Prince William opens up on 'not wanting to let go' of his 'happy place' in candid admission

Both the Prince of Wales and the Crown Prince of Jordan are trained helicopter pilots, with William training at both RAF Shawbury and then as a search and rescue pilot at RAF Valley with No. 22 Squadron, which reformed at RAF Benson in 2020.

The Crown Prince completed his pilot training with the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) in 2019.

The No. 22 Squadron provides operational testing, evaluation, tactics and training for all aviation in the Joint Aviation Command.

The visit was part of the celebrations for the No. 22 Squadron's 110th anniversary.

When Prince William met with former colleagues at RAF Benson, he was asked if he still spent any time in the cockpit.

The Prince of Wales 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.”

Prince William later served as a helicopter pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance, flying missions for two years before stepping down in 2017.

He said during his engagement today: “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 seven aircraft flying over. Sea King comes in, I was like ‘there she is’ that noise went straight to my heart.”

During the engagement, William and the Crown Prince of Jordan heard from personnel about their roles on site and experiences being deployed in operations around the world.

Today’s engagement highlighted the strong relationship between Prince William and the Crown Prince, as well as their mutual respect and support for the Armed Forces.

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