Michaela Horsefield is the newest Hawke's Bay Rescue Helicopter trust crew member. Photo / Paul Taylor
Michaela Horsefield is the newest Hawke's Bay Rescue Helicopter trust crew member. Photo / Paul Taylor
Going from the Air Force to the Hawke’s Bay Rescue Helicopter Trust’s crew, 25-year-old Michaela Horsefield thinks she has found her for-life job.
Horsefield said she always wanted to work in healthcare. After finishing high school, she went to university to study physiotherapy and got good grades. By the end of her first year, she realised it was just what she wanted.
At 20, after a year of study, joining the Air Force wasn’t what she had always planned. However, Horsefield said she knew she wanted to do search and rescue work and become a medic.
With family friends in the Air Force, she said the decision was a no-brainer.
After five years in the Air Force, Horsefield decided to return home to the Bay where she was born and raised.
“Being in the Air Force gave me an appreciation for aviation, and by coming here [to the trust’s crew] I get the best of both.
“I get to do the aviation side as well as still helping out medically. It’s really the best, and it’s got everything.”
Michaela Horsefield has found her for-life job with Hawke's Bay Rescue Helicopter Trust. Photo / Paul Taylor
As the newest member of the Hawke’s Bay rescue team, Horsefield has been training and accompanied by her instructor since the start of April. Since the start of July, she has completed all her basic crew day checks, a few night checks and can work day shifts without an instructor.
“I can do day work, day winch, and day flying. By night I can just do flying, but no winching or anything yet.”
Horsefield will get her night checks further down the line as it’s more of an advanced skill.
“I’ve still got a bit to progress but yeah, definitely, but I have my first part done,” she said.
“Training has been phenomenal, the crew and trainers have been just incredible, spending so much time with me and just making sure that I’m tucked away.”
There are different pathways to becoming a crew member for a helicopter rescue team; however, you must have an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) qualification.
Horsefield explained that the military is one route, but others become a technician and then get involved in the aviation space.
“My recommendation would probably be going military like Air Force way, because you learn your life skills through there, which correlates out to this job.
“I think that’s why quite a few of us come from military backgrounds here,” she said.
When asked what her favourite part of the job is so far, Horsefield said, “I haven’t obviously done many, many jobs myself, but winching is fantastic, love doing it”.
Michaela Horsefield loves her new role as a crew member at the Hawke's Bay Rescue Helicopter Trust. Photo / Paul Taylor
While she is having fun in the sky, she said the most rewarding part of the job is seeing the patients come back in that you’ve helped.
“I think that has been a real big eye-opener for me. Being here and having people come in, you know, like you’ve really helped and saved lives, which is nice.
“I think that’s probably my favourite part of the job.”
For Horsefield, she sees herself at Hawke’s Bay Rescue Helicopter Trust for a long time to come. “Sometimes in the military, they say you’re a full lifer; I think I’m a full lifer here until I can’t.
“I knew I’d love it. But I didn’t realise how much I would actually enjoy waking up and going to work; no day is the same, and you always, you know, pushing, you know, pushing yourself and learning new things.”
Horsefield is proud to be a female in such work. She said she would love to encourage young women to look into aviation and search-and-rescue jobs.
“In aviation, they say it’s a male-dominated field, but they look after us so much, and I think we do well in this multi-skilled job.“
Maddisyn Jeffares became the editor of the Hawke’s Bay community papers Hastings Leader and Napier Courier in 2023 after writing at the Hastings Leader for almost a year. She has been a reporter with NZME for almost three years and has a strong focus on what’s going on in communities, good and bad, big and small. Email news tips to her at: maddisyn.jeffares@nzme.co.nz
