Writer

Amy Laboda

The W.A. “Dub” Blessing Award for Flight Instructor of the Year is one of nine Salute to Excellence Awards handed out at Heli-Expo each year. The awards recognize those who, through either a single act or a lifetime of service and dedication, exemplify the best of the helicopter industry. This award, sponsored by H. Ross Perot, Jr., and the Perot family, recognizes superlative contributions by a helicopter flight instructor in upholding high standards of excellence.

 


This year’s winner is João Bosco Ferreira, principal flight instructor and owner of Escola de Aviação (EFAI) in Bairro Campina Verde Contagem, Brazil. Bosco has been a helicopter instructor since his time in the Brazilian air force in the 1970s and 1980s. After attending helicopter flight test pilot school in France in 1981, he returned to Brazil as chief of the flight test Division for the Brazilian air force’s Center of Aeronautical Technology, charged with creating the Brazilian flight test course.

 


In 1990, Bosco joined Helibras, the Brazilian subsidiary of Aerospatiale Helicopters (now Airbus Helicopters), as technical director. He earned type ratings and instructor certifications in the following helicopter types: AS332, AS365, EC120, EC130, EC135 and BK-117. There, he established the company’s flight test department. His observations of other pilots led him to create a program for emergency procedures testing for experienced pilots.

 


Bosco has logged 32,500 autorotations to the ground. That translates to approximately 400 flight hours in autorotation (out of a total of more than 12,500 flight hours).

 


Bosco left Helibras to establish his own flight school, Escola de Aviação (EFAI). There students experience heavy emphasis on emergency procedures training–especially autorotations. To date Bosco has trained nearly 1,000 pilots from Brazil, as well as other South American countries, many of them on multiple helicopter platforms. He is a recognized role model for the Brazilian helicopter community.

News and issues regarding all manner of civil and military rotorcraft and their powerplants, including helicopters, tilt rotors and unmanned air vehicles.