Shadow Aviation

Shadow Aviation is a CAA-approved microlight flying school at Compton Abbas Airfield, near Ashmore on the Dorset and Wiltshire border. The school started in 1993, became Shadow Aviation Ltd in 2002 and moved from Old Sarum to Compton Abbas in 2019.

All training is fixed-wing microlight, flown on the Ikarus C42. The school teaches the NPPL with a microlight rating, along with refresher and advanced training tailored to the pilot. Instructor training is a big part of the work: it runs Flying Instructor (Restricted) courses, and its examiners carry out instructor tests, examiner authorities, and NPPL(M) skill tests, revalidations, renewals and ground exams. Pilots can also hire the C42.

Fiona Luckhurst has been teaching since 1985. She is a Flying Instructor Examiner, chairs the Microlight Panel of Examiners and is an ambassador for the Flying Scholarships for Disabled People charity. The school is one of the charity’s training providers and has taught disabled pilots on modified controls since 1993. By its own figures it has delivered more than 112 disabled flying scholarships and trained over 50 instructors.

Fiona is also an LAA and BMAA inspector, so the school can do permit inspections and weight and balance schedules, either at Compton Abbas or at the owner’s airfield.