Keeping Helicopters burning and turning at Ohakea

It’s a challenging job commanding a squadron of Royal New Zealand Air Force Iroquois helicopters, but Wing Commander Ian MacPherson thrives on it.

Wing Commander MacPherson works at RNZAF Base Ohakea to ensure that 3 Squadron is ready to deploy overseas or conduct search and rescue and other multi-agency tasks at the drop of a hat.

“Our role spans a wide range of military and civil tasks and its variety is unmatched by any other helicopter squadron in the world,” Wing Commander MacPherson said.

“Commanding such a dynamic group of people is a real honour and seeing the results of our work is extremely satisfying.”

Two of the squadron’s 14 Iroquois helicopters are currently based in Timor-Leste with 180 New Zealand Defence personnel to assist security operations in the country. Their roles range from transporting troops and supplies to assisting with medical evacuations.

Before becoming the Commanding Officer of 3 Squadron last year, Wing Commander MacPherson spent four years flying RNZAF Hercules at 40 Squadron in Auckland and two years as a member of the Red Checkers RNZAF display team.