Experts

Harun Demirtas

Harun served in the Turkish Air Force as a fighter and instructor pilot for twenty-six years during which he amassed 3000 flight and SIM 700 hours mainly on F-4 Phantom and T-38 Talon. Harun participated in planning and execution phase of several national and NATO-led exercise. During his career, He served as a Flight Safety Officer, Flight Commander, Squadron Commander and Evaluation & Inspection Branch Head.

He also qualified Electronic Warfare and Air to Land Integration SME as well as experienced Flight Instructor Pilot. Other participation includes FWIC, Advanced Command & Staff Course in UK, Joint and Combined War Fighting School in US.

Harun had valuable experience with a variety of missions ranging from all kind of Air to Air and Air to Ground including COMAO as a planner and fighter pilot. He served as Chairman of NATO Air & Missile Committee Working Group at NATO HQ in Belgium where he was responsible for preparation of the highest-level NATO Air & Missile Defense Policy.

He currently works Head of Training at ITTC, holds Canadian ATPL, and successfully serves as Instructor Pilot in Fighter Lead-In Training.
Brendan Pierce

As a Fighter Weapons Instructor and recent retiree of a 14 year career in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Brendan ‘Darcee’ gained over 2300 hours of training and operational experience. The main portion of his military career was spent flying the CF-18 Hornet where he logged 1300 hours of experience. Highlights from that portion of his career were deploying to Iraq in 2015 flying combat missions against ISIS, completing the RCAF Fighter Weapons Instructor Course in 2017 as well as many other international operations and exercises.

He earned Mass Attack as well as Mission Commander designations which were exercised in many large force employment exercises. He gained valuable instructional experience being employed as an FWI by the RCAF and helping organize and instruct on multiple FWI courses. He ended his RCAF career in 2019 teaching at the operational training unit instructing new pilots to the CF-18 Hornet. Other aircraft flown include the CT-156 Harvard II, CT-155 Hawk, L-39 and Boeing 737NG.
Sibte Gillani
Sibte Gillani served in the Pakistan Air Force for 24 years. He graduated from PAF Academy with honours as Best Pilot. He flew 2000 hours on F7P and T-37 aircraft. Throughout his career he served at different operational and command positions including Squadron Commander, Flight Commander Operations, Base Flight Safety Officer, Air Liaison Officer. His Qualification include; Flight Safety Course, Command and Staff Course, Defence Resource management Course, Electronic Warfare course, FWIC and QFIC. Sibte has a vast instructional and command experience of Basic Flying Training, FLIT Courses and FWIC. He also planned and executed several national level joint air exercises and participated in air superiority exercises with USN. While working in the Air Force planning department he was actively involved in trials of new armament and Avionics for the upgrading of different fighter aircraft. Sibte has broad experience of leading a variety of air superiority and Ground Attack missions throughout his military career as a fighter pilot and planner.
Adem Okal

Adem Okal is a former fighter pilot with around 2000 flight hours mainly on F-16 (Viper). He has 20 years of experience dedicated to the aviation community. He had valuable experience at multi-role squadrons with a variety of missions ranging from A/A, A/G and SEAD. Throughout his career, he flew with eleven different types of aircraft. He is currently a rated L-39 pilot and serving as a tactical instructor pilot at ITPS. In addition to his fighter experience, Adem has a BSc Degree in Engineering, a MSc Degree in Operations Research and is also a part-time PhD student in the Aviation Program at the University of Waterloo.
Nebi Sarikaya

Nebi served in the Turkish Air Force as a fighter and instructor pilot for 17 years during which he amassed 2000 flight and 400 Sim hours mainly on F-16 Fighting Falcon in Interceptor and Multi-Role squadrons. Nebi served as Squadron Flight Safety Officer, Weapons and Tactics Officer and Flight Operations Executive Officer during his service.

He performed acceptance flight tests of the modernized F-16 aircraft (PO-III/IV) to Turkish Air Forces in coordination with Turkish Aerospace Industry (TAI). He also participated in the acceptance tests of modernized F-16 Simulators in coordination with Lockheed Martin and HAVELSAN.

He participated multiple times in high volume air exercise (approx. 60 aircraft participation), Anatolian Eagle, as wingman, 4 ship lead and Mission Commander and received distinguished pilot certificate. He employed modern weapons such as LGBs and GBUs and flew with long range F-16 weapon configurations such as JSOW and SLAM-ER.

