Meet the team

Pilots
Sam Richmond – Base Manager/Pilot
				Sam Richmond joined the Taranaki Rescue Helicopter Trust in January 2011. Prior to that Sam had a career as a helicopter pilot and instructor in the Royal New Zealand Navy, operating off ships around New Zealand, across the Pacific, and into the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Gulf. Sam enjoys being a member of a great team of professionals and volunteers that provides an essential rescue service to the wider Taranaki community. Originally from Waitara, Sam was keen to bring his wife and two children back to Taranaki take advantage of the great lifestyle.
Fergus MacLachlan – Pilot
				Fergus MacLachlan joined the Taranaki Rescue Helicopter Trust in January 2012, he comes from Palmerston North where he has worked as the Base Manager for the Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter for the last two years. Fergus grew up on a farm in rural Te Kuiti before going on to study engineering. He then worked in Scotland before he decided to follow his dream of flying helicopters. He began his flight training at Ardmore in Auckland, and once qualified, he gained employment in Florida as a flight instructor. Fergus then joined ERA Helicopters in the Gulf of Mexico where he flew for three years transporting people and supplies out to oil rigs and ‘avoiding Hurricanes’. Some time spent at ERA’s Alaska division meant working in extreme conditionswes topped flying when temperatures got below -40c as the hydraulics started to get a little stiff. “We flew at night, in snow storms and even flew IFR while long lining at night,” explains Fergus. His next adventure was to the Grand Canyon flying scenic flights for tourists. But five months later another opportunity arose – Fergus spotted an ad for a rescue helicopter pilot back in New Zealand. “This was the perfect opportunity to give something back. I felt it was time to do something completely different and this was my opportunity to serve the community.” His wife Christine also a helicopter pilot is now semi retired as a professional mum with a 2 year old girl and the next baby due at the end of February.
Crewman
Jayden Strickland – Chief Crewman
				Jayden is our first fulltime Chief Crewman and joined Taranaki Rescue in January 2011. Jayden comes to us from the Royal New Zealand Navy where he was serving as a Helicopter Crewman Instructor at 6 Squadron on the Navy’s Seasprite helicopters.Jayden brings a range of land and seaborne operational experience which will only enhance the solid foundations already in practice here at Taranaki Rescue . Originally a Magpie supporter (Hawkes Bay born and bred) Jayden now calls Taranaki home.
Phil Dwyer – Second Crewman
				Phil comes from a surf lifesaving back ground also having done time in the fire service. He has been with the trust for five years as a general SAR crewman and is a member of our specialist marine team. He also is the newest member to our strop/winch team.Phil says “The best thing about this job is you get such a diverse work load, you never know what you’re going to get, and also being able to make a lifesaving difference to someone’s life”
Volunteer Crew
Our volunteer crew bring a wide range of skills and experience to the Taranaki Rescue Helicopter Trust. They come from varied backgrounds and careers and all possess specialist skills that enhance the safety and efficiency of our rescue missions.It should be recognised that our crew contributes in excess of 10,000 man hours, voluntarily, every year. We are proud and privileged to include these exceptional individuals in our operation.

Marine and General Crew
Murray Chong – Marine I/C and General Crew
				Murray came to us from a surf life saving and yachting background and also volunteered for two years in the ambulance service. In 2003 he joined our marine specialist team and is now also one of our general crew. Murray is proud of his association with the trust and his contribution to the Taranaki community.


Sarah Sharp – Marine
				Originally from the Waikato, Sarah moved to Taranaki in late 2009. Sarah works for PwC Taranaki who are supportive of the on-call nature of her role on the marine team with TRHT. Sarah’s background is with surf lifesaving New Zealand and as such the majority of her summers are spent in, or around a beach! Sarah is still heavily involved with surf life saving in Taranaki region, and also races IRBs during club events. She has also had previous involvement with the Westpac Auckland Rescue Helicopter and Westpac Waikato Air Ambulance while in the Waikato. Sarah enjoys continuing with, and building on her Marine rescue skills with TRHT.
Andy Cronin – Marine
				To be advised
Michael Melody – Marine
				To be advised

Alpine
The Alpine team is an elite team of volunteers who dedicate their time not only from their day jobs but also personal commitments to respond to any incident located in mountainous areas within the Taranaki Region. On any given job you may see the Alpine team winched into a tight spot in the bush or trade their hiking shoes for a pair of cramp ons and ice pick and clamber the ice clad slopes of Mount Taranaki to recover a injured or missing tramper.


