Henrique's passion for aviation started at an early age, growing up in the post World War II period in the town of Uruguaiana, Brazil.

As a kid, his father turned the space under the stairs at the back of the family store into a pretend cockpit, where young Henrique would spend many hours playing and dreaming of becoming an aviator.

In the late 1950s, at the age of 17, he moved up to real planes, flying a "Paulistinha" CAP-4 and a Piper J5 over the gentle green hills of the pampa lowlands of southern Brazil.

Henrique went on to pursue other dreams after going to college, becoming a loving husband, father and grandfather, but the passion for flight persists to this day.