Flying High with Charlotte Dadswell, Goodwood’s Chief Instructor

23rd April 2025

Charlotte Dadswell, our Chief Flying Instructor and Head of Training, shares her passion for aviation and gives insight into her role here at Goodwood Flying School.

 

Tell us a bit about you?

I am the Head of Training and Chief Flying Instructor at Goodwood Flying School.  This means I am responsible for overseeing all of the training we do and am also accountable to the CAA for the safety, regulatory compliance, and standard of our activity as an Approved Training Organisation.  In other words, I get to do lots of exciting paperwork in addition to what I enjoy most, flying with our students!

Outside of work I am also a Director of the Light Aircraft Association, which oversees the construction and maintenance of homebuilt aircraft as well as many vintage types operating on a Permit to Fly.  It’s great to be involved in giving back to an organisation which enables the operation of these aircraft in an economical manner, while providing a supportive community for General Aviation.

 

Have you always been interested in Aviation?

My father did his PPL here at Goodwood and flew regularly when I was a child, so I grew up wanting to fly.  I learned to fly in 2005, also here at GFS, with the aim of flying for fun!  I really enjoyed my training, so when my Instructor suggested I consider going further with my flying, I set out to obtain my CPL, purely with the aim of Instructing.  I bought a share in a Permit aircraft based at Goodwood and started hour-building, alongside studying for my ATPL exams and working full-time.  A busy time, but worth all the effort!  I completed my CPL in 2010 and returned to Goodwood to train as an Instructor the same year.  I have been teaching ever since, working at 3 other Flying Schools and coming ‘home’ to GFS in 2015.

 

Any favourite moments of flying?

Flying vintage tailwheel aircraft is what I enjoy most.  Outside of work I share a vintage aircraft with my fiancé Andrew, so Oscar the Aeronca is a regular visitor to Goodwood on my days off!  I enjoyed tremendously my time with the Real Flying Company at Shoreham, flying the delightful Chipmunk, probably the nicest type I have flown (don’t tell Oscar!).  I wanted to fly a Chipmunk from before I could fly anything and it didn’t disappoint.

Other highlights include checking out on the Harvard and my first single seater, the prototype Andreasson BA4B.  After much briefing and planning, with a single seater you eventually just have to get in and go…I probably never landed it better! 

In term of going places, I flew to the Isle of Man for TT week in 2014 with a couple of friends, which was a fun adventure.  I would love to go back.  Last year Andrew and I visited New Zealand and had an amazing time flying around the south island in a 172, flying amongst the mountains and landing on a beach as well as the iconic Milford Sound, real bucket list stuff and highly recommended!

Some of my favourite trips are to fly-ins and other events, meeting up with old friends and making new ones while admiring aircraft and talking aviation!

 

What do you love most about your role at Goodwood? 

We really have a great team here who enable our students to achieve great things and hopefully have fun in the process!  Both within the Flying School and the wider Goodwood Aviation team, we have a lot of great people working together to make it all happen.  My favourite part of the job is sending students on their first solo, an occasion no pilot ever forgets, then watching their confidence continue to build throughout the course.  Instructing is a very rewarding career.

 

Who is your aviation hero?

Graham Turner, who runs our Flight Instructor (FI) course at Goodwood has been, and remains, a real inspiration and support to me and my career.  He has some great stories from his military and airline career and is an inspirational instructor.  He taught me on my own FI course and helped me gain my first teaching role as soon as I qualified.  ‘GT’ is a great source of advice to all of us who teach at Goodwood and he is always willing to share his experience.  I hope I am still flying, teaching and enjoying it when I have done it for as long as Graham.  He also has an incredible aviation library and often digs out a rare gem to share with us on the subject of instructing or aviation in general.

 

What’s has been the best piece of advice you have been given?

There are lots of aviation clichés, but these things usually become so because they are true!  ‘If there’s any doubt there is no doubt’ is a good one and easily applied to many decision-making situations in aviation.  There’s always another day, don’t let anything pressure you into flying or amending your plan if you aren’t comfortable with the situation.  It’s supposed to be fun!

 

Interested in learning to fly at Goodwood? Click here https://www.goodwood.com/flying/flying-school/  

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