13/10/2026
Preparing crews for the moments that matter 🤝🏼 Community Bank Coolalinga supporting CareFlight’s winch rescue capability.
For CareFlight Flight Nurses Ash and Katie, months of training recently culminated in a significant milestone: their first live winch retrievals, reaching patients in difficult to access waterfall locations across the Top End.
Before either mission, there was extensive preparation.
Winch retrievals require crews to train for situations that are difficult to replicate in the field. Working from an aircraft, communicating as a team, managing a patient and being lowered into challenging environments all require practice before crews are faced with the real thing.
CareFlight’s winch simulator provides a safe and controlled environment for crews to build those skills.
Support from Community Bank Coolalinga has helped CareFlight invest in this important training capability, giving crews the opportunity to practise and prepare for the complex environments they may encounter during real rescue missions.
For Ash and Katie, that preparation helped build the skills and confidence they needed before stepping into their first live winch operations.
Their recent missions were a reminder of why that training matters.
Both patients were located in remote waterfall environments where the aircraft could not land. Instead, CareFlight crews were able to winch down to the patients, provide the care they needed and help bring them to safety.
For Community Bank Coolalinga, the contribution is about more than a piece of training equipment. It is helping CareFlight prepare its crews for the moments when specialist medical care needs to reach someone in a place that is difficult to access.
The impact of that support may begin in a simulator, but it can ultimately reach a patient when they need it most.
CareFlight Top End
