Prince William and His Work as a Helicopter Pilot


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I can't remember what was said about how long etc if indeed it was said at all. I'm sure someone will have a link to it. All I can recall is " as long as possible " if my memory is right


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i cant imagine he would be able to continue after flying/ working after he is POW. Nor do I believe they will continue to 'base' in Norfolk at that time. I have always felt this is just the early phase of their royal life and will migrate to a full time base at KP with weekends in Norfolk.
 
Lumutqueen said:
I agree with this - however the initial post i was replying to was suggesting that the EAAA wouldn't refuse William any time he wanted because of his title. This makes him not the everyman, but very special.
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But he is very special. He is a member of the Royal Family and future King. No matter how much William might want to be treated the same as the next man, hand on heart do you really think that's going to happen because I don't. I think he will be given special treatment (and I think this is true of all the members of the Royal Family). I'm not saying they seek it or want it but I just think it's inevitable it will happen.

When Kate and Camilla go to Wimbledon, do they go into the ballot for tickets like ordinary folk. Are Harry's seats at Twickenham at the top of the grandstand even when he isn't there in an official capacity. What about entry to exclusive night clubs - do you think Harry, Beatrice and Eugenie have to queue to get in like the next man or get turned away?

I'm not criticising the Royals and I believe this favourable treatment happens for celebs too. I think it's naive to think William or any member of the Royal Family is not given preferential treatment, deliberately or sub-consciously.
 
Working for a longer period, at least part time, in the Armed Forces or in the private services sphere is inevitable. People are living longer and the BRF has long living genes.
Any future Prince of Wales is unlikely to be under 35.
Most younger generation royals are working differently to their parents.

I see William continuing his rescue and charity work until the BRF requires him to be working full time on public engagements.
The fact that his workplace accommodates his need to have flexible hours is essential. He would not be paid for work he doesn't do, however.
There are advantages and disadvantages to all workmates. William brings publicity to the charity and some fellow workers might like that they get a few extra shifts. (and pay)

How William manages the part time royal side of his life is paramount.
The media and the people like to see him and his family regularly.
I think William enjoys mixing with people so part time Royal commitment should not be arduous but an added bonus to his flying work.

I'm wondering whether William's staff is planning well enough?
 
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I can't help thinking that William's insistance on working as a helicopter pilot is a bit silly.
It's betwixt and between; he can't really commit to that, and it prevents him from committing to Royal life.

(Let's face it, he may want more privacy, but he isn't about to trade his position for it).

He should make up his mind to embrace Royal life, and forsake the pilot career.
 
William's Royal role is an accident of birth. His pilot skills is something he acquired on his own merit. The Queen's longevity has caused a backup of adult heirs and has allowed William the freedom to do something he enjoys. The Queen had a brief glimpse of this with Philip in Malta. If the Queen and Charles needed William to be a full time Royal he would be one.


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VictoriaB said:
I think it's naive to think William or any member of the Royal Family is not given preferential treatment, deliberately or sub-consciously.
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I agree with this, I agree that they get preferential treatment and they do take advantage of their status. But in regards to work, particularly in the role he's chosen he shouldn't even request anything out of the ordinary. Henry made an absolute point of it. His re-request to go back to Afghanistan was his proof that he wanted to be treated like everyman in his job. William doesn't show that IMO.

Mirabel said:
He should make up his mind to embrace Royal life, and forsake the pilot career.
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Agree with this a 1000%! William technically has two jobs and can't focus properly on either. I remember that he's either not taking an EAAA salary or he's donating it. EAAA helicopter pilots are a particularly specialist role I believe, he is in a way depriving someone of a well paying hard earnt job because he wants to try and juggle.
 
Lumutqueen said:
I agree with this, I agree that they get preferential treatment and they do take advantage of their status. But in regards to work, particularly in the role he's chosen he shouldn't even request anything out of the ordinary. Henry made an absolute point of it. His re-request to go back to Afghanistan was his proof that he wanted to be treated like everyman in his job. William doesn't show that IMO.



Agree with this a 1000%! William technically has two jobs and can't focus properly on either. I remember that he's either not taking an EAAA salary or he's donating it. EAAA helicopter pilots are a particularly specialist role I believe, he is in a way depriving someone of a well paying hard earnt job because he wants to try and juggle.
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he's not depriving anyone of anything. Certainly he is given some preferential treatment, but he is a pilot. If he is not at the appropriate level a pilot needs to be, people will get hurt and die. No company will take that risk, particularly with someone who may be King one day. I can believe that there are jobs out there where rich people get plenty of preferential treatment and hold jobs they truly don't deserve and aren't good at, but it is incredibly insulting to think William isn't at least minimally good at his job because lives ARE on the line when he is in the pilot seat. If he isn't a good pilot and the EAAA are treating him special, they're putting not only his life on the line, but many others as well and I can't see this happening. Call me naive, but that is incredibly dangerous.
 
