NZ Defence Force: Cambridge recruit trains to become aircraft technician
'I was a bit nervous to move in with complete strangers, but we all bonded super quickly and now spend every moment of our free time together as well.
'We are all in the same boat, which makes it a lot easier to relate to each other when we found things tough, or what we were enjoying from our course.
'Recruit course is not a competition. You are all working towards the same goal of graduation, so you need to believe in your own abilities while also supporting those around you.'
However, Blackmore said she also faced a few hurdles.
'I have found the mental aspects a lot more challenging than the physical ones. We are under constant pressure during recruit course, where the assessments and activities can affect the future of our career if we don't do them well.
'While some of the physical things we do are tough at the time, I have been able to push through the pain and afterwards it is super rewarding.'
Blackmore was now looking forward to the next step in her career as an aircraft technician and already has big goals.
'In the future, I would like to be posted to RNZAF Base Auckland and work on the Seasprite helicopters as part of No. 6 Squadron.'
She said she was 'extremely grateful' to have been selected to be part of the Air Force and for the friendships she formed during the recruit course.
'These are friendships that I will be able to take from this course, and when we are all posted to different bases, it will be awesome to have friends all over New Zealand.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scoop
21-05-2025
- Scoop
RNZAF NH90 Formation Flight: A Maintenance Success
Seven of the Royal New Zealand Air Force's fleet of eight NH90 helicopters have taken to the Manawatū skies in a rare large formation flight. Tuesday's flight was a testament to the hard work of No. 3 Squadron's maintainers at RNZAF Base Ohakea, who ensured the helicopters were available for the flight, NH90 Training Section commander Squadron Leader Andrew Stewart says. There was also an element of the stars aligning with all aircrew available and only one of the fleet undergoing scheduled maintenance, he said. 'It was planned a few days in advance. Duties were delegated and it all came together.' Contingency planning played an important role in the flight and on the day, low cloud meant a last-minute change of route away from the built-up areas of Palmerston North and Feilding. Instead, it was over rural areas where the aircraft could fly at a lower height. For many of the crew it was their first large formation flight and was valuable training for this year's Australian Exercise Talisman Sabre, where they will be flying in formation alongside different nations' aircraft. 'It's not often we have seven helicopters available, and the formation flight opportunity was due to the hard work by maintenance staff - you've got to take your hat off to them,' Squadron Leader Stewart said. The aircraft have recently been fitted with updated software with improved navigation and radio features. The NH90s are the first fleet in the world to have the upgrades installed and the maintainers completed it well before deadline. Avionics technicians Corporal Ben Crowley and Corporal Rory McLachlan were part of the team to install the new software, and it was gratifying to see it used, they said. They said it was great to see the fleet flying in formation – the first time in their memory that so many had taken to the sky at once. 'It's not very often we have so many serviceable aircraft flying at the same time,' Corporal Crowley said. It was a testament to their tight team that the flight was able to happen, he said. 'Everybody chipped in and to get all seven up is a big win for us.' 'We always try to have as many aircraft as possible serviceable, but we have to work around scheduled maintenance as well.' No. 3 Squadron maintainers have an enviable international reputation of having the highest NH90 serviceability rate in the world, with the fleet so far clocking up 18,250 flying hours and availability to fly sitting about 70 per cent. The next goal for the team was to get all eight helicopters flying at once, but 'the stars definitely need to align for that', Corporal McLachlan said. One of the roles for helicopter loadmaster Sergeant Evan McKenzie was keeping an eye on the distance between the aircraft in the formation. 'I was working with the pilots to make sure we were at a safe, but appropriate distance. 'It was pretty special; it's not often you get to fly in a seven-ship formation.' Co-pilot Flight Lieutenant Jason Anderson was also keeping a close eye on the gap between each helicopter, which was about 40-50m apart. 'The main outcome of the flight was a thank you to the hard work done by the maintenance team who made the fleet serviceable. To have them fly with us in the back while we worked on training outcomes in the front was epic.'
