday that she realized that becoming a pilot wasn’t out of reach. A few short months after the initial flight, Pam began working towards her PPL and hasn’t looked back.

Never feeling fully fulfilled in her career in healthcare, and often joking that she would continue on her current path until she decided what she wanted to do when she grew up - when a job opportunity presented itself at her local flight school, she jumped at the opportunity to fully take the plunge into a career in aviation.

With the support and encouragement of her family and local flying community Pam has obtained her Commercial Pilot Licence and is currently working on her Instrument Rating. She worked as the Operations Manager at the Rockcliffe Flying Club, and now works at NAV CANADA. Pam has a passion for all things aviation and is fascinated by the various aspects of the industry and how they all tie together.

Pam can be found on Instagram @bulletwithairplanewings.

Episode 63 is out today with guest Emily Reiman!

Emily is an Aerospace Control Operator in the RCAF, the Director of DEI on the Senior Leadership Team for Elevate Aviation and Project Coordinator for Allies in the Workplace. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Sociology and a Master’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus in Equity Studies. Emily is currently working in the Combat Operations Center in Cold Lake AB and has deployed operationally on Operation Reassurance in Romania and Operation Impact in Kuwait. She has participated in numerous exercises throughout North America and has had the opportunity to travel throughout her military career.

Emily is a member of the Defence Women’s Advisory Organization (DWAO) that seeks to address and overcome barriers that women face in the workplace, and a member of the Transforming Military Cultures (TMC) Network - a collaboration that seeks to challenge, reimagine, and transform the Canadian Armed Forces culture into one that embraces inclusivity and difference. Emily was recently published in the Canadian Military Journal for an ethnographic article on culture change as a wicked problem with the CAF through her lens as a Jr NCM. Through academia and personal passion, she has committed to bettering the workplace through the implementation of DEI practices. She believes deeply in allyship as a way to lighten the burden on others to create a more inclusive world.

Emily was born and raised in Niagara Falls, ON and is the youngest of three. She loves to golf, cross country ski, weight train and stare up at the stars - she loves astronomy and all things space! 

If you’d like to know more about Emily, and her work, she can be found on instagram @rammyreiman, Twitter @rammyreiman, and Linkedin under the name Emily Reiman.

Episode 62 is out today with guest Nordia King!

A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Nordia moved to Brooklyn, N.Y at a young age. Having dreams of being a Flight Attendant but not knowing how to break into the industry, Nordia attended university where she completed her Bachelor's in Forensic Psychology while working as a gate agent. During her final year of school, she was able to join her employer's inflight team. It was during her time as a Flight Attendant that Nordia fell in love with maintenance, however it was not until Nordia moved to Canada where she pursued her education in Aircraft Maintenance. A recent graduate of Centennial College, Nordia is now an AME Apprentice at Jazz Aviation working towards her M2 licence. Nordia uses her platform to amplify the voices of women in the industry. She volunteers  with various organizations including Elevate Aviation and the Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Association of Ontario when she is not spending time with her husband and three children. 

To connect with Nordia and learn more about her journey inaviation, she can be found on Linkedin by searching “Nordia King”, and on Instagram @nordy_b

Episode 61 is out today with guest Tim Perry!

WestJet pilot Tim Perry is the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA) Canada president. He was first elected on Oct. 17, 2018, at the Association’s biennial Board of Directors meeting, taking office on January 1, 2019. He is currently serving his third term.

The ALPA Canada president is the principal officer of the ALPA Canada Board, chairs all meetings, and serves as the Board’s spokesperson. Captain Perry is responsible for planning, coordinating, and administering the affairs and activities of ALPA Canada, and he consults with and is assisted by the other Canada Board officers in furthering the objectives and policies of the Association.

Captain Perry previously served the WestJet pilot group as its Master Executive Council vice chair and was instrumental in the organizing campaign that ultimately led the pilot group to certify ALPA as its labour union. Prior to WestJet, he flew for Calm Air, where he served as a Local Executive Council first officer representative.

A graduate of Selkirk College with a diploma in aviation technology, he lives in Toronto, Ontario.

More on ALPA and their work can be found online through social media by searching ALPA Canada, or on their website at www.alpa.org/canada . Tim can also be found on Linkedin.

Episode 60 is out today with guest Piyush Gandhi!

Piyush Gandhi an experienced executive in the field of aviation. He is currently the Vice President, Operations and Business Development for the Presage Group Inc. which is an organization that uses psychological science-based analytics to understand the behaviours of employees (primarily pilots) in operational workplaces and provide mitigation strategies that ultimately improve the safety and performance of those organizations. Most recently, he spent 2 1⁄2 years with Sunwing Airlines in the role of Vice President Flight Operations. Along with safety, operational, regulatory, and fiduciary responsibility of more than 30,000 flights in the B737-800/MAX-8 per year, he maintained his pilot proficiency flying on the line as a B737 Captain. Previously, he was the Vice President Flight Operations at Porter Airlines where he was a founding team member from its inception in early 2006. He contributed to helping build Porter from its humble 4 aircraft operation to 28 aircraft operating more than 65,000 flights per year carrying more than 3-million passengers. Prior to that, Piyush spent 10-years with Bombardier Aerospace as their Chief Pilot & Customer Liaison Pilot. In addition to his OEM certification/production test pilot duties on the Q400 and Global Express business jet, Piyush spent much of his Bombardier tenure overseas training pilots, delivering new aircraft, conducting sales & marketing tours, and providing operational support to various airlines and operators globally.

