‘Flying is my happy place’, says Prince of Wales

THE Prince of Wales has said flying is his “happy place” while reminiscing about his time in the air force.

Prince William was chatting with some of his former colleagues during a visit to RAF Benson alongside the Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan on Wednesday last week.

Remembering his “glory days” of serving with the RAF Search and Rescue Force, the Prince described flying Sea King helicopters and how their sound still goes “straight to my heart”. When asked if he still spent any time in the cockpit, the prince replied: “I do still fly, yeah — I keep my hours going.

“When you learn that skill set, you just don’t want it to go. I’ve definitely lost a lot of the skills I had, but I like to keep on top of my flying, keep doing it,” William said. “It’s my happy place, I love flying.”

Prince William served a three-year tour with the Search and Rescue Force before leaving the armed forces in 2013. He later served as a helicopter pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance flying missions for two years before stepping down in 2017 to focus on his royal duties.

The prince told a group of his former colleagues: “I miss the Search and Rescue — glory days. We had obviously the US state visit the other day, seven aircraft flying over. Sea King comes in, I was like ‘there she is’, that noise went straight to my heart.”

RAF Benson is home to
28 (Army Cooperation) Squadron, a unit training aircrew to fly Chinook helicopters. Prince William and Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II helped tighten a nut on an oil reserve for a rotorhead using a torque wrench.

Flight Lieutenant Steve Wilders, who served with Prince William on 22 Squadron, said: “It was a pleasure getting to meet Prince William again after all this time, reminiscing about our time together. It is still a privilege to get a chance to meet him again as His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.”