A day in the life of a RNZAF Pilot in Timor Leste

This downloadable video shows the first Royal New Zealand Air Force operational flight in Timor Leste in five years. Flight Lieutenant Paul Aitken, a RNZAF Iroquois helicopter pilot, describes the May 1 flight and talks about what life is like working alongside the Australian Defence Force. Video interview with Flight Lieutenant Paul Aitken [4.5Mb .wmv ] [Recommend right clicking on this link to download file].

Aerial view of Timor Leste from helicopters flying over villages and then landing in a sports field by the patrol base. The scene makes an impressive sight for the locals who are sitting on a fence watching the disembarking soldiers, and the helicopters landing and taking off.

Transcript:

Today we had a mission out to Baucau to relieve in place a forward patrol base that is operating out of there, currently manned by a platoon of around about 30 NZ soldiers. To effect that today we used two Australian Black Hawk helicopters and one of our Iroquois helicopters operating in company and supported by Australian Kiowa helicopters to provide pathfinding and landing zone identification. Basically heading out to Baucau dropping off the troops, allowing them to conduct a handover out there and back to Dili.

We are currently operating in support of the Combined Joint Task Force which is an Australian led force to provide stability operations in support of the Timor Leste government.

We are highly integrated, operating together in true ANZAC spirit.