Since 2018, Piyush has been on the Board of Directors for The Redwood – a not-for-profit shelter for women and their children fleeing domestic abuse. In 2020, Piyush was the first male elected to the Board of Directors for the Northern Lights Aero Foundation which promotes and celebrates women in the field of aviation and aerospace in Canada. Piyush founded and chaired the Y.A.Y! (You Are You!) diversity and inclusion committee at Sunwing and he also co-founded/chaired the successful Women Soar at Porter program. Piyush is a member of the international Flight Safety Foundation Business Aviation Advisory Committee (FSF BAC). He has also been on the Advisory Boards for Colleges, and Universities, most notably, the Seneca College Aviation PAC (Program Advisory Committee).

Piyush graduated from the Seneca Aviation Program (Class ’93) and completed his Master of Business Administration (MBA) graduate degree at the Rotman School of Business (University of Toronto) in 2014.

To learn more about Piyush and his work, or to connect with him, he can be found on linkedin.

Episode 59 is out today with guest Warren Holt!

A pilot with Air Canada for the past 17 years, Warren Holt is also the President of a non-profit organization called the Urban Pilots Network, or UPN. Warren became interested in flying at an early age and continued the pursuit of his dream by enrolling in the Aviation and Flight Technology Program at Seneca College. After graduation it would take Warren 7 years to accrue the flight time and experience necessary to ultimately land him his dream job as a pilot at Air Canada. 

During those seven years gaining experience, Warren instructed at Canadian Flight Academy in Oshawa, flew for Wasaya Airways as a pilot in Thunder Bay and Sioux Lookout, and was also a pilot at Air Jamaica. Throughout his time at Air Canada, Warren has flown many different aircraft types, and is currently transitioning from the Boeing 787 to Captain on the Boeing 767 for Air Canada’s cargo operation.

In his time as an instructor, Warren met and instructed a black student, who at the time, was an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer at Air Canada. They had similar interests and remained in contact. In 2004, that same student would start the Urban Pilots Network with the goal of increasing diversity in the flight deck, and right across the aviation industry. Upon his return to Canada in 2005, Warren would join the organization as its Vice President and would remain in that role until 2020, when he would step into the President’s role.

Currently as President, Warren continues to push UPN’s mandate to “Bridge the Gap between the Urban Community and the Aviation Community.” Now that the foundation of UPN is solid, with a spectrum of programs for BIPOC youth, and UPN members, Warren is looking to expand UPNs’ reach and impact by establishing relationships with the “big players” in the industry.

Employment is the ultimate measure of the success of UPNs’ programming, and so these relationships will solidify everything that UPN has worked for.

Inspiring to Aspire Higher is UPNs’ motto, and Warren is determined that once the youth have been inspired, that there is a pathway for success established so they can achieve their aviation dreams.

Inspiring to Aspire Higher!

To find Warren and the Urban Pilots Network visit their website at www.urbanpilots.net/, or on instagram @urbanpilotsnetwork, Facebook under Urban Pilots Network Inc, and Linkedin under Urban Pilots Network.

In this minisode, Cam takes a moment to talk about an important upcoming campaign in Canadian Aviation, and how you can support our Aircraft Maintenance Engineers in advocating for a better future for our industry and community. 

More information about the campaign will be out soon, so keep an eye on social media. To find out more about Aircraft Maintenance Engineers of Canada, and the regional associations that make it up, please visit https://amec-teac.ca/. On their website you’ll be able to connect to your region, and find out more about your community.

Sierra Harrop is an award-winning storyteller, TV host, and content creator. For eleven years, she told the story of general aviation as a producer and videojournalist for AOPA. She is a private pilot with tailwheel and high-performance endorsements. She’s currently completing instrument rating and commercial certificate training. She’s flown over 20 different types of general aviation aircraft and enjoys backcountry flying and long VFR cross countries. She’s a licensed ham radio operator and works full time promoting that hobby. Previously, she worked as a storm chaser and news anchor for television stations in the central United States.

Since recording this episode Sierra has started a new adventure, but her work with AOPA can still be viewed on AOPA’s social media channels and youtube. Sierra can be found online on Instagram @SierraHarrop, Tiktok @sierraharrop, Twitter @flywithsierra and on Facebook by searching Sierra Harrop.

Episode 56 is out today with guest Jordan Noonan! 

Since getting to visit many cockpits on family trips as a small child, Jordan has always dreamed of being a pilot. After being inspired, he remained exposed to aviation by going to air shows, watching planes through the fence at his local airport, as well as getting to go on scenic flights as a small child. By the time he began with the Air Cadets, his career path was solidified, and he began to fly out of the Windsor International Airport.

After starting flight training in 2001 during high school, he realized he didn’t have enough time to dedicate the attention needed to flight training. In 2006 after taking a year off after graduating, he started flight training full-time. During that time, he has worked for several FBO’s and ground operation companies as a ramp lead, supervisor and manager. 

After completing his CPL in 2014, Jordan started applying to as many float plane operators as he could find online. After being hired by a small company that gives new pilots their start, he moved to Red Lake, Ontario and began working on the dock for the 2015 float season. In 2016 he began flying a Cessna 180 float plane. Since 2019 Jordan has been the Chief Pilot and Outpost Maintenance Manager flying a Dehavilland Beaver for Canadian Fly-in Fishing in Red Lake.

Jordan currently holds a Canadian CPL with the goal of completing his Multi IFR this winter. He hopes to gain a wider variety of float and bush flying experience to reach his goal of becoming a pilot for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, a role in which he can combine his love of float flying, wildlife conservation, and to have the ability to help communities that are under the threat of wildfires.