Selwyn Times: June 09, 2021
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
<strong>Selwyn</strong> <strong>Times</strong> Wednesday <strong>June</strong> 9 <strong>2021</strong><br />
ARA INSTITUTE OF CANTERBURY<br />
Free computing<br />
course delivers<br />
unexpected benefits<br />
14<br />
Fighter pilot follows<br />
A simple desire to become more digital<br />
savvy has opened a world of possibilities for<br />
business owner Thomas King.<br />
A co-director of a logistics business for 20<br />
years, Thomas has seen huge changes in the<br />
way business is conducted.<br />
“The world is rapidly changing and to keep<br />
pace with it, having some confidence and<br />
competence in computing is crucial,” he says.<br />
“I realised that I’d have to embrace this new<br />
tech-driven world sooner or later, and now<br />
here I am today, loving what I once feared.”<br />
Thomas took his first steps in computing at<br />
Ara Connect which offers free, non-assessed<br />
computing courses for anyone wanting to gain<br />
skills and confidence using digital technology.<br />
Thomas says the tutors at Ara Connect<br />
welcomed him warmly, made learning<br />
an enjoyable experience and were<br />
very supportive. “I felt so inspired<br />
during my journey. The tutors want<br />
you to succeed and they encourage<br />
you to push your boundaries without<br />
ever throwing you in the deep end.”<br />
Discovering something new and<br />
amazing every time he got on a<br />
computer was one of the things<br />
Thomas enjoyed most about his time<br />
at Ara. “There are some amazing<br />
apps and software out there.<br />
I’ve especially fallen in love with<br />
collaboration tools which can help<br />
me complete a host of project management<br />
tasks.”<br />
Thomas is now considering further study<br />
and possibly a complete career change. “I’m<br />
keeping my options open but a future in IT<br />
is becoming more likely for me with every<br />
passing day.”<br />
His advice for anyone else considering the<br />
computing courses at Ara Connect is to just<br />
go for it. “Knowing how to use computers can<br />
make life so much easier. I certainly wish I’d<br />
taken courses like these two decades ago. My<br />
advice is to pluck up the courage and just go<br />
for it.”<br />
Ara Connect has a hub at Rangiora High<br />
School. To find out more, visit ara.ac.nz or<br />
call 0800 24 24 76.<br />
RECOGNISED: Phillip receiving the Air Force Cross for Gallantry, with his<br />
wife Fiona, at Buckingham Palace in 1988.<br />
• From page 13<br />
Did you fly that helicopter again?<br />
They did the best repairs they could<br />
and we flew it for about another couple of<br />
weeks. We took it across to Atlantic Conveyor<br />
(navy ship). An hour later (after we<br />
left), Atlantic Conveyor was sunk. I feel a<br />
little bit like Pig Pen in the Charles Shultze<br />
cartoon of Charlie Brown, where there<br />
is a cloud of dust following little Pig Pen<br />
around wherever he goes. I feel that trouble<br />
did that to me in the Falklands, it seemed<br />
to follow me around.<br />
What’s another example of trouble<br />
following you?<br />
We picked up a spare Lynx after the<br />
one we lost on the Atlantic Conveyor. We<br />
hopped off from HMS Hermes which<br />
was the aircraft carrier, across to HMS<br />
Broadsword, which got bounced by four<br />
Argentinian aircraft. The ship had some<br />
very good anti-aircraft missile systems and<br />
it was firing those. Then she was hit with a<br />
thousand pound bomb.<br />
Did the bomb explode?<br />
I was standing in the hangar, the bomb<br />
hit the sides, it was a bit of a thud as it hit.<br />
Everyone looked at each other and thought<br />
“Uh oh.” It didn’t explode. It hit one of the<br />
vertical walls of the ship, came up the vertical<br />
wall and out through the flight deck<br />
and took the nose off the spare Lynx that<br />
we had borrowed and completely trashed<br />
it. The bomb went over the side, into the<br />
sea. The only injury was one of the two<br />
laundry men who were from Hong Kong,<br />
they were part of the Chinese laundry<br />
which was very famous on navy warships,<br />
and one of them took a bit of a splinter as<br />
the bomb hit the vertical wall and went up.<br />
Did you feel lucky to be alive?<br />
I think three or four months later, I felt<br />
lucky to be alive. I think at the time there<br />
is so much adrenaline going through your<br />
body that you just get on and go with the<br />
training, you know there is war to fight,<br />
let’s get on with it.<br />
Do you have any other stories from the<br />
Falklands War?<br />
We were sent about 200 miles to the<br />
south, east of the Falklands, just to see if<br />
any shipping was coming up from that<br />
particular direction. It was a horrible, horrible<br />
foggy night, and we picked up a radar<br />
contact which we couldn’t identify. (Command)<br />
decided it was a threat, and we had<br />
the skua missiles on board and they said<br />
“Take the target out.” You know how the<br />
hairs on the back of your neck go up, you<br />
think something is not quite right? So I<br />
said to (pilot) Alan Harper “We are going<br />
to go and identify the target.” It was like a<br />
line from the film Top Gun. “You want to<br />
do what?” We came around behind it, we<br />
honed onto it, we put all our landing lights<br />
on in the fog and we identified it as a UK<br />
survey ship painted up as a hospital ship.<br />
It was out of position, because it wanted<br />
to break away and behave independently,<br />
so that the Argentinian air force wouldn’t<br />
find it. We found it, we were given permission<br />
to attack it, we didn’t because<br />
something didn’t feel right, it turned out<br />
my hunch was correct.<br />
Explore this option<br />
today at ara.ac.nz<br />
Phillip and Fiona.<br />
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN
Change language