By Sara White | March 28, 2019 Estimated reading time 4 minutes, 12 seconds.
The world’s best air maintenance technicians will test their skills at the annual Air Maintenance Competition in Atlanta, Ga., in April. Five teams will represent the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), including the first all-women team.
Cpl Trisha Chipman, from 14 Wing Greenwood, N.S., is an aviation systems technician who works on the CC-130 Hercules aircraft at 413 Transport and Rescue Squadron. Nominated by her chain of command, she’s now a lucky contestant who will tackle her share of the 23 technical challenges facing her team in the military division.
“And, I have to write the team exam,” she said. “They’ve sent me the textbooks, so there is a lot of new stuff. How well I do also determines some of the penalties we might get–like less time–so, there’s no pressure!”
She will be joined April 8 to 11 by team coach Sgt Jayne Graham (Cold Lake, Alta.); team lead MWO Theresa Nevills (National Capital Region); aircraft structures technician MCpl Tiffany Goodwin (Borden, Ont.); avionics systems technicians Cpl Samantha Yeadon (Gagetown, N.B.) and Cpl Diana Meuret (Trenton, Ont.); and aviation systems technicians Cpl Dela Cruz (Comox, B.C.) and MCpl Leslie Blair (Shearwater, N.S.).
They’ve already been busy talking with each other from a distance and divvying up challenges that include cable rigging, tire inspections, fastener removal, adhesive-bonded fastener installations, sealants, electrical troubleshooting, fluid lines, sheet metal inspections, composite repair, and more. They’ll meet in Ottawa, Ont., for a couple of days, then fly to Georgia, ready to start the 15-minute segmented challenges.
“I don’t feel stressed about this; already knowing my events, I can prepare,” Chipman said. “We don’t do this stuff every day, but if I can do a cable rigging on a Hercules’ ailerons, I can do it for any aircraft.”
She didn’t start out on such a technical career path. She earned her degree in psychology and sociology, but a Canadian Armed Forces recruiting display in high school had stuck in the back of her mind. She applied for the Forces and, in 2008, was sworn in, and began the Non-Commissioned Members Subsidized Education Program at the Nova Scotia Community College’s Aviation Institute in Halifax, studying aircraft maintenance engineering.
“I thought I would like it–doing new things, learning new things on an aircraft; one day working on landing gear, the next day flaps,” she said. “There were two women in my class, and five of us out of 40–so a pretty good number of females in the program. Now, I’ve been here in Greenwood for seven years–this is the first time this year there’s been another woman in my aircrew with me. It’s getting better.”
Chipman is aware of the RCAF’s mission to recruit more women into all its trades, whether it’s in flying, ground or administration. If the air maintenance competition shines a light on just what kind of work women do within the RCAF now, she’s keen to be part of the team.
“I’m excited,” she said. “Not necessarily about winning, but to compete well and work as part of this team. I’m a competitive person, anyway. I think you have to be, working with all men.”
