This International Women’s Day we are celebrating some of the incredible women who are helping us deliver lifesaving care on the front line.
Meet jet pilot Amanda, helicopter pilot Tarryn and apprentice engineer Bethany!
Amanda is one of our Air Ambulance pilots, who works onboard our Challenger 604 jets. As First Officer, her job is to ensure the aircraft is ready for missions and support the Captain throughout the flight. She fell in love with flying at a young age, going on adventures across Australia with her father who is also a pilot.
Growing up she knew she wanted to become a pilot, but the lack of female representation made her hesitant to take the first step. Once she started her training, she was lucky to have an incredible female mentor who showed her the ropes and prove what was possible. As a member of the Australian Women Pilots Association, Amanda is already inspiring the next generation of female pilots.
Her favourite mission so far was being part of an incredible multi-leg effort to get a patient from Switzerland back to Australia – LifeFlight’s longest jet mission to date! Her advice to anyone who is interested in being a pilot is straightforward.
“Don’t be afraid to book your first trial flight, get out there, take the controls and see how it feels,” she said.
“Know that you can do it, and it is possible, it’s a lot of work, but the outcome is definitely worth it!”
Tarryn hails from South Africa and has been a helicopter pilot for more than 20 years! From the moment she saw a helicopter land on the rugby pitch at her school, she knew she wanted to be a pilot. After years of rigorous training in the South African Air Force, she earned her wings and never looked back.
Her experience across sectors including military, search and rescue, retrievals and aeromedicine makes her an incredible asset to our team. She now splits her time at LifeFlight between flying one of our AW139 helicopters out of Brisbane and managing our Human Performance Program.
She loves that being a pilot enables her to help people in their time of need. Her advice may sound cliché but it’s what got her to where she is today.
“Be true to yourself and stick to your values. The road isn’t easy, so expect lumps and bumps along the way, but rise to the occasion,” she said.
“All that does is just create more resilience, more fight, more fire in your belly to go and accomplish it.”
Bethany has always been mechanically minded. As a kid she loved pulling things apart and seeing how they worked. Now, after working as a mechanical apprentice for Toyota, she has joined our crew as an apprentice engineer. That all came to be after she decided to visit our maintenance centre at Archerfield Airport, following a friend’s suggestion to investigate aeromechanical work.
In a twist of fate, LifeFlight General Manager Engineering, Peter De Marzi, happened to be walking out the front door when she mentioned work experience. She has already had the chance to work on our new AW139 helicopter, VH-LF2, and see it go from pieces in boxes to up and flying! Her favourite part of her job is being hands on and learning as she goes.
Her advice to any women interested in a career in engineering is simple. “How will you know if you never try?” she said.
