I principally wrote geophysics software with some time spent in the hangers tag teaming with real mechanics while working for an Australian survey company that was ultimately sold to Fugro.
At time of sale we hade 14 airframes, mostly fixed wing aircraft, some helicopters, all modified for survey work (stinger tail booms, looped EM field detectors, under slung drones, etc) and a perfect 20+ year air saftey record which Fugro didn't maintain - they had two aircraft down and some loss of life within a few years of aquisition.
Many of the planes were older high wing twin engine types (Shrikes, etc) - my personal favorite that was bought and modified in my time there was a NZ Cresco 750 designed for crop dusting
We surveyed all of Fiji, most of Mali, NorWest India | Pakistan during the Pokhran-II | Chagai-I test exchanges, along with a great deal of other work about the globe.
Which aircraft did you do STOL for?