A career in airborne rescue is not for the faint-hearted, reports Val Leveson
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The mission statement of the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust (ARHT) is: "To ensure that the communities of the Greater Auckland region have the security of a professional, efficient, emergency air ambulance, search and rescue service available to them anytime".
ARHT runs the Auckland-based Westpac Rescue Helicopter. Similar services can also be found in Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch. ARHT does a lot of good work in its area, dealing with medical emergencies, search and rescue and accident response.
Mark Cannell (otherwise known as Tinny) is a crewman with the ARHT. He has worked there for four years. Previously he worked for 15 years on military aircraft.
"I was a technician and a helicopter crewman," Cannell says.
"I have worked in such places as East Timor, Antarctica, Fiji and others. In the military we did a bit of search and rescue work. What we do with the ARHT is slightly different - it's a lot of snatch and grab work."
Cannell says he particularly enjoys the work at the helicopter trust because "you never quite know what you're going to get - we deal with aircraft crashes, boating accidents, medical emergencies and car crashes. During the dry season we may take out firefighters. There's a huge range to our work".
The only thing that really irritates him, he says, is that "there's a fair amount of needless accidents that are the result of poor planning and there's a lot of taking chances, particularly on the water in summer".
He has a particular disdain for drivers who drink and drive.
"I have a problem with the ironic stuff - such as drunk drivers, or having to rescue children who should not have been injured in the first place."
The work culture at the ARHT is "easy going", Cannell says.
"There's a fair bit of camaraderie among people - but when a job happens we crack into it. Of course we aim to achieve the best possible outcome.
"This is where each member's experience and quick thinking comes in ...
There is team work, but you also need to be able to think for yourself."
Cannell says there's also "a fair amount of planning for each job".
"We are all professionals who take up our individual roles - there's a crew of three: the pilot, crewman and paramedic. If one person drops the ball, there's going to be a problem. We're as strong as the weakest link."
He says that although the roles on the helicopter are designated, some crossover does occur.
"I may help the pilot with co-ordinates when we need to get into a confined area, the paramedics help with tidying up. Most crewmen have some medical training ... and are familiar with a lot of the equipment. This means they know what to equipment to pass to the paramedics when it's needed."
To be a crewman with the ARHT, Cannell says, you have to be able to work in an extremely high-pressured team situation. You must have had training in the aviation industry, but even if you've done a conversion course to helicopters, you're still regarded as inexperienced.
"To be qualified is okay, but you need experience too."
The helicopter shifts are based on those of firefighters. Team members have two days and two nights on (each shift covers 12 hours) and four days off. They have beds at their base - so if there are no calls during night shifts, they can sleep.
"In the day when there's a call, we need to be off the ground within 10 minutes," Cannell explains.
"At night it's 20 minutes, as we need to reconfigure the aircraft and check the weather more carefully."
The ARHT employs about 18 crew who work on a 24/7 basis.
Cannell says the ARHT works well with other organisations such as St John, the police and the coast guard. "We have strong relationships with all the rescue services."
Salaries are good. "We get paid at competitive rates."
Most of the rescue services in New Zealand rely on volunteers, but the type of work done by the helicopter trusts requires professionals.
"There's a lot of corporate knowledge here - combined, people have huge years of experience and this is needed if you consider how large our area is, and how diverse the rescues are. One day we could have a medical emergency in Waiheke, a tramping incident somewhere and a search and rescue at Great Barrier Island. This kind of work keeps you very sharp."
Up-skilling courses are also made available to crew members.
"I would like to get more into the medical field and also branch out into aviation subjects," Cannell says.
"All I need to do is make a proposal, and such things as budgeting, time constraints, etc, will be looked at. Three- to four-day courses are quite often made available."
He says one thing that helps with this job is to have a sense of humour. "It definitely helps you get through a lot of things."
He says he has a huge amount of respect for volunteer organisations as well as for hospital staff - "particularly those at Starship".
Bruce Kerr has been a paramedic for 11 years with the ARHT. Before that, he worked for 25 years with St John. "All the paramedics here have worked with St John," he explains.
Kerr says it was a hard decision for him to leave St John, but he enjoyed helicopter work and ARHT offered a new avenue of interest.
"St John is basically an ambulance service whereas a helicopter can get you into more interesting and wider areas. You also work with the crewmen and the pilots."
Kerr says most of the paramedics at the ARHT are in their middle years because experience is so vital.
"In fact the youngest is in his mid-40s. This could change in future as education for paramedics is changing, there's more of a standardisation of training, but you do need to learn a lot on the job still.
"A young person can finish school and do a degree in health science - but this is still an academic qualification and is not practical enough. You really need some ambulance service experience - you need to find a job like that first before you go into this type of work."
Kerr says that for helicopter work, you not only need sound medical knowledge, you also need technical knowledge, such as where it's safe to take a helicopter.
To be a paramedic you also need to be brave - they are the people who leave the helicopter dangling at the end of a winch.
"I enjoy it," says Kerr. "It's always varied and interesting. Each job has different aspects and requires problem-solving skills."
He says he started his working life at a bank, but decided it wasn't for him. He did army training in 1976 and, after basic training, was put in the medical corp.
At first he wasn't happy about this placement, but he did a course and found he "quite enjoyed it". His uncle had been with St John and he had a lot of respect for the work he did, so after his stint in the army, he decided to apply for a job there.
Kerr says he's seen a lot of changes in the emergency services through his career. When he started, ambulances had very basic equipment and the point was mainly to get the person to hospital as soon as possible. Now a lot of treatment is delivered in the ambulance, which saves lives and cuts down on recovery time - but requires more expertise from paramedics.
To be a paramedic with the helicopter service, Kerr says you need to be disciplined, adventurous, be able to work both by yourself in difficult situations and be a good team member, have the ability to think quickly, assess a situation accurately and understand the importance of timing.
