Valley View, Texas woman earns her private pilot’s license, then continues more flight lessons
Cori Sutherland, 46, a remote transportation systems consultant, wife and mother, recently earned her private pilot’s license through Ayers Aviation at Gainesville Texas Municipal Airport and decided to continue training for instrument rating.
By Kristina Kardum | Dec. 9, 2025
How it all started
Two years ago, Cori purchased a Discovery flight for her husband as an anniversary gift, then drove him to Duncan, Okla. for the appointment.
“He’s wanted to learn, his whole life [how to fly],” Cori said.
When it was time to board the small airplane for the flight in Duncan, the instructor asked Cori if she was getting in.
She recalled responding, “No, this is a tiny plane, I’m not getting in.” But after thinking about it, she replied, “If I’m ever going to get into a small plane I might as well do it with an instructor.”
The instructor let her husband take the flight wheel. Cori was almost sure she was going to get sick in the back seat. But her husband, well he loved it. So much, in fact, that nine months after the discovery flight he decided he’d take flight lessons. Then last year, 2024, he told her he was going to buy an airplane. Cori sparked a journey for her husband that she was also about to embark on.
She told her husband, “Okay, that makes sense, you’re taking a bunch of lessons, we may as well invest in an airplane.”
She’d thought to herself, “Well, if we own an airplane, and [my husband’s] going to be flying a lot, and I’m expected to go with him — ‘and I’m terrified of these little planes’ — maybe I’ll take a few lessons.” “[Then] I’ll see how the electronics work and maybe I’ll try to land it just in case something bad ever happens.”
Enjoying the process
Cori met Certified Flight Instructor Kade Hermes of Ayers Aviation at Gainesville Texas Municipal Airport. She took a Discovery flight then took a lesson…then took another lesson…and then another.
“I fell in love with it,” she said.
The 46-year-old mother felt a sense of accomplishment that she could fly. During her first month though, it was hard to shut her mind off her running to-do lists, she said. Cori works from home as a transportation systems consultant, and she runs her household. Eventually, she prioritized flight lessons as her time, she said.
Cori walks around her plane talking about inspection items that she is looking for along the body. Cori checks the wing flaps to ensure safe operation during flight. Cori checks the tail flaps of her plane for any damage or operational issues during her preflight in Cori checks bolts or anything out of the ordinary along the plane's bodyline as she walks around.
Before each flight she must thoroughly inspect her plane. Afterward, a tug was hooked to the plane’s front wheel and Cori pulled the plane out of the hanger in the early morning hours. Then she asked, “Are you ready to get in?” It was time to fly!
Cori pulls the tug to tow her plane toward the boarding zone. After Cori parks the plane to board, CFI Hermes returns the tug the hanger. Cori is locked in behind the flight wheel and is gearing up the propeller.
Cori earned her pilot’s license this past May 2025. This will be her instrument flight rating, which she plans to earn in December or January 2026.
“I continued to take lessons because now I’m learning how to fly in the clouds,” she said. “Then I plan to roll into commercial.”
“I like the knowledge and learning how to fly the plane, and the different techniques,” Cori explained. “There are several more techniques to be a commercial pilot.”
“The more knowledge I have, the safer I feel — and the more fun I have,” she said.
Cori, off-the-cuff, mentioned she has a high-performance endorsement because of her 1981 Skylane II Cessna 182 plane. Before taxiing to the runway, she checks her instruments and gauges, then talks to other pilots already in the air. She is making sure they know she is about to take off. I can hear radio traffic through the headphones that she provided me with and the low hum of the planes’ propeller.
It took some time to taxi to the main runway, but Cori made a smooth take-off. The Gainesville Texas Municipal Airport past by my window quickly. Cori flew around the border and we could see the winding Red River and what I think was Moss Lake. One pilot mentioned something about being over Gainesville's Wal-Mart then Cori and CFI Hermes looked out the window for them, perplexed.
Cori flies over Highway 82 which runs through Gainesville, Texas. Cori and CFI Hermes overlook the horizon of North Texas and Southern Oklahoma as she makes a turn. Cori flies over a lake before heading back to the airport to land her plane.
We were in the air for about 20 minutes and it was time to return. Cori lined up in front of the runway and had landed the plane within a minute or two. Then taxied back toward the hanger, passing by some antique planes parked on the tarmac.
Cori lines up her plane to the Gainesville Municipal Airport runway to prepare for a landing. Cori passes by these old planes parked for display on the tarmac after landing her plane.
Cori is one of a few women pilots in the area, she says. She knows of two female pilots. She hopes to join some groups after she finishes training and her son graduates from high school. Right now, though, she’s pretty busy with what she’s doing; being a career woman, wife and mother learning how to fly.
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