Nick Olney knew from a very young age growing up in Wanganui that he wanted to fly. Now Group Captain Olney is the new base commander RNZAF Base Ohakea. PHOTO/LEWIS GARDNER
Nick Olney talks to John Maslin about his new role at RNZAF Base Ohakea.
When Nick Olney was growing up in Wanganui he'd watch the occasional Royal New Zealand Air Force plane scorch across the city skyline.
It was something he wanted to experience and, from an early age, he set his mind on a career in the air force.
Now, 25 years later, 43-year-old Group Captain Olney has been welcomed as commander of RNZAF Base Ohakea.
He never trained as a pilot - although he was offered the chance.
Instead he followed a career as a navigator and it opened the world to him.
In that quarter century he has been involved in search and rescues in the South Pacific, helped deliver humanitarian aid to cyclone-stricken Pacific Island nations and come under mortar attack in the badlands of Mogadishu.
Now he commands an air force base where more than 1000 people work or live.
That oversight takes in flying squadrons, technical support and trade related units. These include the T-6C II Texans of the Pilot Training Squadron and the Central Flying School, the Beech B200 King Airs of No. 42 Squadron, the Iroquois helicopters of No. 3 Squadron and the A109 and NH90 helicopters of the Helicopter Transition Unit (HTU).
The son of Jim Olney and Athena Christodoulaki, his schooling in Wanganui was at Wanganui East Primary, Wanganui Intermediate and then Wanganui Boys' College.
Gp Capt Olney had a hankering to fly from the time he was growing up in Wanganui.
He followed that dream by enlisting with the RNZAF as soon as he left Boys' College in 1990. And yes, he watched the movie Top Gun more than once to fuel the desire.
"I trained at Wigram and the ambition was to be a pilot but at my selection board they said I was better suited for navigation.
"It sounded pretty interesting and I didn't mind because I was keen to get out there," he said.
He finished navigation training at Wigram even though he was asked to transition to pilot training.
"It's hard to explain the reason why but I was really enjoying what I was doing as a navigator."
He was posted to Whenuapai, flying Andovers and spent three years in those aircraft.
"We were all around the country as well as Australia and the South Pacific. One of my first deployments was to Vanuatu after Cyclone Betsy hit.
"Flying those big planes into grass strips in the middle of Vanuatu was getting a good feel for stuff you couldn't do outside the military."
In early 1993 Gp Capt Olney was in Andovers that flew to Mogadishu and into a war zone. He was there for a few months.
"It was like flying into a 3D war movie. We landed and came under mortar attack. That's when I realise this wasn't Kansas anymore, Toto. But it opened my eyes to the role the defence forces played in our region and globally.":
The following year he was posted to the Orion squadron and its search and surveillance role. The 17 years with the Orions saw him rise through the ranks until he ended up running No 5 Squadron as Wing Commander.
"It's been an amazing role and seen me go to some amazing places and do incredible things. But after 17 years I then got the job as air attache with the NZ High Commission in London and that's the role I had before coming to Ohakea."
The London posting - like similar roles in Canberra and Washington - is one of the most important defence postings, given the historic defence connections.
He was there with his wife and two daughters Helena (10) and Monique (8) and it was a posting that got them invitations to some special places and events.
"Helena was lucky enough to do a reading at Westminster Abbey last Anzac Day, reading to a congregation of a couple of thousand people. That was a very special moment."
The Olney family are living on Base Ohakea; his role requires him to be on hand.
He got his official posting to the base on January 5 this year and it follows a restructuring of the air force command set-up. The air force officially reinstituted the title of base commander and with that the responsibility of the base commander's roles.
Previously there was a senior commander who looked after the "wings" side of the base, and another overseeing the support side.
But in the parlance of command, the buck stops at Gp Capt Olney's desk. He has accountability and responsibility for everything at Ohakea.
All the pilot training is done at Ohakea. They will learn the ropes and receive their wings at Ohakea. There is also advance pilot training at the base, where those pilots return to the base as instructors "virtually instructing the instructors".
"But what we have here, in terms of aircraft, the training here is great for the air force, great for the region and great for the country," he said.
"The risk for our air force today is that the public only see about 10 per cent of what we do. Much of it happens offshore or out of sight. Ohakea is one of the few bases where the flying occurs within coo-ee of the base," he said.
Ohakea's a big base and requires a lot to keep it working. Medical, dental and chaplaincy services sit alongside human resources, administration and of course the frontline Air Force operations.
"It's a little super city. A good way to describe it is that I'm the mayor and there's a bunch of different sub-committees to help me run it. But if something goes wrong here I'll be fronted and asked to explain what happened, why it happened and what I'm going to do about it. So with that power comes the responsibility," he said.
He expects to be at Ohakea for the next three years, the normal military posting cycle.
Gp Capt Olney has never regretted a moment of his Air Force career.
"The military has been great for me. While I've been in the same career for 25 years I've never had the same job for more than three years."