Otago Daily Times
15-05-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Honouring unrecognised airmen
Preparing for a memorial wall which will be set up later this year at the South Canterbury Aviation Heritage Centre are Sally Crook and Jeremy Talbot. PHOTO: SHELLEY INON Long-forgotten heroes are being remembered by a local organisation. The South Canterbury Aviation Heritage Centre has begun a project aimed at recording and preserving all of the names of the South Canterbury men who lost their lives while serving New Zealand in the Air Force — the majority of who served in World War 2. Organiser and historian Sally Crook said over 230 men from South Canterbury had served in different roles in the war and in many different types of aircraft. Miss Crook said some of the men served in Bomber Command, which she had read had an average life expectancy of only two weeks. "For a long time the contributions of those who served in Bomber Command went unrecognised because bombing campaigns had high civilian losses too." She said there were many airmen with no known grave, and some families had lost more than one member. "I'm certain there are people I haven't found, so we will be leaving space on the board to add to." She said the people on the wall were the "quiet stories". She was hopeful people in the region could help her along with her task by providing more photographs of the men. Whether they had been born in the area, gone to school here or worked here, they would be included. Members from the centre had felt it was important to preserve the names now as it might be the last chance to find photographs before all of the information was lost. The children born to men who had died in World War 2 would now be at least 80. Photographs of relatives from South Canterbury who served with the Royal New Zealand Air Force or other Allied air forces and did not make it home, could be sent to aviationheritagecentre@ If someone had a photograph but were not able to send a copy she asked they got in touch with the group and they would see how they could help. She said the exhibition would be opened with a memorial service later in the year. An open day would be held this Sunday from 10am-4pm. Entry was $5 for adults and $2 for children, cash or bank transfer.
NZ Herald
06-05-2025
- NZ Herald
Colin McCahon painting mystery: How a $225 auction ‘sleeper' sold for $31,000
'We did not know what it was or who it was by,' said Andrew Swain, head of pictures. Headlines allege what happened next: 'Painting by New Zealand's leading modern artist takes £14,000 after being identified by Fernhurst auctioneer' reported online news site Sussex World. Did someone on the other side of the world really just score a McCahon for $31,000? While Swain last week replied to an initial email from the New Zealand Herald neither he, nor a public relations company for John Nicholson's, have responded to two follow-up emails seeking to clarify how Lot 176 came to be reported as a McCahon. It was certainly not listed as such in the auction catalogue and an £80-£100 sales estimate gave no suggestion this was an auction to watch. There were, arguably, other clues. On the reverse of the painting there was a title, initials and a date – Truth from the King Country Load Bearing Structures, '78. Search the internet for that information and turn up 1300-plus results leading to a single artist's name: Colin John McCahon. Did John Nicholson's Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers research the painting's title? Does it have more information on the work's provenance or ownership history? How many people bid on the work? What factors led to its initial price estimate? Swain has not responded to these questions, but last week told the Herald: 'We had no requests for condition reports or extra photographs so had no inkling until the bidding started at £75 and quickly accelerated to over £10,000, much to the delight of the auctioneer and the people (including the vendor) in the saleroom. 'When something sells at auction at a high price, but having had a low guide price, it is known in the trade as a 'sleeper',' Swain said. 'You rarely get them these days as the internet and interest generated from it usually gives an auctioneer some clue before the auction day that what they have is more valuable than otherwise thought.' The Herald understands at least one Auckland auction house that has been approached about the work will not be offering it for sale. In New Zealand, the most valuable artwork ever sold at public auction was by Colin McCahon – $2.39 million, paid in 2022. The last time anything by the Timaru-born artist's Truth from the King Country series went to auction locally, bidding stopped just short of $106,000. The Sussex-sold painting has the hallmarks of a work from that series. 'I've made 31 paintings called Truth from the King Country & am on the next 6 now,' McCahon wrote in a 1978 letter to his friend, Ron O'Reilly. 