Down here in Australia, on BBC World, (would you believe!), they made it very plain that he was still a co-pilot but under training for a captain and they then went into some detail about the training sortie he was seen flying, that he was under instruction and how this would help prepare him, to eventually, become a SAR captain, but currently only has 90 hours to count.
Will's could have been the most ham-fisted no-hoper flyer in the world and he would have still got his wings, because the
PR disaster of "Prince William fails as pilot" would have been too much to bear.
Not so, as pointed out above, Prince Edward was 'scrubbed' from the Royal Marines, possibly voluntarily, too long ago for my old grey matter to remember. Additionally, as also mentioned above, how would a news article along the lines of, "Prince crashes helicopter, un named sources say he was always boarder line in training, others say he should not have been passed"? Now that would be a
PR disaster.