Experts

Brendan "Darcee" 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

<p">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.

Dave Wheeler (MGen Ret)

Dave Wheeler is a retired Major-General with more than 33 years of leadership and command experience within the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). A fighter pilot by trade, he has accumulated over 4000 flying hours, with the majority flown on the CF18 in CFB Baden Soellingen and 4 Wing Cold Lake. Dave has had numerous command opportunities, including Wing Commander in 4 Wing Cold Lake and also as Commander of 1 Canadian Air Division in Winnipeg. He also conducted overseas tours in both Afghanistan and Qatar.

Dave had several staff postings in NDHQ including Lead of the Targeting Capability Implementation Team (TCIT), and lastly as the Deputy VCDS before his retirement in 2018. Upon retirement, Dave joined the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) as their Director of US Operations and Aerospace Business Development until 2019 when he formed Wheeler Support Services Inc, an aerospace and defence consulting company assisting Industry in promoting their products and services.

Dave is proud to provide consulting services to the International Tactical Training Center (ITTC), a division of the International Test Pilot School (ITPS), as they develop and deliver advanced fighter pilot courses (i.e., FLIT and FWIC) to their international clients.

Mark "Happy" LaVerdiere

Mark “Happy” LaVerdiere was born in the small town of Orillia Ontario, and found a love for aviation at a young age. His father owned a Cessna and Happy flew regularly with him. It was at this young age that Happy knew he wanted to be a world-class fighter pilot.
An avid hockey player and natural athlete, the drive to compete and set goals became a part of everyday life since being a teenager. After high school Happy attended Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ontario and graduated from the Aviation Flight Management Program at the top of his class. During his time at college, Happy was selected to represent Ontario in a national amateur piloting competition (Webster Competition) and placed third in Canada at the age of 19.

Following graduation Happy enrolled in the Canadian Forces as a pilot and achieved his jet wings in 1995. After jet wings graduation in 1995 Happy served his first tour as a QFI A2 flight instructor on the Tutor jet, the same jet he later flew as a Snowbird pilot. In 1999 he was selected for fighter pilot training, where through hard work and dedication again graduated among the top in his class, and served as a CF-18 Hornet fighter pilot in Cold Lake, Alberta until he was selected to the Snowbird team in 2007. During his time as a fighter pilot, Happy served in both Europe and throughout North America following the events of Sept 11th, 2001.

Happy had the honour to be a member of the Canadian Snowbirds for 4 years (2007-2010), flying in the number 8 position-opposing and lead solo. While flying with the Snowbirds, Happy took pride in demonstrating the skill, professionalism, and teamwork of the men and women of the Canadian Forces throughout Canada and the United States.

Duane "Sugar" Lecaine

Duane joined the RCAF in 1987 after earning a degree in Biology and completed his wings training with the Canadian Forces in 1989. He completed over 30 years of service as a Fighter Pilot before retiring in 2018.

He has served operationally on multiple CF-18 Squadrons and has instructed on the CF-18, CF-5 and the Hawk, as well as completing an Exchange Posting as a USAF Aggressor flying the F-16C. He has amassed over 8,000 hours of fighter flying, including 3,500 on the CF-18, 2,000 on the Hawk, and over 1,000 on the F-16.Sugar is a Fighter Weapons Instructor, a FEWAR (Fighter Electronic Warfare Advanced Radar) Instructor, a qualified JTAC, AFAC, and TACP, Category A Instructor (FLIT), Mass Attack Lead, Aggressor Syllabus Instructor and Mig1, Red Flag and Maple Flag Air Boss.

He has served as a Standards Officer multiple times at a Squadron and Wing level and completed 5 combat deployments as both a Fighter Pilot, and a JTAC, and before retiring had achieved almost every possible qualification available to an RCAF Fighter Pilot, however, his specialty is Large Force Employment planning, execution and debrief. Duane has been a Contract Instructor for ITTC since 2016, and has instructed on the ITTC Fighter Weapons Course, Advanced Tactics Course, and Mission Commander Course for the F-16, Hawk, and T-50.

Mark "RDOG" Staley

Mark "RDOG" Staley is a retired Air Weapons Controller with over 36 years of service with the RCAF, accumulating more than 2700 flight hours. Experienced Senior Air Battle Manager, 2 AWACS tours - Fighter Allocator with the 962nd Sqn (USAF) and Tactical Director with NATO #3 Sqn.  2 operational Coalition CAOC deployments in an international theatre of operations. Accomplished Tactical Fighter Controller, Instructor and Evaluator qualifications on multiple automated and mobile systems, 2 years as attached aggressor controller to 441 TFS.

Skilled FAC/JTAC, 6 years as the G3 Air and OIC TACP to the Central Canadian Army.  JTAC Instructor and Standards and Evaluations Officer and served two tours in the Central Asian Theatre with the Canadian Army.

He is knowledgeable in Air Simulation procedures and techniques and spent 5 years as the OIC of the RCAF DMOC/Simulation Centre. Mark has worked over 3 years with ITTC as a Simulation Instructor and Ground Control Intercept SME.

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.