The US is a long way from Ahipara for Far North corporal

Aircraft technician Corporal Chris Lynch is in the United States with the RNZAF to take part in a multi-national air mobility exercise.

Joining the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) has provided the exciting career gateway that 24-year-old Far North man Chris Lynch was looking for.

Corporal Lynch, an aircraft technician, left for the United States with the RNZAF last week to take part in Exercise Mobility Guardian 17, a biennial air mobility exercise.

The RNZAF will be taking a C-130 Hercules, two crews and supporting personnel, and operating alongside the United States Air Force and up to 18 other nations.

It's a long way from Ahipara to Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Seattle, Washington, but Corporal Lynch said he was looking forward to the challenge of working at the fourth largest military establishment in the world.

While a boarder at St Kentigern College in Auckland he attended a careers event, and immediately saw the possibilities of combining his love of mechanics and sport with an exciting career.

"I was done with the classroom thing, and getting paid to learn seemed like a great idea," he said.

As an aircraft technician on No. 40 Squadron he never knows what the day is going to throw at him.

"One day it is routine maintenance, dispatching and receiving the aircraft. The next day I am working on changing a propeller," he said.

"If I hadn't joined up I would probably be working on a car engine somewhere, but working on a complex system like these aircraft is a far greater challenge."

When he's not working on aircraft Corporal Lynch is involved in sport throughout the year. He represents the RNZAF at rugby and manages the RNZAF cricket team.

Exercise Mobility Guardian 17, which began on Sunday and ends on Saturday week, is practising Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Recovery (HADR) in a potentially hostile environment.