Report on Rotary Speakers 19th June 2018.
Del Taylor from St.Johns.
Del gave us a very brief run-down of the services available from the St. Johns Ambulance service and how we, as Rotarians , might benefit from taking out membership of the supporter scheme. This normally costs $98 and allows for free ambulance service if needed.
The suggestion (hint?) was made that perhaps membership could be given as a present.
Del made it sound like cheap insurance! Unfortunately, as she was on duty, Del had to make a quick exit before we could get too much more into the whole St. John’s service.
Dazza Sherwin ex Auckland Westpac helicopter pilot.
Dazza continued his enthusiastic style from his previous talk on his car rallying experiences, and gave us an interesting insight into the Westpac helicopter service in Auckland, where he flew for over twenty years.
There are four helicopters in New Zealand sponsored by Westpac Bank, based in Auckland, Wellington, Waikato, and Christchurch, and they may be involved in over 7000 missions a year, with each helicopter having an operating radius of 280 nautical miles.
But what surprised us was the infinite variety of missions in which they were involved – we all tend to think of the car crash scenario, but they can be sent to rescue someone stuck on a cliff face; taking the police and their dogs to missions; have to take firemen to Waiheke Island; drop off the bomb squad personnel to destroy an unknown article – the example Dazza told us about involved blowing up a brief case left where it should not have been, by some Health and Safety people the previous day – some very red faces when the facts came out!!!
The pilots also have to turn out for PR exercises since the vast majority of their operating expenses are donated, and they need to keep their profile in the public eye.
Whilst a considerable quantity of Dazza’s time on missions was spent waiting – he was the pilot and therefore did not get involved in the medical side of things, so had to wait at, say, the accident scene while the medics did their thing, before flying medics and patents back to hospital. He took a lot of photographs over his years flying and showed us a few to illustrate his story – and this only emphasised the huge variety of tasks in which they become involved, in particular the number of missions concerning children.
To show that it is not all doom and gloom, however, Dazza showed us a photograph of a fly-past of three World War 2 ‘planes with his helicopter captured in the distance as part of the line-up! He was very proud of the connection!!
Dazza indicated that one of the major game-changers for pilots was the introduction of night-vision goggles, which literally turn night into day – for example, making the finding of people in search and rescue events so much more feasible – his picture of “before and after” really emphasised the difference for pilots wearing these goggles, but they are expensive!!
Dazza has an enthusiasm in his presentations that is almost infectious and we all benefited from his time with us, so Thank you Dazza Sherwin.
