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Ratul Bin Rasul

Writing for engineers

10/11/18

Rocket Science:

        An Interview with an Aerospace engineer

 

“We often hear people use the phrase ‘with flying colors’ to define success. This simple phrase flying, can mean a lot in the sector of Aerospace and its success.” These words of essentially a “rocket scientist”, Ms. Radi Zummi, reflects how engineering has given us new possibilities. Currently working as a quality assurance engineer for Regent International Airlines, Bangladesh, she provides a rare insight into the world of flight. As I conducted the interview across half the globe, with the help of Skype, in search of one of the rarest types of engineer who fortunately happened to be the sister of a close friend, I learned that for her, interest in aerospace engineering began from a simple question. In middle school she found out that birds are light because they have no bone marrow and hence they can fly but “Even the lightest aircraft is heavier than the heaviest bird, how do they fly? From then on it has always been about how.”

 

Having completed her schooling in India, she went on to achieve an associate’s degree in Aerospace Engineering before completing her bachelors of science in Aerospace Engineering from Sheffield Hallam University at UK. She stated that the Aerospace Industry in the South Asian markets were at its infancy and was a perfect opportunity for her to contribute to her country. After travelling back home she applied at several airlines and was immediately employed by Regent International Airlines as a Quality Assurance Engineer. When asked how her experience was to finally be an engineer she replied that for almost a month all she got to do was go through theory and manuals before finally receiving her first audit. A Boeing 737-700 which is a 120-seater. “That was the day I finally felt like an engineer.”

 

Surprisingly the day to day life of an Aerospace engineer is not all you would have expected. The day begins by a walk to the ramp for an audit of the aircrafts scheduled to fly that day followed by a checkup with the maintenance engineers. These were the only two things that followed a fixed pattern because after walking back to her desk there would be new problems every day. Problems included evacuations, rescheduling of flights due to VVIP movement and even tire punctures. She also has to conduct internal audits for engineering shops and report corrective actions for any errors with a constant follow up every two weeks. When asked about recent projects she answered “We have a new project going on every day.” One example of such a project shows how these projects are not as simple as they sound. They had found an issue with the pressure in the cabin of an aircraft which they later found was caused by a simple human error by a maintenance engineer. In order to find out the cause they had to “tear apart” the whole cabin along with the wings and it was done within 17 hours of the same day. She explains “When an aircraft is on the ground we are bleeding money and not in hundreds of thousands but in millions.”

 

During the interview my most shocking discovery was the magnitude of communication that was integral to her job. “Engineering is a team-based job and that means constant communication and meetings every now and then.” Her work as a Quality Assurance Engineer was like “Basically being the lawyer for the airlines.” Not only did she need to know over 500 rules of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (C.A.A.B) thoroughly but if there were any newer rules or a revision to an older one it was her job to brief the entire team about the new revisions, especially to maintenance engineers and to do so she had to constantly have meetings and make presentations. Other than that, she had to contact international parts vendors and auxiliary power unit manufactures for which she mainly employed emails and calls over the phone and yes, she also had to account for the time zone differences. “We have six clocks with international timings hanging on the office wall just so that we can account for the time difference.” Apart from these, if there is any case against the airlines by the C.A.A.B it was up to her to fight for the company. These were just a portion her frequent communications.

 

Writing was an equally essential portion of her communications. They included maintaining excel sheets with various part numbers, software for manufacturing parts using computer aided designing like SolidWorks, and writing letters of varying professional formats to the C.A.A.B to get approvals for projects. “Half my day is spent on just communication.”As we came nearer to the conclusion of this great interview she congratulated me for pursuing Mechanical Engineering which led me to ask her if she found her job satisfying. She replied:

Let me answer you through an example that my dad gave me. I wanted to be a pilot. My dad explained that if I ever became one then every day was going to be the same for me. ‘You go to your cockpit, you fly, land, go to the hotel and come back again and fly again.’ I didn’t want my life to be monotonous. My job is a hustle. You are always running around. Engineering is mostly about trouble shooting and researching to do better work and I love my job. I really enjoy the challenges and love that I get to learn something new every day.

Being awed and inspired by her career I ask her if she could give me any advice, to which she replies that if she didn’t learn how engines work or the theory behind flying she wouldn’t be able to do what she was doing today. “You need a backbone to stand, here education will be your backbone.” She also reminds me that patience is one virtue that every engineer requires because our job is about trial and error, so we can’t afford to lose patience.

 

Reflecting on the interview I realized that I had leaned more about the profession than I had expected. The fact that communication took half the day for a “rocket scientist” was a clear example of how important technical communication can be. Apart from this fact I also realized that engineering requires an ability to handle many projects at the same time and the invaluable advice of education and patience will be something that will definitely be remembered throughout my career. Most importantly this has been an experience of how engineering has given us new possibilities and will forever continue to do so.

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