In 1940, Rogato began working as a secretary at the
Biological Institute, replacing the previous temporary secretary. She took a course on
library science to improve her skill and asked to be allowed leave to continue her participation in "Wing Week" activities. The following year, Rogato took a skydiving course, gaining the first Brazilian
paratrooper certification and bought a
Paulistinha two-seater airplane. Upon receipt of her paratrooper certification, the Aeronautics Ministry asked for Rogato to be allowed a three-month leave to offer training at the Technical School of Aviation. During
World War II, she performed volunteer missions, patrolling the
Litoral Paulista (coast of São Paulo). For her service, she became the first woman to receive the title of Pilot in
Honoris Causa by the
Brazilian Air Force. In 1942, Rogato performed a daring night parachute jump. She was the only woman and was accompanied by five men, who jumped from a
Focke-Wulf plane into the bay off the coast of
Rio de Janeiro. The president,
Getúlio Vargas was on hand to witness the jump and the parachutists rescue by the two boats waiting at the ready. When Rogato returned to the Biological Institute, she was assigned to the Animal Health Surveillance Section, which led to their recruitment for her to serve as the first woman agricultural pilot in 1948. As she had accumulated over 1,200 flying hours, the Institute hired her to spray insecticide in an effort to eliminate the plague of
borer beetles which were damaging the country's
coffee crop. She worked as a
crop duster, spraying the insecticide
Gamexame (hexachloro- cyclohexane), while wearing protective gear. The insecticide was later banned as a health hazard, but not before Rogato had her only serious accident, when a malfunction of the spraying apparatus caused her to crash. Rogato was hospitalized for a month and it was later speculated that the exposure to the chemicals may have led to her development of cancer. After her recuperation, Rogato returned to crop-dusting. In 1950, Rogato took a sabbatical from the Biological Institute and flew at her own expense to participate in airshows in Argentina, Chile and Paraguay. While in Chile, she became the first woman to
skydive in the country and won applause when she landed with a Brazilian and Chilean flag. She was awarded a commendation by the Chilean government. She crossed the Andes in her Paulistinha and was awarded an aeronautical merit medal for the accomplishment. She was also given a
Cessna 140, which he would use the following year on her record-breaking flight. In 1951, she broke the longest solo flight record when she flew 51,064 miles from
Tierra del Fuego to
Anchorage, Alaska over a six-month period. Flying south from Rio de Janeiro, she went to
Uruguay and then
Argentina before crossing the
Andes, traversing the west coast of
South America,
Central America and
North America to reach Anchorage. From Anchorage, she flew to the farthest north airport, at
Fort Yukon at the
Arctic Circle. She then retraced her flight to
Seattle and flew to
Washington, D.C. and on to
Montreal and
Ottawa in
Canada before heading to the Caribbean to fly through
Cuba,
Haiti, the
Dominican Republic,
Puerto Rico,
Trinidad,
Venezuela, all three
Guyanas before returning to Brazil. The voyage was billed as a good-neighbor tour and she met with the first ladies of each of the 17 countries through which she flew. In 1952, Rogato became the first civilian pilot to take-off or land a low-powered aircraft, her Cessna, from
El Alto in
La Paz, Bolivia, which at that time was the highest altitude airport in the world. In 1956, she undertook an official mission for the São Paulo government, flying to each capital of the Brazilian states and in the process became the first pilot to fly over the
Amazon rainforest. In 1960, Rogato set another first, becoming the first woman to arrive at
Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego, which was
the southernmost city in the world at that time. One of the intriguing markers of Rogato's career is that all of her flights were completed as solo voyages in low-powered aircraft (85
horsepower or less engine), which did not have sophisticated instrumentation, or even a radio. She held the Brazilian record of parachute jumps with 105 to her credit. Rogato retired from the civil service in 1980, having attained the position of Sports and Tourism section chief for technical division, but continued to fly until four years before her death. It is said she only stopped flying because she could break no further barriers without a more powerful plane. From 1980 until 1986, Rogato served as the director of the Museum of Aeronautics and Space of São Paulo and also as president of the Santos Dumont Foundation. ==Death and legacy==