LIEUTENANT COLONEL (U) MOHD HAIRY ERWANDY BIN HAJI RAYA
Lieutenant Colonel (U) Mohd Hairy Erwandy was commissioned as an officer on 3 September 1999 after completing his Initial Officer Training (IOT) No 179 at the Royal Air Force (RAF) College, Cranwell in United Kingdom (UK).
After completing his basic flying training utilizing PC7-MKII at No 3 Sqn, he then spent most of his flying career as a CN235 pilot (since 2003) at No 5 Sqn. To date, he is one of the longest serving pilots (2002-2019: 17 years) and holds the record of most flying hours on type (2842 hours). He also completed the Qualified Fixed-Wing Instructor's (QFI) Course at Flight Training Tamworth (FTT), Australia (2009) to then assume the Flight Commander Training (FCT) post in 2011, and as Officer Commanding (OC) in 2013. He is also certified by Sapura Defence, Malaysia as an Instructor Operating Station (IOS) Level D Full Flight Simulator Training (2008). Furthermore, he is the first qualified Maintenance Test Pilot (MTP) on type obtained from Flight Test Center Indonesian Aerospace (IAe) (2016).
His operational experiences include; regional transport missions such as International Monitoring Team (IMT) in Mindanao, Philippines; and he was one of the crew for Brunei's first Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief (HADR) operation codenamed, 'Ops Badai Berlalu' during the Boxing day Tsunami in Banda Aceh (2005). His second HADR mission was for the Haiyan Typhoon in Tacloban, Philippines (2013) where he was appointed as Air Mission Commander (AMC).
His career appointments, thereafter, included being Commanding Officer (CO) No 7 Wing (2017-2019). In a rapid succession of a career change, he then had a short stint as Staff Officer 1 Staff Duties/ Doctrine in the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) at the end of 2019 through to July 2020. At that same period, he was the first Chief of Staff (COS) for RBAF Task Force Support (TFS) during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. On this same year, he was appointed as Defence Adviser of UK where he spent three (3) years on tour (2020-2023). Upon returning, he assumed the post as Assistant Chief of Staff A7 (Training) at the RBAirF Headquarters commencing from July 2023. However, this tour was also short-lived as he was reappointed as Commander Operations Group (COG) at the Operations Group Headquarters since 23 January 2024.
His staff training includes; the 8th RBAF Junior Staff Course (JSC) (2008) and the Defence Academy (DA) RBAF Command and Staff College (CSC) 5th cohort (2015). It was at this junction that he achieved the RBAF Commendation Award and took the opportunity to complete a Master's Degree in International Security (Mint'lSy) with Massey University, New Zealand (2016). He also completed his Executive Development Programme (EDP) for Senior Government Officials (SGO) organized by Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (SHHBIDSS) and delivered by Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) School of Public Policy, National University Singapore (NUS) (2019).
He is married to Aliza and they have four (4) wonderful children; Hafiz (2002), Danish (2003), Dania (2005) and Zaara (2020). Hairy enjoys mountain biking, running and football in his pastime.
