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A Little About Who We Are

Gordon Dupont - Biography

Gordon worked for Transport Canada from March 1993 to August 1999 as a Special Programs Coordinator. In this position he was responsible for coordinating with the aviation industry in the development of programs which would serve to reduce maintenance error. In this position he assisted in the development of Human Performance in Maintenance (HPIM) Part 1 and 2. The "Dirty Dozen" maintenance safety posters were an outcome of HPIM Pt 1.
Prior to working for Transport, Gordon worked for seven years as a Technical Investigator for the Canadian Aviation Safety Board later to become the Canadian Transportation Safety Board. In this position he saw first hand the tragic results of maintenance and human error.
Gordon has held the position of principal of an aviation vocational training school as well as Chief Engineer for a corporate turbine aircraft.
He has been an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer and Commercial pilot in Canada, United States and Australia.
He is the past president and founding member of the Pacific Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Association. He is a founding member and a board member of the Maintenance And Ramp Safety Society (MARSS).
He has worked on and held signing authority on aircraft from the Piper Cub on floats through to the Boeing 747 . He also owns a pile of parts stored in his hangar which will one day fly again as a Stearman (If and when he retires).
Gordon is often now called; "The Father of the Dirty Dozen" but feels that is one child no one would want to sire.
He has had the pleasure of providing Human Factors training around the world, from Australia to Sweden, from China to Portugal, from Singapore to Holland, the USA, UK, Ireland, St. Martin and more.
Gordon retired from Transport Canada in 1999 and is now a private consultant.
He is interested in any work that will serve to make our industry Safer.

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Bill Foyle - Biography 

Bill has been an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer for many aviation companies, beginning with the RCAF and CP Air. He has been General Manager for a major component of the Air BC group. He has taught Aircraft Maintenance at the BC Vocational School, now British Columbia Institute of Technology, and until 1993 was the Associate Dean of Aviation Programs at BCIT.
He was a major contributor in the development of a "modern" wing for the DHC2 Beaver.
He was on the original industry committee which worked to develop this program and has remained with this committee, helping to actively promote human factors training for all maintenance personnel.

While he has retired to the Sunshine Coast to build his dream home he continues to work with the industry through System Safety Services on Human Factors related projects.

Paul Jenkins - Biography

Paul has been facilitating "Human Performance in Maintenance" (HPIM) for the Department of National Defense since 1994 with great success. He has a keen interest in the program and firmly believes that one day all aircraft maintainers will one day have a working awareness of the "Human Factor" which causes so many errors.
Paul joined the RCAF in 1965 following employment as a Quality Control Inspector for Douglas Aircraft of Canada. Trained as an Airframe Technician, he was posted to Winnipeg where he worked on aircraft such as the Chipmunk, Tutor, T-33, C-45, C-47 and Albatross.
From 1971 to 1974 he flew on the C-47, Dakota as a Technical Crewman. In 1974 he was posted to Trenton and flew on the CC-115 Buffalo as a Flight Engineer. He later instructed on this aircraft.
Following Trenton he was posted to Greenwood on the CP-140 Aurora. In 1988 he was promoted to Chief Warrant Officer (CWO) and posted to Comox, BC.
Paul retired in 1994 and holds an Air force Reserve position. He is presently employed as the 19 Wing Deputy Flight Safety Officer. It is in this position that he started HPIM for the Canadian Forces. He has trained over 600 military technicians with great success and looks forward to working through System Safety Services to reduce human error in maintenance.

Johnny enjoys every aspect of aviation. The U.S. Air Force offered him the opportunity to become an A&E mechanic, which he did until pilot training became a reality. The result was flying large transport aircraft over most of the world. Later, his duties included being a maintenance officer supervising an organization in the cold of Alaska. After retiring from the U.S. Air Force, he found a very rewarding career teaching A&P mechanic students at Clover Park Technical College. Johnny is an A&P mechanic with an IA rating, holds an ATP, and has a Bachelors Degree in Occupational Education.
Johnny received the "Mechanic of the Year award from the Washington Department of Transportation, Aviation Division, in 1992, and the "Maintenance Technician of the Year" award, from the FAA, in 1993.

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Brian Small - Biography

Brian Small started flying in 1965 and obtained his fixed wing license before he went rotary wing in 1967.  He held an ATPL (H) and has flown over 16,000 hours in helicopters from the Bell 47 and Hiller UH-12 to the Sikorsky S61 and S76. 

