Relief on the faces of the people who are rescued rather than the dramatic nature of the work stands out of Huapai crewman from the Westpac Rescue Helicopter service.

After achieving the milestone of 2000 air rescues, Paul (Ernie) Bryant says helping people is what counts. “None of us see ourselves as glamorous and heroes of the skies. We’re there doing our hob professionally.”

Paul says often the memorable moments are not the high end traumatic incidents, but just flying on jobs with his workmates – the pilot and advanced paramedic. “It’s nice to have reached the milestone but looking back over the years you think of the crews you’ve been with and the jobs you’ve done.”

The public profile of there role is “absolutely huge”, especially after recently featuring on TV2’s Rescue 1 series. But Paul says they have false alarms along with mundane and routine times like all emergency services.

“What the public miss are things like standing on the side of the road waiting for someone to be cut out of a car, callouts which take longer than expected, training on your day off.”

The 44year old is a father of two who is married to Pauline and has his own interest like, like fishing, outside of work. Born and bred in Southland, Paul joined the air force when he was 18 and trained mainly at Whenuapai and Hobsonville.

He said he was fortunate to get into the air crew. He just “changed overalls” when he joined the Westpac rescue service 14years ago. On his first day on the job he felt like a “stunned mullet” when at a fatal head on accident.

“I remember watching all the ambulance and fire crews working and the helicopter parked on the road and the whole scene environment. I never thought then I would do that 2000 times. As a crewman Paul operates the winch from the helicopter and is the eyes and ears for the pilot, standing on the skid, hovering over rescues and training sessions.

Seeing the “huge relief on people’s faces” can never be forgotten, including the time they rescued a father and his young son climbing to their runabout in the sea. “They had watched boats with searchlights around them but hadn’t got to them. As soon as we got over the top we saw their relief.”

Other incidents involved winching an entire family out of the Coromandel ranges after they got lost, helping a burns victim after he was hurt while smoking fish and rescuing a young boy who suffered a serious injury from a car crash and was in a coma for a long time. “he came to visit us some years later and it was good to see him making such good progress.”

Paul says they also meet all sorts of people especially while talking to groups and visitors at their base visits in Mechanics Bay. “You can have a lot of fun with the kids but you try to interact with them by asking them questions.”