Catherine Woehrel

I’d always wanted to fly and get my Private Pilot’s Licence, and I got started when a friend gave me a trial lesson. She is a keen parachutist, but jumping out of the plane never appealed to me… I wanted to learn to fly one so I joined the Club in 2014.

Why Goodwood?

After looking at other airfields in the South, I decided on Goodwood because I fell in love with the friendliness of the team at the Flying School and the opportunity to learn to fly in such beautiful countryside. Right from my first lesson I felt completely at home at Goodwood, it just seemed the perfect place to fly, and all three of my instructors gave me total confidence making the learning curve a fun experience.

What has been a highlight of your time here at Goodwood?

Last year I was thrilled to win the Aero Club’s ‘Air Safety’ award, even though this was awarded after a most unusual day in my early life as a pilot. I’d landed after an enjoyable solo flight when Rob Wildeboer (Flying School Manager) invited me to join him aboard the Beechcraft, a much more sophisticated aircraft than I was used to, so I was keen to see what it was like.

The flight was fantastic, however things got interesting when we came to land as the landing gear lights showed that not all wheels were locked down. Although all checks had been made, we asked the Spitfire that was also airborne to fly alongside us to take a closer look at the wheels. We proceeded to land and it turned out that the wheels were down safely and it was just a fault in the warning lights.