LifeFlight Australia shares story about new apprentice LifeFlight apprentice Bethany Heintze knows a thing or two about engineering a new career in a timely fashion. A chance meeting with a LifeFlight Australia general manager led Bethany Heintze into the organization’s apprenticeship program, including helping assemble a new Leonardo AW139 in her first month. Some call it luck, but we all need a bit of that when hoping for that big career break. The 19-year-old, originally from Yeppoon, was working as a mechanical apprentice with Toyota in Brisbane, when she decided to visit the maintenance centre at Archerfield Airport following a friend’s suggestion she investigate aeromechanical work. In a twist of fate, LifeFlight General Manager Engineering, Peter De Marzi happened to be walking out the front door when Ms Heintze mentioned work experience. He agreed and in her second week she was already helping to assemble a new AW139 for the leading aeromedical organisation. “In the second week we had the first of the new helicopters (LF2) come through and I got to assist with that, which was great,” Ms Heintze said. “When I came back to start my apprenticeship, it was all together and flying, which was really cool from seeing it come on the truck to operating.” Ms Heintze is now in her first year as an apprentice aeromechanical engineer completing block release training with Aviation Australia. She has joined LifeFlight’s 60-strong engineering workforce made up of 50 licensed engineers and 10 apprentices with the majority based at the LifeFlight Clive Berghofer Maintenance Centre at Archerfield Airport. The engineers service LifeFlight’s fleet of 20 rotary wing helicopters and four fixed-wing aircraft. “I’ve always loved pulling things apart and seeing how they work and understanding why they do what they do, just being mechanically minded,” she said. “I worked at Toyota as a mechanical apprentice, but I think I was looking for a little bit more with my career. “There is more of a future at LifeFlight, and I wanted to challenge myself. “Everyone was really welcoming when I did two weeks’ work experience because they trusted me with the tools. I didn’t feel like I was completely alone.” Ms Heintze said her first weeks at LifeFlight were a steep learning curve, but a challenge she relished. “The hardest thing is getting over the fact of proving myself in such a technical workplace,” she said. “It’s not necessarily the work; it’s more the mindset of knowing I can do it. “I’ve always loved using my hands with things, so just being given the responsibility of doing tasks and being able to learn as I go. It’s really great seeing how it works.” She said her advice for aspiring aeromechanical apprentices was to have self-belief. “Don’t tear yourself down if you can’t get great grades. I barely scraped through Year 12 myself,” she said. “It’s more about character and persistence. If you want to get to where you want to go, don’t let anybody stop you from what you want to do.” Her future goals included travelling the world and mentoring young apprentices. “It was always a dream to get into a job like this. I always thought that you had to have straight As and be super intelligent,” she said “I guess it was just me shutting down my aspirations from early on because I didn’t realise that I’m so much more than that.”
