I thought he was being light hearted, a touch of p*** take, which is also called banter?
MGD - lighten up mate, you really did take the thread opener a bit too seriously there.
Nobody is going to chop anyone whose initials are HRH (funny how they all have the same initials, innit?), so the guy is possibly a little short on commonsense for worrying about it, they'll get him airborne in a wokka even if they have to build secret compartments in the tailboom to contain QHIs with remote control sets while the flight controls are actually only used to stir pots of thick grease about. In my view he was a good guy for going to Afghanistan, he's never going to prove critical to national defence, so let him play with one of Mum's toys all he likes.
The RAF don't work as hard as the army - that's why I joined the RAF. Any idiot can be uncomfortable and do things the hard way, thank goodness so many fit young chaps seem to like doing that....