His Other Car Is a Whirlybird

LONDON, April 23 -- Prince William has been buzzing all over England in his new ride -- a Royal Air Force Chinook helicopter -- like a giddy teenager with a brand new driver's license.

Hours after getting his pilot's wings on April 11, the future king whump-whumped his big chopper into London to pick up his little brother, Prince Harry. Then he steered his double-rotor, heavy-lift bird 75 miles out to the Isle of Wight -- so he and Harry could go to their cousin's bachelor party.

There was a bit of harrumphing. Privilege is one thing. But a 25-year-old using a $10 million military helicopter to fly to a booze-up struck some as a bit much.

"I don't think the taxpayers should have to pay one bit of his flights," said John Hargraves, 64, sitting on a bench on a London street. "Anyone else in the RAF wouldn't be treated like that."

The RAF issued a statement, with no apparent irony, praising William for flying "a training sortie which tested his new skills to the limit."

William, an officer in the Army, has been on a four-month detachment to the RAF and will spend time with the Royal Navy this summer. The military buffet is part of preparing William, who is second in line to the throne, to become monarch someday.

A few days after the bachelor party, the London tabloids were giggling themselves silly with the news that during an April 3 training mission, William had landed his helicopter in a field next to his girlfriend's house.

Turns out that William set his Chinook down near Kate Middleton's family home in the Berkshire countryside. He landed, spent 20 seconds on the ground, then took off again. It wasn't exactly Tom Cruise wooing Kelly McGillis from a "Top Gun" cockpit, but it was a majestic use of military aircraft as a flirtation device.

"Wills puts chopper into Kate's garden," screamed the headline in the Sun, making a very naughty double-entendre in British slang. Giggling ensued about lads being lads, and there was more harrumphing.

"He's taking advantage of being royal. I couldn't do that," said Paul Jenkins, 29, a London grocer. "I take my missis out for a meal, that's as extravagant as I get. I don't exactly land in her parents' back garden."

The RAF press release writers saw nothing amiss.

"Battlefield helicopter crews routinely practice landing in fields and confined spaces away from their airfields as a vital part of their training for operations," the official statement said. "These highly honed skills are used daily in conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan."