Experts
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.