Wills Flying Ambulance

[VectraMan]

Not getting mixed up with him doing search and rescue work with the RAF?

Yes, that was it. So the story here is "helicopter pilot gets job as helicopter pilot".

Though presumably he'll only show up once or twice a year to pose for photos.

[minestrone]

Why would he need body guards? He isnt in combat in Afghanistan !

Hide a pipe bomb on your person, phone up the coast guard saying your boat is on fire then jump off the back of it.

[kal]

Why would he need body guards? He isnt in combat in Afghanistan !

Really? Tell that to the family of Lee Rigby, butchered while walking home in London FFS, there will always be nut jobs looking to make a name for themselves, hes exposed and no doubt is being protected by special branch (how that impedes his flying a chopper is what I am asking)!

[fullyautomatix]

Why would he need body guards? He isnt in combat in Afghanistan !

[SueEllen]

While laudable I can't see how he can do this job when you take into account the security constraints that come with being the next King after Charley?

He's got an heir and a brother who can be regent/an heir plus a few hundred other relations in the UK and Europe who are spares.

When he was doing his other work in the military the people who worked along side him took a while to realise it was him on operations according to news reports.

He won't need bodyguards as the people who will be picking up will be either unconscious or in too much pain to realise who their pilot is before they get off the 'copter. Plus some of the clinicians will be trained in firearms. I've been told that lots of ex-military medics like doing trauma stuff when they leave.

[RetSet]

BBC News - Prince William to join East Anglian Air Ambulance

Normal For Norfolk.

And, in any case, it's near to Granny's Summer Cottage.

HTH

[centurian]

Spoke to a chap who used to fly these things - they love it - when responding to an emergency, they have huge discretion to fly in restricted airspace and can land practically anywhere it is physically safe to do so. Air Traffic Control usually clear a path for them.

It's a lot more risky than standard helicopter work, which is basically point to point between helipads.

That police helicopter came down in Glasgow last year killed everyone on board - and air ambulance work is even more risky - these guys have to land in tight spots every day - sometimes in the middle of the night - only takes one unnoticed obstruction and you're toast.

EDIT: And East Anglian Air Ambulance use the same operating company and model of helicopter that crashed in Glasgow - for which the cause is still unknown.

[vwdan]

Didn't he announce he was doing this a couple of years ago? Or am I just suffering from random déja vu?

Not getting mixed up with him doing search and rescue work with the RAF?

[VectraMan]

Didn't he announce he was doing this a couple of years ago? Or am I just suffering from random déja vu?

[kal]

Don't know what the capacity of his chopper is but once his team of bodyguards are inside where are they going to put the poor b@stard who needed the ambulance in the first place!

[BrilloPad]

These days the only requirement is to be able to ask "And what do you do for a living?". Anyone can do that.

[minestrone]

I am more worried about someone so utterly dull and lacking in personality continually making front page news.

He makes Ed Milliband look like Hugh Hefner on coke.

[kal]

BBC News - Prince William to join East Anglian Air Ambulance

While laudable I can't see how he can do this job when you take into account the security constraints that come with being the next King after Charley?