'All small & lovely - yellow, orange, toad green & black - they have taken me 3 months to make. I have been handing them out as gifts to Dunedin people who I owe something to.' Colin McCahon's Truth from the King Country: Load Bearing Structures (Large) No. 6 was sold by Auckland's Art + Object for $89,300 in 2017. Photo / Greg Bowker The version just sold in the United Kingdom was described as 'black T shape on green and yellow background'. Not noted in the auction catalogue text, but evident from accompanying photographs, was a further identifier – the phrase 'large 6' painted inside a small white rectangle. Truth from the King Country comprises multiple sub-series, one of which is called 'Large'. Three images from the 'Large' sub-series – 5, 6 and 7 – are easily searchable via an online catalogue of works authenticated by the Colin McCahon Research and Publication Trust. Curiously, a 'Large 6″ is also searchable via the New Zealand Herald. In 2017, the Herald ran photographs of it to illustrate the differences between an authenticated work from the 'Large' Truth sub-series and another ('Large 8') that had sold for a song at an auction in Surrey, England. Confused? Compare the authenticated 'Large 6' with the similarly titled work sold last month in Sussex, and they look nothing alike – until you turn them over. A screenshot of an image presented in an online catalogue listing for a painting that sold last month at auction in England for approximately $31,000. Truth from the King Country: Load bearing structures (Large) 6 is a verified Colin McCahon painting, auctioned at Auckland's Art + Object in Auckland in 2017. Photo / Greg Bowker Peter Simpson, local McCahon scholar and author of multiple books about the artist, says it is 'always hard to be certain' about the authenticity of a painting, even with access to the original. He said photographs of the reverse of the Sussex-sold work showed it shared many characteristics with known authenticated examples from the series, but: 'I am doubtful if this is an original McCahon.' Simpson says the dimensions listed in the auction catalogue for the Sussex-based work indicated a painting that was 'considerably smaller' than other known 'Large' examples. He also says a gap between the top of the black 'T' (the Tau cross) and the edge of the painting is not consistent with other works he has seen from that sub-series. Meanwhile, the arrangement of the hills, with a separating ridge, was unlike anything he had observed across the entirety of the Truth series. 'These do not look like King Country hills ... The painting of the hills, while McCahon-like, does not strike my eye as authentic – more likely a clever copy by someone closely familiar with the series.' Simpson notes the existence of an already recorded 'Large 6' on the Colin McCahon database. 'Colin was careful with his documenting and although he did occasionally make mistakes – spelling mistakes for example – it is extremely unlikely he would have given two works the same number.' In 2017, it was Simpson who told the Herald the 'Large 8' that had been sold in the United Kingdom was unlikely to have been a lost McCahon. 'I don't think so,' he said. 'When I first saw it, I thought it looked genuine. The thing that has made me the most dubious is the handwriting. Although it's a fair imitation of Colin's hand, if you compare it closely, there are all sorts of differences in the way that individual letters are formed.' More recently, in 2021, Auckland's International Art Centre halted the $87,000 sale of a work called Truth from the King Country: Load Bearing Structures: Series Three while it tried to establish a more complete ownership trail. Back then, Simpson noted anomalies in the information on that painting's reverse, but also said 'if this particular work is a forgery, it is infinitely more sophisticated than any I've seen'. Commenting this week on why the Truth series might be more susceptible to copies than other McCahon's, Simpson pointed to the sheer number of works across the various sub-series ('nearly 40') and the relative simplicity of the design. 'Dark T against hill and sky – not too hard to copy perhaps. The works are smallish, but valuable. Most sell these days for around $100,000 ... a great return for smallish effort if you can bring it off.' It's not impossible a previously unknown McCahon could make it to auction. Last year, when the Colin McCahon Trust launched a major project to preserve and revitalise its ageing digital archive of more than 1800 works, it called for owners of potentially uncatalogued works to come forward. Colin McCahon's grandsons, Peter Carr (left) and Finn McCahon-Jones, photographed ahead of last year's launch of a two-year legacy project to revitalise the ageing online database of the artist's works. Photo / Michael Craig Finn McCahon, trustee and the artist's grandson, noted that McCahon was known in Australia, collectors had taken his work to the UK and, in 1958, he had travelled to America with his wife and fellow artist Anne (nee Hamblett). 'His practice has legs, and for people who understand contemporary art, he fits into this global context. So we don't know what's happened behind closed doors out there.' In a statement to the Herald last week, Peter Carr, trust chairman and the artist's eldest surviving grandson, said while a number of people had made contact with the trust, no previously unknown paintings had come to light, 'a reflection of the strength of the irreplaceable research carried out by the Trust and academics in the early 1990s'. Carr said the trust, via a panel of experts, had a 'rigorous' process for reviewing and verifying artworks thought to be by McCahon. Because the work sold at auction in the United Kingdom last month had not been through that process, 'it was not possible to comment on its veracity ... ' Carr confirmed the trust was not aware that the work was for sale and had not had any correspondence with the auction house. Kim Knight is an award-winning arts journalist with the New Zealand Herald's lifestyle desk.
