Cancelled for Maintenance

Digital devices and media are fast becoming a part of our everyday lives. Some aspects of it have already been fully implemented into aircraft maintenance. Enter electronic logbooks and online maintenance servers! These tools offer easy-to-use systems that promise more efficient and effective maintenance operations. On this episode, we discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of these syst...

We’re joined with three guests and fellow aviation content creators for another Creators’ roundtable, with Stig Aviation, Airplane Facts with Max, and Brent of Total Aviation! On this episode, we explore handling creative challenges, shouting into the void, differences from one civil flight authority to the next, and share our hopes of a united aircraft maintenance community. To see more of our gu...

Have you ever been given a task, but a good amount of it was spent waiting for all of your resources to get rounded up? If there’s one thing, we as mechanics are forever pressed for, it’s time. Time dictates almost every facet of our job, from aircraft ready times, departure-arrival time, maintenance completion time, and so forth. Efficiency is the name of the game, and on this episode, we discuss...

For today’s bonus episode, we talk about some events and projects we have lined up. One of our major goals when we first started our show was to find a way to give back to the aircraft maintenance community by offering grants and scholarships; a big thank you to Women Rock Wings, Hover with Hargis, and Women with Wings for offering the avenue to do them!  Another major goal was to go to more in-pe...

We’ve all been there at some point, either first time getting a job, or transitioning from one job to the next, we come to a moment where we ask, “What am I doing?”. It’s in these moments where we ought to really be cautious, it is when we are the most vulnerable, and it’s the most opportune time for us to have our pride/ego taken advantage of. For this episode, we explore some red flags in variou...

 The holidays are coming up soon and while it is widely dubbed as “the happiest time of the year”, that may not be the case for some of us, especially in the aviation industry. The holidays typically mean longer workdays, overtime requests, bloated workloads, and to top it off, let’s throw in some Seasonal Affective Disorder (that’s right, S.A.D.)! We’re rejoined by Kora the aviation therapist to...

We’ve been seeing a rise in near misses, divert emergencies, and general “seat biter” situations. Some of these incidents were very preventable, others were so abrupt it didn’t leave much room to react positively. For today’s episode, we would like to take this opportunity to emphasize emergency procedures. We’ll share some of our “seat biter” moments, our lessons learned, and give some tips to he...

We’ve spoken many times about the future of aviation; we’ve all heard of the cool new innovations that are in the works; so why haven’t we seen them yet? In today’s episode, we discuss some technologies that have been developed, some pathways new tech has to take, inject some nerd lore, and what can we hope to see in the near and distant future. Follow us on Facebook- @cancelledformaintenance, Ins...

We’ve seen instances of high visibility jobs, such as aircrew, stand up for each other and plant their feet when circumstances arise that antagonize them. For aircraft mechanics though, it’s not as present. Some would argue that they don’t stand up for each other and would sooner vote with their feet than band together. Why is that? Today, we share some opinions to maybe spark a discussion to answ...

It's pretty safe to say that aircraft mechanics are nerds to some degree, with varying tastes in music, literature, and games. Today we are joined with Max of Airplane facts with Max, and we explore how deep some of our lore knowledge goes, the ups and downs of being an aircraft mechanic, “failing upwards”, how we can relate lore to airplanes, and how it can help make someone’s day! You can find m...

It’s no secret that the aviation industry depends heavily on its supply of parts, however every so often we run into a rash of unauthorized parts, specifically counterfeit parts. There’s been a recent uptick of airlines and other organizations across the aviation industry discovering counterfeit/unauthorized parts either in their bench stock or already installed on aircraft. Today, we want to expl...

It’s beat into all of our heads to the point of numbness, “safety first, safety always”. The world of aviation is full of inherent risks, some we do well to avoid, others we do our best to mitigate. Often times though, safety is blurred for the sake of speed whether we want to admit it or not. Today we explore “the dirty dozen” of aviation safety, how each item among the dozen can cascade into the...