Peter Lethbridge


Mike Johns

Don Paterson
				The owner and operator of Adventure Dynamics, Don Paterson, brings a wealth of experience from years working within the Outdoor Education and Adventure Tourism industries. Don’s passion for the outdoors and for teaching came together about 20 years ago. Since then, he has been teaching, leading and guiding in the outdoors of New Zealand, North America, India and Britain. He is highly regarded in the outdoor industry and has been involved with the development of many outdoor instructor qualifications that are available in New Zealand.
Jeremy Beckers
				Jeremy has lived in New Plymouth for almost all his life, it’s a great place to live. A joiner by trade but he has recently been involved in interior drawings at Fitzroy Yachts where he has worked for nearly nine years. His Interests include photography, tramping, climbing, high and low level search and rescue. He is married to Kate and they have two children, Georgia and Nathan.
Medics
When Taranaki Rescue Helicopter receives a job of a medical nature St John supplies one of the below personnel. Taranaki Rescue Helicopters job is to provide a professional emergency medical platform to enable these medics to arrive at the scene and transfer the patient/s back to hospital in the least amount of time. By utilising a Helicopter over a road Ambulance we can deliver a medic faster and transport a patient back in a stable comfortable environment.
Steve Orr - Megan Stewart -Leon Strauss
Flight Nurses
The Flight nurses manage medical patients on inter-hospital transfers. The flights are usually Taranaki Base to Waikato Hospital along with flights to Palmerston North, Wellington and Auckland.
Sue Deakin
Sue Deakin is a member of the Flight Nurse team. She is based on ICU/ CCU at Taranaki Base Hospital, Sue she takes great pride in the way the service has grown and developed. Personally, she enjoys keeping fit with running/walking/gardening. She belongs to a book club, loves travelling to different parts of the world, and she is interested in other cultures. She lives on 5 acres on the outskirts of New Plymouth which she has planted in about 200 trees. She loves socialising and a glass of wine.
Angela Morgan
Angela is one of the original team of four nurses that setup the flight service in 2002 in response to the need to transfer Taranaki District Healthboard patients to tertiary hospitals for specialist care. She has been actively nursing for 30 plus years with her focus on the Intensive Care/Cardiac Care setting for the majority of them. Her special interest is Cardiac Care but she enjoys the variety of clinical work that her ICU/CCU and Flight nursing roll offers
Carolyn Jackson
An original member of the Flight Nurses team- Carolyn has an extensive longterm Intensive/Cardiac Care background, currently working ICU/CCU/Flights and also undertaking the Cardiac Drug Trials at Base Hospital. Born and bred in rural Taranaki, trained in Palmerston North, married then returned “home”. Carolyn enjoys being able to use her mixed job skills for the benefit of Taranaki residents.
Clazina Hagenson, Shane Wilkinson and Aileen Kirby
Trustees
Mark Masters, Chairman
				A dairy farmer from Stratford and formerly Chairman of NZ Federated Farmers (Dairy Farmers of New Zealand), Mark has been a member of the trust since 1997 and chairman since 1998.

Richard Williams, Trustee
				Richard was invited to become a trustee in 2002 and accepted with pleasure. He strongly believes that because of the onshore and offshore geography of our province, the TRHT fully dedicated service is crucial to the safety the people of Taranaki and the many visitors we invite here.
Duncan English, Trustee
				Duncan joined the Trust in 2007. He is Project Manager for Fletcher Construction.

John Flowers, Trustee




Evan Cottam, Trustee
				Evan was appointed to the Board of Trustees in March 2011. He brings to the Trust his extensive financial and management experience, including 30 years in public practise as a Chartered Accountant and the last 19 years as a Financial and Investment Adviser. Evan has always been active in the community having been a member of Lions Club for 17 years and now a member of Rotary, a long standing Treasurer of the Woodleigh Sports & Social Club, New Plymouth Golf Club, and New Plymouth Chartered Club. He has been a long term supporter of the Taranaki Rescue Helicopter Trust. Evan has been married to Judith for over 36 years and they have two children, Michelle and Sarah, and one grandchild, Penny. He is a keen follower of all sports, being a past representative in cycling, softball and rugby, and still enjoys recreational cycling.




Administration Staff The trust employs two administration staff who are responsible for a wide variety of admin duties that ensure the on-going day to day operation of the financial and administrative aspects of trust business. Without our administrative staff we could not possibly survive the enormous paper trails necessary in today’s aviation world. Also responsible for the management of our substantial telemarketing program, our administration staff ensures that this significant undertaking operates in a smooth and efficient manner.
Barbara Richards - Administration Manager
				Barbara began her association with the trust in 1992. At that time she was volunteering her services to the Taranaki Ambulance Service. Through this she became involved with the rescue helicopter, initially volunteering to take minutes at trustee meetings and provide administration support from her home.In 2000, she was employed as a permanent, part-time staff member for the Taranaki Rescue Helicopter Trust. This involved office management and assisting in the day-to-day running of the rescue helicopter. Within a couple of years her position became full time. She is now the Administration Manager and gets to crew on the helicopter when her workload allows.
Michelle Zehnder – Administration Assistant
				Michelle joined the Trust in June 2010, she is Taranaki born and bred. She offers the Trust a wide range of administration skills due to her 8 years in varied admin roles and also owned a business for 4 years. She manages the telemarketing and merchandise campaigns , manages and updates our web site while assisting Barbara with daily administration duties. She has two school aged children, is Secretary on the Bell Block School PTA. She enjoys sports particularly netball.