The idea of completing a trade apprenticeship sparked Briarna Blackmore to look at what was available in the New Zealand Defence Force.
Briarna Blackmore has swapped horses for planes. Photo: Supplied
Blackmore, 18, from Cambridge has just completed the 12-week recruit course at Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) Base Woodbourne and will soon start training to be an aircraft technician.
Prior to joining she worked at a local Cambridge thoroughbred racing stables where she was part of team doing general farm maintenance and assisting with foaling and breeding.
“I worked until the day before I came to Woodbourne, which was probably the best preparation that I could have gotten for recruit course given the extremely long and physical hours.”
She is looking forward to the next step in her careers as an aircraft technician and will be staying on at Base Woodbourne to do her trade training.
“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.
“I am extremely grateful to have been selected to be part of the Air Force,” she said.
Blackmore said the highlight of the course has been the friendships she has developed.
“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.
“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.
“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,” she said.
In addition to the highlights, there have been challenges while on course.
“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.
“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.”
Blackmore said that she has found that people skills are some of the most important skills to have within the Air Force.
“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.”
Briarna Blackmore has swapped horses for planes. Photo: Supplied