He also served as F-35 Operational Requirements, Inter-Operability and Weapons Integration project officer and attended F-35 simulator events in Lockheed Martin facilities in Fort Worth, Texas, for COMAO training (A-A, A-G attack and CAS) and weapons integration tests.

Nebi has Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science with High Distinction from Turkish Air Force Academy and Master’s Degree in Operations Research from United States Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), Dayton, Ohio, US. He also completed Joint and Combined Operational Planning course in Joint and Combined War Fighting School, National Defense University, Norfolk, Virginia, US. He completed Big Data Solutions Architecture program in Conestoga College, Waterloo, Ontario with High Distinction.

Nebi also served as Air Exercise Planning Officer in NATO Allied Air Command (ACC), Ramstein, Germany and managed 2 Million Euros of NATO exercise budget.

He developed 3D F-16 Debriefing Software for Turkish Air force during his service in squadrons. Besides, he also developed 3D L-39 debriefing software for ITTC.

Nebi also holds a Canadian ATPL.
Brent Handy

Brent served for over 20 years in the Royal Canadian Air Force and has logged over 5,000 flying hours, almost exclusively on fast jets. Having flown the CF-18 Hornet on a front line squadron, and also instructed on all phases of flight training from pre-wings on the Harvard II (T-6B), advanced jet on the Hawk 115 as well as fighter lead-in training on the Hawk under the NATO Flying Training in Canada system.

Most recently, Brent served as a demo pilot for the RCAF Snowbirds air demo team, then as a standards, evaluation and training officer for the CT-114 Tutor fleet. He is qualified as a Canadian Forces Flight Safety officer and Instrument Check Pilot.

Brent is also an established airshow demo pilot with clearance to perform aerobatics with no altitude restrictions in his private aircraft. He holds a Transport Canada Airline Transport Pilot Licence with aerobatic instructor ratings, as well as seaplane, glider, and multi-engine ratings.

Brent’s experience in training multi-national pilots is being put to good use at FLIT instructor at ITTC.
Muhammad Farooq

Muhammad Farooq, is a retired Pakistan Air Force pilot, latest rank as Wing Commander (Lieutenant Colonel) with highly concentrated background from different sources varying from Pakistan Air Force, UAE Air Force to PLA Air Force of PR China. He is a QFI, FWI and a graduate of the elite Combat Commanders School of Pakistan Air Force. He is also a certified Instructor Pilot on the F16 and served as Flight Commander Operations/Instructor Pilot in the Multi-Role F-16 Operational Conversion Squadron of Pakistan Air Force. In Air Superiority Roles, he has vast instructional experience in BFM, ACM, ACT/DACT (Multi Bogey), Fighter Escorts, and Cap vs Sweep type missions, simulating weapons like All Aspect BVR Missiles to IR Missiles, (under comm-jam environments). In Air to Surface role, he has vast instructional experience in Conventional, Inertial and Laser Guided Weapons delivery (including Live Night Bombing using FLIR), under various threat conditions, both Air to Air and Surface to Air. Also has instructional experience in night time anti-shipping bombing missions, using inertial and FLIR modes. He took part, both as a pilot and as instructor in the annual Highmark Exercises in Pakistan Air Force and GCC exercises in the middle east. Also flew DACT exercise against the US Navy F-18s. He authored the Hawk 102 Operational Course Syllabus and the squadron In-flight Guide, for UAE Air Force. For the PLA Air Force, he authored the Combined Basic/Advance jet course syllabus for the K-8 aircraft. As a fighter pilot, he has over 5000 hours on more than 13 different aircraft, including fighter aircraft like the F-16s, Mirage 3 & 5, F-6/FT-6, Hawk-102 and FT-9 (FTC 2000).
Steve Bigg

Steve earned his private pilot’s license at age 17 and flew briefly in the Canadian Armed Forces prior to graduating with a diploma in Computer Electronics Engineering Technology from Mohawk College. After a career in electromechanical engineering technology he returned to aviation in 2003 when he created and ran the Air Combat Zone Flight Simulation Centre. The centre featured four F/A-18 Hornet high fidelity full cockpit simulators providing clients the opportunity to experience modern air combat. Over 15 years the simulators saw more than 50,000 people learn the systems of a modern jet fighter and the tactics necessary to fly and fight in air combat successfully. Through his experience at Air Combat Zone Steve gained a deep understanding of how simulation can benefit air combat skills training and developed the skills necessary to deliver that training.