I suspect you & I are both at a misunderstanding; as I said I'm all for any 'useful' flying one can get, and god knows anything to help ground / junior crew is desparately needed, never more than now.

As you have the space, it would be daft not to take up other closely involved people I agree, & laud your efforts...

"One has been a very sortie boy" headline in the soaraway today, also "Wills gets out his chopper at Sandringham" again in the Sun Red Top.

More 'navigation' exercises revealed.:cool:

... now they are telling us that -

it was a COLLECTIVE error of judgment and William is holding his hands up for it as much as the RAF.

If he doesn't know the collective from the cyclic should he be driving "Wokas" at all !!

:bored:

Right, that's 150 extremely interesting posts!

Why is everybody so "up in arms". Find me an aircrew mate who has never flown over somebody they know. I'm more bothered about some Iraqi that gets £2 mil when our injured hero's get next to nothing. Error of judgement on both accounts.

HE must have done very well on his Flying and Skiing tour of the RAF, as according to the tabloid rags he is to become a Royal Knight of the Garter, joining the most senior British order of chivalry.

Is that because his Queens Golden Jubilee Medal looked lonely when he was photographed next to his father with his Tin Sheriffs and Blue Peter Badges


So that's a big :ok: and a very well done sir, now do you need your bottom wiping again.

153 posts now and I can't believe that no-one has made any jokes about HRH, choppers and confined areas.

(Have amended this as it was obviously taken out of context. The dailies have been having a field day (pun intended) with Chopper jokes and I honestly thought that those of us who frequent this forum would have seen the post in the (very) light way in which it was intended.)

Apologies to one and all.

I presume you believe that making crude and offensive sexual comments on a public forum about a serving officer and his girlfriend is acceptable because he is a Royal and so not entitled to the privacy, respect and consideration due to the rest of the population.

Clockwork - no, I think Dan d'air did it because it's funny;)

Why is it funny?

Funny? Then he has my sympathy. At least his family and friends do.

Dan,

I hope he wasn't violating her restricted airspace. And for his sake, I hope it wasn't regarded by her as a clandestine op either. :oh:

Well said, Clockwork, fully living up to your stated interest of "Seeking truth and promoting common sense and decency".

I'm as ready to laugh as anyone else at off-colour humour, at the right time, in the right place, and in the right company, but I am perfectly certain that Dan D'air, Goudie, Crab etc would not find it half so funny to have their sex life or, more importantly, that of the lady in their life, held up to such readily identifiable public ridicule.

Jock

PS Oh yes, and then there's that wording about "heirs and successors" on that precious scroll that some people have .....

OK, ok, Post amended. Once again, my apologies to anyone who may have been offended.

DD.

Hang on Union Jack I never did find it funny for the reasons you state, also I have 3 daughters (adult) and would be extremely angry with anonymous people making lewd remarks about them on a public forum.

Goudie

My humble apologies - nice to know that we're on the same side and, intriguingly as a result of my slip, you have very neatly amplified precisely the point I was trying to make.

Dan

Amendment acknowledged with thanks - I wasn't offended as such, but am grateful to Goudie for reinforcing my point so succinctly, especially after I accidentally put him in the frame.

Jack

PS One also has to consider the possibility that, now that he is at least an honorary two-winged skygod, the person concerned is perfectly likely to have been introduced to the joys of PPrune as part of his training ....

If so, then let's hope he's also grown a thick enough skin to appreciate and withstand a bit of banter.

and perhaps I'm a bad person, but I did find it funny.

Daniel,

I wasn't offended - what you posted was harmless craic of the kind that we're all used to, and it was funny. I can't imagine William or Kate being insulted either. I imagine young Harry wearing Nazi regalia was equally as insilting to many.. isn't it lucky that we live in a free society and are allowed the right to say so?

Before anyone asks - yes, I am a monarchist and a father.

A serious waste of Chinook flying hours- according to the Independent.


MoD 'naive' over Prince's joyrides


By Andy McSmith
Thursday, 24 April 2008

The RAF confessed yesterday that it was a public relations disaster to allow Prince William to make five flights in military helicopters for personal reasons. Instructors gave the Prince the chance to take a Chinook to a party, and to a wedding, and to show off to his prospective parents-in-law, and get aerial views of royal residences.

Prince William started his RAF training on 7 January, undergoing an intensive course that saw him awarded his wings on 11 April. On the day he graduated, the RAF heaped praise on the speed with which he picked up flying skills. "He worked every hour he had spare and also mixed in with the boys well," Wing Commander John Cunningham said.

It has become clear, however, that the Prince was actually devoting some of those hours having fun in Chinooks. On 2 April, he flew a Chinook over his father's country home, Highgrove, in Gloucestershire, in what was logged as a training flight. The next day, there was another training flight to Bucklebury, where the parents of his girlfriend, Kate Middleton, live.

On 4 April, he was a guest at a wedding in Hexham, in Northumberland. He flew there by Chinook – no doubt impressing wedding guests.

Five days later, his instructor told him to navigate by using recognisable marker points, including Sandringham, the Queen's residence in Norfolk. Finally on 11 April, the day he received his wings, he flew a Chinook to London, picked up his younger brother Harry, and flew to the Isle of Wight, where the Princess Royal's's son, Peter Phillips, was having a stag party.

The Ministry of Defence apologised, in the hope of defusing the anger of other service families at a time when the MoD budget is being squeezed, and admitted "there was a degree of naivety in the planning of these sorties".

Perhaps all Flying Order Books should be amended to say that under no circumstances may anyone enjoy flying military aircraft in order to appease the tabloids and 'anti-everything' members of the public. The MoD/RAF would do well to stick up for itself and explain that routine training is, er... routine, and to practice navigation you have to go somewhere. Saying sorry when you haven't done anything wrong ain't the answer.

Anyway, I'm sure civpop have forgotten all about it by now: apparently Billie Piper might or might not be up the spout.