London: He once described his role as an Apache pilot fighting the Taliban as “the best experience ever”. But Prince Harry has now decided never to fly a combat helicopter again.

The Prince, who spent five months in the cockpit of a gunship in Afghanistan, has opted to hang up his flying goggles, even though the Army is short of pilots.

Prince Harry, 30, or Captain Wales as he is called in the Forces, was expected to return to the skies with the Army Air Corps after arranging the Invictus Games — the Olympic-style event for wounded service personnel held in London last year.

But he told military top brass he wants to continue working with injured troops before returning next year to his parent regiment, the Blues and Royals.

This summer Harry will join a team of injured soldiers as they walk across Britain in aid of the charity Walking With The Wounded.

A senior source said: “Prince Harry has plotted his career path and he’s not going back to flying Apaches. Even though he loved the job in Helmand province and excelled in combat operations against the Taliban, he has effectively grounded himself.

“A major factor was the amount of training he would be required to do to command an Army Air Corps squadron — a post that includes flying Apaches. He would also have needed to do a couple of rather draining desk jobs to prepare himself for such a leadership role.

“Harry weighed this up and reached a decision. He knew it was no longer viable for him to go back to the Corps and try to climb that ladder. The opportunity for more Apache action had passed.”

Prince Harry, who is fourth in line to the throne, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Blues and Royals in April 2006. For security reasons he was refused permission to deploy to Iraq in 2007. The following year he secretly went to Afghanistan and served with a Household Cavalry reconnaissance unit until news of his presence leaked on foreign news websites and he was ordered back to Britain.

Contrary to media reports at the time, he received no extra protection and was involved in many skirmishes with the enemy.

Later, in 2008 he transferred to the Army Air Corps in an attempt to become an Apache pilot. In February 2012 he completed a £2.5 million (Dh14 million) training programme and was sent to Afghanistan as a co-pilot gunner in September that year.

Five months later he was interviewed by the media and attracted controversy for suggesting he had killed insurgents, and for likening his participation in combat operations to playing computer games.

Asked if he had killed, he replied: “Yeah, so lots of people have. Everyone’s fired a certain amount. If there’s people trying to do bad stuff to our guys we’ll take them out of the game. I’m not out here on a free pass.”

An Army spokesman said: “We would not comment on the future careers of any of our officers.”