There’s a saying, “leave your feelings at the door”, which sounds easier said than done. Contrary to what some of us believe, we aircraft mechanics are driven by caffeine and (mostly) anger. Today, we explore some of the concepts of stoicism, what it is, and how it can help you in your everyday life both on and off the line.   Follow us on Facebook- @cancelledformaintenance, Instagram- @canxformai...

Following your dreams can be hard, one of the hardest steps is overcoming our fear. Being a part of a community and being presented with opportunities are just some of the keys to unlocking the path to fulfilling those dreams. On this episode, we are joined by the founders of Hover with Hargis and Women with Wings; two organizations who strive to not only create those communities, but to provide t...

Have you ever seen an aircraft mechanic/engineer “duct taping” aircraft parts together? How about noticing some panels are “missing”? Are these ok to fly and should you be concerned? This has been a recurring topic that’s been cycled around in our non-aviation groups. To the non-versed this may feel like a cause for alarm. So, what does give us aircraft mechanics authority to perform these actions...

Sometimes anger gets the best of us. They can feel like butcher’s nails, where the longer they stay in, the harder it can be to take them out. Over time, it can rob us of our patience and cause us to lash out in frustration, like telling passengers to be civil after long strings of unruliness. On this episode, we explore the effects of anger in the workplace, why does it happen, and what can we do...

We are back again in the swing of things bringing you an episode after a small, but much needed hiatus. What better way to ring back in the times, than to talk about what it’s currently time for and that is audit season! That’s right, everyone’s “favorite” time of the year. But why DO we perform audits? Is it really necessary? Or is it just to keep people who “can’t do” employed? Follow us on Face...

Sometimes life gets tired of waiting in line for you to give it its due attention. When this happens, life can cut to the front of the line and demand that you give it. Continuing our conversation from our last episode about taking a moment, we are joined by Brian from the Finding Demo Surf Fishing podcast and explore the topics of understanding the signs of taking a break, weighing out some trans...

We have often emphasized on the show that you should take a moment to work on your personal, professional, and family needs. Who would we be if we didn’t try to practice that ourselves? Joining us today is Nine, Six’s wife, and special guest from episode 18! We talk about taking those moments, the struggle of finding that work-life balance, the equal struggle of rediscovering de-stressors, and the...

We rarely cover crashes and mishaps, mostly because when dire situations like these come up, it’s typically sounded around the land and the horse gets beaten beyond the point of glue. We do, however, want to take this time to emphasize the importance of testing, troubleshooting, and following proper steps to remedy shortfalls and mitigate risks before they escalate into issues which we may not hav...

It’s fast approaching three years since we’ve started our show. It’s been such a wild ride; reaching new heights each time, gaining accolades we’ve never imagined possible, and connecting with people who have such an influence on our aviation industry.  Today, we’re recollecting on our journey thus far, some upcoming events, and future projects. To nominate us (or any other podcast you listen to)...

You may have heard us talk about it throughout most of our episodes, punctuality is one of the most critical characteristics of the aviation industry. It goes by different names, but On-time performance (OTP) is how punctuality is measured. What is it though? Why is it important, and why does it play a huge role in the execution of aircraft maintenance activities? Follow us on Facebook- @cancelled...

We can all agree that sometimes the pathway to an aviation career can be rather muddy and very expensive. In addition, there’s copious amounts of bad gouge/misinformation out there that can deter someone from achieving their aviation goals. Today we are joined with Matt and Marty of STEM in Aviation Youth (STAY) Indiana; a newly created nonprofit organization whose goal is to give teens the opport...

Have you ever experienced someone who believes they are more capable in an ability, skill, or knowledge in a certain area than they actually are? Is this narcissistic or is the person genuinely unaware of their ignorance? What you have witnessed is a cognitive bias called the “Dunning-Kruger” effect. Requested by one of our supporters, we dive into what this bias is, give some common examples of w...

We often hear that the best way to minimize burn out/exhaustion is to take a rest day. What if we don't know when that rest day will come, or worse what if we use that rest day as a "catch up" day, and end up using it to do more work? Today we explore ways to give yourself break, identify the the time off, and ways to effectively take advantage of it. Follow us on Facebook- @cancelledformaintenanc...