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I am going to disagree that William is requesting special treatment. The BBC in Wales had a tv series called Helicopter rescue which followed the RAF Valley SAR unit. One episode which a certain Ft Lt William Wales was the copilot of a Sea King. He was one of a 4 person team. He lived with his crew, ate with them, did was he was supposed to do. He wasn't treated any different than any of the other pilots or crew. The RAF people he worked with spoke glowing of him.

For the air ambulance job, he had to pass all the tests that were required and he did so. EAAA isn't his actual employer. It's Bond Air Service and we don't know the specifics of his employment contract with regards to his hours.


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GömdNatt said:
he's not depriving anyone of anything. Certainly he is given some preferential treatment, but he is a pilot. If he is not at the appropriate level a pilot needs to be, people will get hurt and die. No company will take that risk, particularly with someone who may be King one day. I can believe that there are jobs out there where rich people get plenty of preferential treatment and hold jobs they truly don't deserve and aren't good at, but it is incredibly insulting to think William isn't at least minimally good at his job because lives ARE on the line when he is in the pilot seat. If he isn't a good pilot and the EAAA are treating him special, they're putting not only his life on the line, but many others as well and I can't see this happening. Call me naive, but that is incredibly dangerous.
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My reference to William receiving special treatment did not extend to his ability to fly helicopters. For the reasons you set out I think he is properly qualified to fly and I don't think the CAA or any examiner would have passed him simply because of who he is. That doesn't mean he doesn't get special treatment in relation to leave requests, time off and other administrative issues. That's what I was referring to and that was what started this debate.
 
VictoriaB said:
My reference to William receiving special treatment did not extend to his ability to fly helicopters. For the reasons you set out I think he is properly qualified to fly and I don't think the CAA or any examiner would have passed him simply because of who he is. That doesn't mean he doesn't get special treatment in relation to leave requests, time off and other administrative issues. That's what I was referring to and that was what started this debate.
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perhaps in this particular debate, but there are plenty of people, here included, who have suggested William is not qualified to be a pilot which is incredibly idiotic.

as for the other thing, it's all just speculation. None of us work for EAAA or for the royals so we have no idea what is going on, and no, I don't trust any of the "articles" done up about his work.

I leave it to EAAA and any one else involved to work it out. I imagine there is some sort of subconscious preferential treatment in regards to scheduling, but there is also a lot of media coverage about it and so I'm sure they see that and would correct anything if need be.
 
Question: Does anyone know if EAAA pilots earn overtime or extra pay during the holidays? If they do, then there would be a real financial incentive to work those Christmas-New Year's-Easter shifts. Also I could see William being willing to give up those shifts to someone who is takes home a salary from EAAA.
 
.Having witnessed first-hand the tragic aftermath of suicide, Prince William is set this spring to join wife Princess Kate and brother Prince Harry to launch a three-pronged campaign on mental health, a royal source tells PEOPLE

William, 33, was confronted by male suicide when flying missions for his air ambulance charity: In some of those early missions with East Anglian Air Ambulance last summer, William transported medical crews to the aid of men whose despair led them to take their own lives.

It's also understood that William, who has been aware of the depression and other problems facing young people through his work with homelessness charity Centrepoint, has also been alarmed by the suicides of young gay men. [/QUOTE]Read more: Prince Williams Launching Campaign on Male Suicide :

Read more : .Having witnessed first-hand the tragic aftermath of suicide, Prince William is set this spring to join wife Princess Kate and brother Prince Harry to launch a three-pronged campaign on mental health, a royal source tells PEOPLE.
William, 33, was confronted by male suicide when flying missions for his air ambulance charity: In some of those early missions with East Anglian Air Ambulance last summer, William transported medical crews to the aid of men whose despair led them to take their own lives.
It's also understood that William, who has been aware of the depression and other problems facing young people through his work with homelessness charity Centrepoint, has also been alarmed by the suicides of young gay men. [/QUOTE]

Read more: Prince Williams Launching Campaign on Male Suicide : People.com
 
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Mirabel said:
I can't help thinking that William's insistance on working as a helicopter pilot is a bit silly.
It's betwixt and between; he can't really commit to that, and it prevents him from committing to Royal life.

(Let's face it, he may want more privacy, but he isn't about to trade his position for it).

He should make up his mind to embrace Royal life, and forsake the pilot career.
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I used to think William's job in Anglesey was admirable...but now it appears to me that both he and his wife are skirting their royal duties . They should be having a better balance but don't seem to care to try.
 
