Her father\u2019s dream sparked her journey in aviation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Greta\u2019s passion for aviation started in childhood, even if she didn\u2019t realise it at first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy father always wanted to be a pilot, but poor eyesight meant he had to give up on that dream. His love for aviation never faded, though. We often went to Vilnius Airport together just to watch planes take off and land. Back then, you could enter the terminal even without a flight ticket,\u201d Greta remembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time, these visits felt like nothing more than a fun father-daughter ritual. But when she took her first flight at the age of twelve, everything changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy first flight left a lasting impression on me. When the plane lifted off the ground, it felt like I was both flying and falling at once. In that moment, I knew – aviation was the world I wanted to be part of,\u201d she says with a smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This passion turned into a clear career path. Greta studied Aviation Management, started work at Vilnius Airport, later became a flight attendant, and eventually moved into aircraft leasing and acquisition industry. Today, she lives in Toronto and works with the FL Technics aircraft maintenance team, serving clients worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven though I\u2019ve travelled a long road in aviation, every time I see a plane take off, I remind myself: this is where it all began – and those moments still push me forward,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From paperwork to pouring oil into an aircraft engine<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Aviation is still seen as a male-dominated field – especially in technical and managerial roles. Greta admits she had doubts at first:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I started in my current position, I sometimes questioned whether I\u2019d really understand all the technical details or be able to answer clients\u2019 engineering questions. Even my family wondered about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She says the best way to learn was by spending time on the ramp with engineers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMost of my time is in the office, preparing documents, attending meetings and negotiations. But I always try to learn as much as I can about the technical side of aircraft. Sometimes I would even pour oil into an engine myself or join engineers in pre-flight checks. When the aircraft started up and moved forward, I felt incredibly proud of the whole team,\u201d Greta recalls. \u201cMoments like that bring back the feeling of aviation romance that\u2019s been driving me since childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In aviation, competence matters most – not gender<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n Greta doesn\u2019t see big differences between Lithuanian and Canadian attitudes towards women in technical fields, though she notes that in Canada there is more formal support – initiatives, conferences, and networks for women in aviation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut I believe it\u2019s not about slogans like \u2018we support women\u2019. What really matters is what companies actually do. At FL Technics, I was never treated differently because I\u2019m a woman. But whenever I showed initiative to learn, I always received strong support. That, to me, is real equality – when opportunities are given not because of gender, but because of your willingness to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She also stresses that women should never feel they need to act more masculine to fit in.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFemininity isn\u2019t a weakness – it\u2019s a strength. There\u2019s space for everyone in aviation. What matters is curiosity, eagerness, and courage to learn. When your team prepares an aircraft and it takes off, no one cares whether the job was done by a man or a woman. What matters is that the plane took off – and that you were part of making it happen,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Working in an international team: differences in culture and aircraft requirements<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Greta calls FL Technics her platform for growth – step by step, it led her to Canada. She explains that working in North America feels very different from her experience in Lithuania: not only because of the clients and the culture, but also because of the aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNow I work with people from India, France, Canada. Everyone speaks English, but each person has their own accent and style of communication. Once I spoke with a client from Newfoundland, and his accent was so strong I could barely understand half of what he said. I had to ask him to repeat several times. Situations like that show how important it is to adapt – and not be afraid to ask questions,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The technical side of aircraft maintenance also differs. In Canada, the standards of TCCA (Transport Canada Civil Aviation) apply, and they\u2019re sometimes different from Europe\u2019s EASA (European Union Aviation Safety Agency) rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt first, it felt unusual, because TCCA standards seemed more flexible, leaving more space for decisions on the spot. But I quickly realised – it\u2019s just a different way of reaching the same goal: a safe aircraft and safe passengers. The difference was even more obvious when I looked at the aircraft I work with daily. In Toronto, real aviation giants take off, ones we won\u2019t even see in Lithuania: the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the Boeing 747, the Airbus A380.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the biggest contrasts she notices is the pace of work.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn Lithuania, I was used to everything moving quickly – answers, decisions, projects. Here in Canada, people are more relaxed. They don\u2019t rush, and they want to feel comfortable with their decisions before moving forward. Sometimes documents take longer than we\u2019re used to in Lithuania, and at first this frustrated me. Now I see it as part of the culture – things move in their own rhythm,\u201d Greta says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When people hear about women in aviation, the first image that often comes to mind is flight attendants helping passengers feel safe and comfortable on board. But in aircraft hangars – where technical issues are solved, planes are prepared for flights, and documentation is prepared – women are still a rare sight. Thankfully, this is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Greta-From-childhood-dream-to-aviation-career-edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32529"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32533,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32529\/revisions\/32533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Greta-Vinogrodska-edit.jpg\")