The majority of those hours were flown IFR in support of oil exploration and production operations, worldwide.  In fact Brian has flown in over 40 different countries, some of which don’t exist anymore.

Brian spent five years as the Vice President Safety for CHC Helicopters International where he saw first hand the need for and value of human factors training for all personnel. 
Brian is also fully trained on ISO 9000 and is a certified lead auditor. 

On retirement he decided that he would enjoy doing his part to making our industry safer by helping to train the human to recognize what causes them to make an error and what safety nets they can put in place to avoid making that error.

Renée began her life in aviation at the age of 3 weeks old when she took her first flight from Lae, Papua New Guinea to Port Morsbey, Papua New Guinea in her fathers' Cessna 182.  From an early age on Renée has been fascinated with all aspects of Aviation.

She has worked for the Pacific Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Association (PAMEA) as well as The Maintenance and Ramp Safety Society (MARSS).  Renée held the position of Editor for "GroundEffects" from 1997 - 2002.

She is currently the webmaster of "System-Safety Services".

Thanks to her father's great interest in Human Factors, she has taken a great interest in learning and helping to further the awareness of Human Factors Training.

Renee has starred in several of the training videos produced and distributed by System Safety.

   Renee has also run several years in the 60 km "Walk to End Breast Cancer

Bill Schabes - Biography

Bill entered aviation in 1957 when he started his flying career on airplanes initially transferring to helicopters in 1965.  While working for various companies in Ontario he ended up as the chief flight instructor for Skyrotors, before starting with Okanagan in 1974 as a line pilot.  After two years of domestic flying, Bill transferred to the International Division and spent the next 20 years outside of Canada and added 16 different type of helicopters to his ATPL (H).  In 1996 Bill returned to Canada as the Marketing Manager at CHC Helicopters International and retired as the Vice President of the Commercial Department eight years later.

With over 45 years in aviation, Bill felt his experience, knowledge and contacts in the aviation Industry will help make our Industry a little safer by being the spokesman for Human Factors Training in the Flight Crew and Maintenance area.  He looks forward to promoting the benefits of knowing why you make those unintentional errors and how to reduce them.

John Edwards - Biography

John earned his PPL in 1957 and his Commercial Fixed wing in 1968 flying wheel equipped Cessna type aircraft. He received his helicopter endorsement in 1969 and flew light helicopters such as Bell 47, 206, Hiller 12E piston and turbine conversions and the FH1100. He also found time to earn his AME (M1, M2) licence.

John’s interest in training was developed through his association with the Air Cadet Movement. John was commissioned in the CAF Primary Reserve and spent 30 years of his spare time training youngsters. He became especially interested in aviation safety after receiving an award “For Professionalism” from the Canadian Armed Forces Flight Safety Directorate.

In 1980 John joined the Aircraft Maintenance Instructional staff at PVI (BCIT) where he eventually became the Chief Instructor and Quality Assurance Auditor. John retired from BCIT in 2004 and now tries to find more time for his restored 1946 Cessna 140.  He enjoys training many of his ex-students and others in how to avoid the error they never intend to make.

Fred Mabonga - Biography

Fred joined the aviation industry in 1975.  Since then he has had extensive training and experience within the industry and has worked for various airlines and a regulatory authority.

 Trained in the United Kingdom at Brunel College and Oxford Air Training School, Fred obtained his Aircraft Maintenance Engineer’s Licence in 1982 issued by the UK Civil Aviation Authority. He also completed the UKCAA Airworthiness Course in 1996. He completed the IATA Course on Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Management in 1995 and the IATA Course on Human Factors in Aviation Maintenance in 2003.

He has been an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer for many aviation companies in various countries, and has also held management positions including as Engineering Manager and Quality Assurance Manager at Air Namibia and Air Botswana. 1983 to 1987 he was a Technical Instructor at Air Zimbabwe where he taught Aircraft Engineers. 1998 to 2000 he was Deputy Chief of Aviation Safety at the Directorate of Civil Aviation in Namibia. He was in charge of Airworthiness and Chairman of the technical committee on aviation regulations. He has type training and experience on various aircraft from ATR42, BAe146 up to Boeing 747-400.

Fred is now an Aviation Technical Consultant. He has a passion for aviation and is interested in training and promoting Safety in the industry.

email: dupontg@system-safety.com

Webmaster: Renée Dupont