Prince William teamed up with Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan to visit RAF Benson in Oxfordshire today, where the Prince of Wales took a trip down memory lane
Prince William revealed how flying is his “happy place” as he reminisced about his old life in the RAF as a helicopter pilot.
The Prince of Wales caught up with old colleagues to chat about the “glory days” flying Sea King helicopters on rescue missions during a special visit to an RAF base today. William was joined at the base by fellow heir to the throne, Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan, and also described how the roar of the aircraft still goes “straight to my heart”. Both princes met some of William’s former colleagues and other personnel in the mess at RAF Benson near Oxford, where he was asked if he was still flying.
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And he 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. And it’s my happy place, I love flying.”
William served for three years with RAF Search and Rescue and was based at RAF Valley in Anglesey. He later joined the East Anglian Air Ambulance, where he piloted helicopters for two years.
The prince added: “I miss the Search and Rescue – glory days. I miss the Sea King flying around, because when I hear it, that noise, as it flies past. We had obviously the US state visit the other day, with seven aircraft flying over. Sea King comes in, I was like ‘there she is’ that noise went straight to my heart.”
Both the Prince of Wales and the Crown Prince of Jordan are trained helicopter pilots.The Crown Prince completed his pilot training with the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) in 2019.
RAF Benson is home to a number of squadrons, including 28 (Army Cooperation) Squadron, a unit training aircrew to fly Chinook helicopters, and William and Hussein helped the technicians with maintenance work.
The future monarchs helped tighten a nut on an oil reserve for a rotorhead – the large assembly a Chinook’s rotor blades are connected to on top of the aircraft – using a torque wrench.
After the wrench made a satisfying click, William joked: “You will check before it goes back (into service), I don’t want to be responsible.” The two princes later had a private briefing about undisclosed matters.
Flight Lieutenant Steve Wilders, a Chinook instructor, served alongside the prince in search and rescue at RAF Valley, and later once piloted a royal helicopter carrying William.
After speaking to William in the mess, he said: “It was really nice to hear that he has carried on flying – he’s still a pilot. “He made it sound as though he still enjoys it and it’s a nice break from the everyday pressures, I suppose, getting up and flying away from everything.”
The two princes’ trip to RAF Benson came after an earlier meeting at Windsor Castle, where they were joined by their wives the Princess of Wales and Princess Rajwa. The Waleses’ are known to be friends of the couple, having attended their spectacular wedding in Jordan back in June 2023.
Meanwhile, the country of Jordan is a special place for Kate, who lived there for three years as a young child. It came when her dad Michael Middleton was relocated there while working for British Airways – and Kate and sister Pippa attended a nursery there.
In 2021, the couple took their children to Jordan for a private holiday, with a family snap at the ancient city of Petra from that getaway featuring on their Christmas card that year. It came after William promised to take his family to Jordan following his 2018 visit there.
A Kensington Palace spokesman said: “Today’s engagements highlight the strong relationship between The Prince and The Crown Prince, as well as their mutual respect and support for the Armed Forces.”