School to Skies

In the first week of the holidays, Jamie and I went up to Auckland to take part in a School to Skies camp on an active New Zealand Air Force base. Us, along with 38 other girls from around the country, spent the week trying out and seeing lots of different careers and opportunities within the Air Force. We were also supposed to have a slideshow but that didn’t work out so just bear with us. 

On the first and second days, we learnt about the principles of flight and the military basics. We also got to experience what the work aircraft technicians do by building and putting together elements of a Grumman aircraft. Personally I built the landing gear and front propeller with Kristie Goodsir, who was Head of School in my year 9! Next we did basic life skills, car maintenance and how to change a tire. After that we went into the skin bay, where they build and repair damaged or broken aircraft. We got to be hands on and built phone holders, and learnt to metal stamp and engrave. Finishing off the day did avionics, coding and wiring a little model plane. 

The next two days we started off with meeting a dog handler and hearing about their work, before heading across to the Youth Development Unit, where we were taken through team work activities, knot-tying and how to march properly with the guidance of Navy officers. After that we went across to the Hercules simulator, where we got to fly the C-130 in Las Vegas, Nevada. To round out the day we had an industry dinner evening and had people from around Auckland talk with us about their career paths and industries they work in.

The last two days were still action-packed seeing the aircrew medical unit and getting to go inside the hypobaric chamber. We went to the safety bays, seeing inside life-rafts and the parachute rigging and packing. Continuing on with the safety kind of theme, we did search and rescue mission planning and visited the fire services and the parachute jump instruction unit. We then got tours of the Boeing-757 and the C-130 hercules parked on the runway. 

At the end of it all we had a women in military panel and a little prize giving ceremony before heading home our different ways. Overall, the week was very fun and I definitely recommend for people to apply even if you don’t think you want to or would suit the military because there is literally something for everyone there. My favourite part of the whole week was either the propeller building or the flight simulator.  Alana Berry-Rankin

When we first arrived on the base all of us were separated into 4 different flight groups led by a flight commander who looked after us for the whole week. Since Alana and I were in different groups my week was in a bit of a different order. I started off in NDT (non destructive testing) where we got to interact with tools such as infrared thermometers, gyro metres and x-rays, which they use to find faults in aircraft parts. We then checked out the mechanist trade where we engraved our names onto a coin which we got to keep. 

As Alana has said we did a ton of cool things, some of my favourites being building a satellite dish in communications, flying a Hercules in a flight simulator, and getting to go inside of the Hercules and Boeing at the end of it all. But personally pulling apart an engine and putting it back together again was the all-round favourite.

We got to experience so many different  trades that the air force has to offer to name a few that we haven’t talked about, the fire department, space department, search and rescue, parachuting and safety.

So if this sounds like you, talk to Mrs Shaw, go apply for next year, and if you need any help or want to see some photos just ask Alana and I. Jamie George