MIDLAND, Texas — For her 40th birthday this year, Carrie Gutierrez walked through these doors at Floris Flight Services to begin her first flying lessons to become a pilot. Something she's only dreamed of doing. "I almost gave up on the dream. I thought I'm getting too old," she says.
However, she didn't give up because this dream started because of one person she deeply admired her whole life.
"When I would go to the air show with my dad in here in Midland growing up. I just always had this feeling of 'oh my goodness, I can't wait to be in an airplane like that'." Her dad was a pilot for 60 years. "I get my love for aviation. Because he was a pilot."
Flying crop dusters and performing in airshows, in her eyes, he was a star.
My dad had a really amazing aviation career and the biggest and most wonderful part of that is that my father did all of that with one eye. My father was blind in one eye since three years old and my father was a stellar pilot.
All while being blind, her father, didn't let it stop him. "He didn't make it a disability for him, it wasn't a handicap," says Gutierrez. Which is why she feels so passionate about following in his footsteps and letting anything stop her either.
Soaring up towards her dreams, she knows her dad would be proud of her if he were here. 'I think and know in my heart that my dad would be very proud. I'm bummed that I didn't get to go to him one day. Because that was my goal was to go to him and say 'hey dad, guess what I'm gonna take you flying.' Unfortunately I didn't get to do that part but I still led a wonderful life with my dad. I know his spirit is well and alive," she says.
As she embarks on this journey into the high skies, she continues to take him with her on each flight. "I feel very strongly that with the love of aviation I have and my father's spirit. I know aviation is in my blood. I aspire to be as wonderful as him," she says.
