THE latest recruit to join the ranks of the airborne lifesavers couldn’t be more high profile if he tried.

As the second in line to the throne, everything that 32-year-old Prince William does and says is eagerly lapped up by a voracious public hungry for Royal news.

His decision to follow on from his RAF time as a search-and-rescue pilot and take the controls of a civilian air ambulance helicopter was no exception.

He recently passed a tough series of exams to take on the role and will start flying from Cambridge and Norwich for the East Anglian Air Ambulance this summer.

However it’s a path others have followed before with much less brouhaha, quietly taking on vital 999 missions on a daily basis.

And as he boards his distinctive yellow helicopter to potentially save another life, Yorkshire Air Ambulance pilot Ian Mousette reflects that his life has now come full circle.

Thirty years ago he was standing on the very same spot at RAF Topcliffe, near Thirsk, as a young pilot with the Army Air Corps setting out on a flying career that would take him from the Falklands to Fiji and from Australia to Armagh.

Yorkshire-born Ian always wanted to be in the Army and joined at 16 with his sights firmly set on becoming a ground soldier.

But all that changed when he watched a recruitment film for the Army Air Corps. “I had never even considered flying before,” said Ian. “But I saw this film on how you could become a pilot in three years and that was it, I was hooked,” said Ian.

There then followed a 24-year military career that saw Ian serve throughout the world, ending his career based in Hereford.

“At the age of 42 I had pretty much achieved everything I wanted to do in flying terms with the military,” he said,

“My last posting had been great, and it wasn’t going to get any better than that so I decided to complete my commercial licences and start a new chapter in my working life.”

After working initially as a corporate pilot “flying rich and famous people about” he spent eight years as a pilot for Police Aviation Services working with several forces.

Then he became an emergency medical services pilot initially for the Lincolnshire and Notts Air Ambulance, before transferring to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance three years ago.

“This has got to be one of the most satisfying jobs in the world, “said Ian, 57, from Thirsk.

“It’s strange in one way because whilst I love flying someone has got to be having a very bad day for me to get to do the thing I enjoy most.”

He added: “My role is to get the paramedics and doctors to where they need to be as quickly and as safely as possible, and there’s nothing more satisfying than when it all goes to plan.”

Over the last three years Ian has flown hundreds of times from the YAA’s northern air support unit at Topcliffe, landing everywhere from isolated moorland to city streets, picking up patients ranging from children to pensioners.

“You do treat every case with the same amount of urgency and respect, but as a father, I must admit that when there are kids involved you tend to move that bit quicker,” said Ian.

Married with two teenage boys, wife Cathy is an autistic specialist studying and working with young children in North Yorkshire and when on missions Ian is very aware he is only part of the operation.

“As pilots we could not do our job without the support of the paramedics and doctors that fly with us,” said Ian.

“Once we’re on the ground, I can’t offer any medical support but will carry bags and try to be as much help as possible. We work very much as a team.”

Yorkshire Air Ambulance is an independent charity providing a rapid response emergency service to five million people.

Without any direct Government funding the only help the charity receives is the secondment of its paramedics from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust – and it needs to raise £9,990 each day to keep its two helicopters flying.

“It never ceases to amaze me how much support the air ambulance gets from the people of Yorkshire,” said Ian.

“People regularly come up to me and offer to make donations when we are on a job.

“It’s great to be appreciated for what you do and I think seeing the helicopter makes people realise that anyone could need us at anytime.”