{"id":435831,"date":"2026-05-20T00:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T00:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/435831\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T00:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T00:14:09","slug":"central-north-islands-first-rescue-helicopter-training-centre-opens-in-taupo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/435831\/","title":{"rendered":"Central North Island\u2019s first rescue helicopter training centre opens in Taup\u014d"},"content":{"rendered":"

It employs more than 150 staff, including pilots, paramedics, air crew officers and support personnel. <\/p>\n

Chief executive Paul Baxter said in a media release the new centre would improve the organisation\u2019s ability to prepare crews for challenging rescue and medical situations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day, our crews are asked to make difficult decisions in difficult places \u2013 on a mountain face, above the deck of a vessel, on the side of a road, or while transporting critically unwell patients between hospitals.”<\/p>\n

He said the new facility provided a safe place to train for those scenarios and continue building the skills needed to deliver \u201clife-saving\u201d care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis facility is central to how we prepare, train and equip the specialist crews who operate this essential life-saving service and where the Government\u2019s significant investment in emergency health infrastructure comes to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Government committed $14.7m in funding last year to support the replacement of older helicopters<\/a> with the newer Airbus H145 aircraft. <\/p>\n

Of that funding, $8.2m came from Health New Zealand and $6.5m from ACC.<\/p>\n

The five-blade H145 helicopters are designed to improve safety and reliability while also enhancing bad-weather flying capability. <\/p>\n

\"AnAn Airbus H145 D3 rescue helicopter (call sign: IXN) that takes care of rescue operations in Waikato, Coromandel and King Country with its crew. Photo \/ Philips Search and Rescue Trust<\/p>\n

The aircraft is expected to reduce maintenance costs and improve operational performance as demand for emergency air ambulance services continues to rise.<\/p>\n

According to Search & Rescue Services, requests for air ambulance support increased by 22% in the last five years.<\/p>\n

A key feature of the new Taup\u014d facility <\/a>is a certified flight simulator imported from Spain, certified by the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority.<\/p>\n

It includes augmented and mixed reality hoist-training technology and allows pilots, paramedics and air crew officers to train together in realistic rescue scenarios.<\/p>\n

The training system recreates environments crews operate in, including volcanic terrain around Ng\u0101uruhoe and urban hospital landing sites such as Auckland City Hospital\u2019s helipad. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis facility is central to how we prepare, train and equip the crews who operate the Government-funded fleet,\u201d Baxter said in a media release. <\/p>\n

Staff can repeat and review emergency scenarios in ways that would be difficult or unsafe to replicate during live operations.<\/p>\n

Additional facilities include lecture rooms, briefing and debriefing areas, and space for a future helicopter rescue training mock-up.<\/p>\n

Baxter said the facility represented a long-term investment in maintaining high operational standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call this our Centre of Excellence not because excellence is a label we give ourselves, but because excellence is something we have to practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the centre would be the place where technical knowledge had a home and where that knowledge could be shared, developed and advanced over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is something we have to build, test, challenge and improve every day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It employs more than 150 staff, including pilots, paramedics, air crew officers and support personnel. Chief executive Paul…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1853,1550,1888,47065,78,3096,111,43,139,529,69,2680,8527,1852,8812],"class_list":["post-435831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-central","tag-centre","tag-first","tag-helicopter","tag-in","tag-islands","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-opens","tag-rescue","tag-taup","tag-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}