Bell Training Academy’s chief flight instructor, Marty Wright, not only oversees the company’s training center but also has become an industry expert on autorotation and has assisted in relief efforts. For all of these reasons, HAI is honoring Wright with its 2019 W.A. “Dub” Blessing Flight Instructor of the Year Award.

Sponsored by H. Ross Perot and the Perot family, the Flight Instructor of the Year Award recognizes “superlative contributions by a helicopter flight instructor in upholding high standards of excellence.” The award will be presented at HAI’s Salute to Excellence Awards luncheon on March 6 during Heli-Expo in Atlanta.

Wright is directly responsible for the training, standardization, and mentoring of the 34 instructors at the Bell Training Academy. He is the chief flight instructor and serves as the training center evaluator for the FAA-approved 142 Bell Helicopter Training Center. Further, he plays a key role in ensuring FAA, EASA, and ANAC certification for the Bell Part 142 training center.

Wright has logged more than 7,800 hours of flight instruction in six different Bell aircraft, as well as in the Sikorsky CH-53, during his 29 years as an instructor. After spending 22 years with the U.S. Marine Corps, he joined Bell initially as a V-22 pilot ground instructor, moving to positions of increasing responsibility.

Bell colleagues described Wright as a “gifted leader, helicopter pilot, and flight instructor with the innate ability to articulate subtle and complex helicopter aerodynamics and relate them to his students in an easy fashion.”

Along with his oversight of training activities at Bell, he has published a number of articles on autorotations and has been a supporting instructor for the FAA “Autorotations: Reality Exposed” presentation given at HAI.

He further coordinated Bell’s Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, provided assistance to the US. Park Police with an F-16 crash, and has assisted in the filming of the Discovery Channel’s “Belly of the Beast” helicopters series.