GömdNatt said:
he's not depriving anyone of anything. Certainly he is given some preferential treatment, but he is a pilot. If he is not at the appropriate level a pilot needs to be, people will get hurt and die. No company will take that risk, particularly with someone who may be King one day.
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I'm not quite sure what you read from my post but I never suggested that William received preferential treatment by receiving the job in the first place. William is a talented young man in regards to flying and he proved that by passing the tests required.
 
Little Luke Sawyer was cheered up by the prince who flew into rescue in his Air Ambulance.

After the youngster was treated for the potentially fatal reaction - which came from a snack handed to him by a pre-school pal - the Duke of Cambridge then gave him a gift.

Despite being unable to leave his cockpit, the Prince handed the three-year-old from Little Dunmow in Essex, a blue character made out of a surgical glove.
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Read more: Prince William flies to rescue of sick toddler - and then makes a funny blow-up character | Royal | News | Daily Express
 
Rudolph said:
Read more: Prince William flies to rescue of sick toddler - and then makes a funny blow-up character | Royal | News | Daily Express
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I love how this happens. Little ones can be so very frightened in an emergency situation and surgical glove animals can really help to soothe a child. My hubby used to wear a clip on koala bear on his stethoscope for a child to focus on while taking vital signs and usually had a mini stuffed animal or two in his bag to give away.

I bet the interaction with that little guy made William's day and vice versa. This certainly was one call that William went on that his daddy experience came in handy. :flowers:
 
I find it interesting that the call itself happened in June 2015.

Either the family is a fan of William and approached the press with the story in response to the recent kicking or PR people (from either EAAA or KP) dug them up.
 
Thanks, Rudolph. I assumed that since he was identified as being from Essex, that the named location was where the incident happened. The only event that's happened in Dunmow was in June, but it's far enough back that there were no details.

The Cambridge paper wrote a much clearer story. Thank you again for the link.
 
Does the media acknowledge that flying for 20 hours a weeks means he spend time at work where he doesn't fly?
 
I don't think it's possible for him to fly 20 hours a week, to be honest. Taking last week (I know he wasn't flying, but it's just a sample), Anglia Two was scrambled on five (possibly six) occasions. Even if each mission lasts two hours, that's only 10-12 hours of "away from base" time, not all of which is actually flight time. That 10-12 hours of time is split over 8 pilots.

During that week, there were also 3 missions that were responded to via land vehicle, and another half dozen that were flown by Anglia One out of Norfolk. Since they've done 157 missions this year over 10 weeks, it seems like a pretty average week.
 
Flight time is different than work time. A pilot could be there for 8 hrs and there isn't a call out or there is 6 call outs that day. Are the hours being mentioned time in the air only or work time?
 
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:previous: I will be the first to admit that flying a helicopter and either winching or landing in odd places to uplift medically unstable patients, is far more dangerous and mentally taxing than flying a fixed wing aircraft using airports from point to point. I know that a helicopter is at the mercy of random updrafts, wind shear, etc. which makes for more stress on the aircrew when carrying out their "routine" tasks.

SAR personnel by definition do not "do" much routine flying except ongoing training to keep their hours up. The biggest problem, once again, is the shamelessly arrogant and incompetent performance of KP PR. That they didn't even bother to check their facts and carelessly, off the cuff, cited the CAA as the reason that William couldn't do more (royal) work on his days off was, I believe, their worst gaffe ever. That the CAA publicly called them on it is the very worst publicity that William needed.

I am not much of a fan of William's (his attitude bothers me) but fairs fair. Whether he works as a pilot or performs royal duties is irrelevant as obviously both HM and POW are on board with it. What does matter is that there is a clear and honest dialogue between KP, the press and the general public. Honesty and the appearance of transparency are key. KP's continued bumbling attempts at obfuscation leads all to think, rightly or wrongly, there is something to hide.
 
I agree it was a huge mess and indeed made you wonder what were they covering up. Maybe they need to give their PR some training or replace them.


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:previous: Making William the "Hero" and the rest of the crew bit players as this as this article proves, is just a continuing saga of none too accurate puff pieces designed to raise Williams profile. It makes him look bad taking credit for what is a team effort so, more bad PR . . .
 
MARG said:
:previous: Making William the "Hero" and the rest of the crew bit players as this as this article proves, is just a continuing saga of none too accurate puff pieces designed to raise Williams profile. It makes him look bad taking credit for what is a team effort so, more bad PR . . .
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Well, let's give credit where it's due - it's the subsequent article writer who's given William credit for the surgical glove puppet. The tot's mother is quoted in both articles thanking everyone involved - all the helicopter personnel and the hospital staff, so the article doesn't even credit William at the expense of everyone else.
Writers spin things and William has no control over how they chose to spin a story. Unless I missed a press conference where William said 'yes I made the puppet and the rest of the crew did nothing' there is no evidence that William did anything to draw attention to this incident.
 
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