Prince Harry to receive a Living Legend of Aviation award

[mrsmingleton]

https://www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/510988/prince-harry-ordered-huge-new-honour-star-studded-ceremony/

The Wright Brothers will be turning in their graves. I wonder what Buzz thinks .

Harry first qualified as a co pilot, then an Apache helicopter commander. Harry - Commander

its on Google. You just have to have a look for it. Doesn’t take long: About 60seconds max. I have as yet no real idea what the latest award will be for but from looking at the info for the organisation it seems there are different awards for different things. I don’t think Harry is going to get the same award as Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.

It not in the interests of British tabloids to do anything but find fault with Harry now, because Harry is suing them. Hopefully all those with cases against the media will benefit as a result of Harry’s win (wins) and will get a fair go now. And hopefully it will lead to Levenson 2. I certainly hope Murdoch news group is held to account. And the DM. Nasty rag.

hopefully they amend the award to be something else, and not what they have said it will be for, as clearly that’s what folks have reacted to, which is “remarkable person with extraordinary accomplishment in aviation”, a living legend.

if they don’t and he turns up to accept it it will be utter carnage. And really bring the awards themselves into disrepute, it will be lessened to a simple pay to play and meaningless.

I think he will accept the award, @Getthethrowonthesofa because he needs to keep a high profile and get publicity. An awards ceremony is always a good way for celebrities to do this. Maybe he will use the opportunity to just support the charity? I'm sure that he wouldn't claim to be a "living legend" however much of a capable aviator he is!

Eek, but that’s what it is, he’s being inducted into their living legend hall of fame, as a remarkable person with an extraordinary accomplishment in aviation.

the only way to save face I think is for them to amend it, to say something like charitable endeavours and keep it vague. But even then it’s nothing to do with aviation, and he’s not really done anything special in terms of charitable endeavours. Although I assume he’s given them a huge donation. Which he will write off to tax, to get the award, and be photographed next to John travolta and Morgan freeman and the other famous folks there.

i honestly think they have all made a huge misstep here, and it will be hard to get out of without damaging the charity or him looking like a huge fool.

Well it's true that somebody was flying that helicopter quite well..

Yes, I do agree, @Getthethrowonthesofa .
It's a strange one!

Well of course we don’t for sure Harry is flying it, but there’s no reason - at all - to minimise his history of piloting and co-piloting Apache helicopters.

Lots of pictures of Harry beside Helicopters and sitting in them on the ground but I’ve never seen any of him talking off, flying or landing.

I think Harry is a qualified pilot. But it’s clear the army never permitted him to actually pilot. He was the gunner, so he basically used the gun, and was able to land the helicopter if the actual pilot got into trouble . Not sure he ever did.

there is clearly a reason they didn’t let him pilot, which makes me wonder just how capable he was.

It's on the record that he went through whatever helicopter basic/initial course they were running at RAF Shawbury back in the day. That led to the award of his wings, so he most definitely was a qualified helicopter pilot.

After the Shawbury course he did the initial Apache course that led to the gunner/co-pilot qual (FWIW as I understand it the Apache has dual flying controls and the gunner/co-pilot sits in the front seat).

Some time after that (? his first time in Afghan..) as@BrittleVeneers, rightly points out he then went through the Apache Command course.

So fundamentally there shouldn't be any question marks over whether he could at least for a while in his career fly/hover/take off and land a helicopter....but those are all perishable skills, he would need to retrain and requalify to fly anything now.

As far as the display video goes it's maybe worth being aware pilots doing actual proper display flying that involve some sort of routine usually require specific training and a whole lot more in the way of supervision and recurrent training, it's not just a case of picking any old Bloggs out of the crew room and telling them to go and fly a display.

As a result when that video initially aired (obviously a few years back now) I remember discussion about whether the media were reporting things completely accurately.

As a result when that video initially aired (obviously a few years back now) I remember discussion about whether the media were reporting things completely accurately.

@notimagain And that’s fair enough. I’m highly doubtful of any reporting surrounding any of the RF members. The serial show stuff does feel questionable. (Although a bit of fun.). But, he is qualified to pilot and co-pilot and did a lot more than get his photo taken sitting in a helicopter. I really don’t understand this need some people have to deny or minimise anything that Harry does that can be classed as an achievement. Would they do it to any other service man or woman who represented their country in war?

Edited to say that ‘represented’ is not quite the right word here but it will have to do - my mind has blanked on the right one.

Harry is most definitely trained and qualified as a pilot - here he is with his Army Air Corps wings on his uniform.

I was interested to see that people who like looking into these things closely have picked up that when the Living Legends of Aviation Awards and Induction Event was announced on 2 January 2024, there was absolutely no mention of Prince Harry. Nor even a hint hat there was special honouree yet to be announced.

Fast forward to 10 January and this is updated to include Prince Harry.

Of course we don’t know what was going on behind the scenes in that week, but it’s certainly interesting to speculate whether he was a last minute addition - because it certainly looks like that - and if so why.

https://www.aerlex.com/ll2024/

My photo of Harry with his wings doesnt seem to want to attach, so here is a link…

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/royalty/7692417/Prince-Harry-receives-his-Army-Air-Corps-provisional-wings-from-his-father-the-Prince-of-Wales.html

Is it ‘interesting to speculate’ or is it just digging for shit with which to denigrate Harry?

I’d find that kind of logistical issue fascinating no matter who it involved! 😀

Well if it is the latter, then maybe folks are taking their lead from Harry;s treatment of his own family

i don’t think it is though, it’s a discussion, based on what we know, what’s happening and simply discussing, giving opinions.

I don’t agree that Harry has treated his family badly.

The tabloids have certainly been pushing that narrative though.

We agree to disagree, personally I find how he’s treated his family utterly appalling, the books, the interviews, but we all have different standards.

My opinion is thst Life’s too short to ‘investigate’ some award on the other side of the world, that no one on this side of the world has ever heard of until now: I can’t see the point.

again I need to disagree, more you’d not heard of it?

No, I’d not heard of it until the past couple of days. You?

..and unlimited access to the best healthcare.

Thank you for sharing that. An inspirational man.

Yep

Just as an aside while we're talking about flying helicopters - I saw a video on Tiktok of William flying helicopters. Some footage of him doing it as a civilian and obviously some footage of him in RAF S&R, but mainly Air Ambulance.

The part that shocked me was the footage of him landing the helicopter on water. I didn't even know some helicopters could do that. But as always I'm impressed by anyone who learns that level of skill and puts it to use in the Forces, S&R and AA (& that includes Harry too - he obviously learned to co-pilot/pilot to a high standard to be deployed).

Flying anything always slightly amazes & terrifies me, and yes I know I'm easily impressed, but I could never do it.

I had to go out on the Air Ambulance (tin can with wings) a couple of times to collect obstetric patients from the Islands and it was absolutely terrifying.