2023-Present I was offered the opportunity to take on the role of Head of Flight Technical at Maldivian, shifting my focus toward long term and strategic projects, though I still enjoy working on the nitty-gritty stuff. I would occasionally roll up my sleeves to build a mathematical model or dive into aircraft performance tasks, spending hours on granular optimization problems at flight operations, like crew number optimization using linear programming, solving network problems, or crafting new models for Full Flight Simulator training scenarios. Mostly, though, it’s been about tackling organizational strategic challenges.

The Maldivian management team is a goldmine of experience and wisdom, always offering guidance and keeping it a learning journey. In this role, I led the Flight Operations team through the Entry into Service of the Airbus A330 into the Maldivian fleet, a big project that had me coordinating closely with the Airbus flight operations team in Toulouse, France. The approval processes and audits were hefty. I’m still learning every day, applying whatever I pick up to nudge Maldivian’s operations toward greater efficiency and effectiveness.

2019-2023 I was recruited back to Maldivian as a Flight Operations Engineer after about a year at Manta Air, and later as the Lead for Flight Operations Engineering. Shifting from compliance monitoring and engineering to Flight Operations was a game changer, and I loved it. I started off with Aircraft Performance Monitoring, earned my Aircraft Performance Engineer certification from Airbus, and tackled projects like managing flight releases, analyzing flight ops data, and building mathematical models to optimize flight operations and training. Working hand in hand with Engineering and Maintenance, Compliance Monitoring, and Safety Management teams was a daily learning curve, those groups are packed with experience, and I soaked up as much as I could.

I completed a slew of trainings on air operations and flight training, got deep into EASA air operations and aircrew regulations, and worked out the ins and outs of most of the approval processes. Audits for flight ops and training became an everyday thing. I led the Entry into Service of ATRs into the Maldivian fleet from the Flight Operations angle, and as I grew into the role, I started negotiating with service providers, everything from synthetic flight simulators to airborne systems and aircraft performance systems. I helped make policies, processes, and procedures for the DHC-6, DHC-8, ATR, and A320 fleets, leaning on a versatile Flight Ops team that kept things flexible.

2018-2019 I joined Manta Air as a Maintenance and Engineering team member, recruited as one of the initial hires to help set up the airline after nearly a year at Maldivian..a real eye-opener. It was a startup vibe, working alongside seasoned Aircraft Maintenance Engineers, and I picked up a ton about the business and operational sides of aviation. I aided in securing the Air Operator Certification, establishing the Continuing Airworthiness Management Organization, and setting up the Approved Maintenance Organization, drafting SOPs, policies, and procedures for the Engineering and Maintenance Division. With the flexibility I was given, I developed a spare parts stocking algorithm using historical data and Weibull distribution to optimize stock levels for aircraft spares, balancing serviceability and cost. I also ran feasibility studies for digital systems like airworthiness management tools and built an effective method to manage manpower and resources in Engineering and Maintenance.

The startup phase brought me into contact with some of the brilliant minds in the Maldivian aviation industry, I learned a lot from them, and taking part in the initial MCAA audits for CAMO, Part-145, and the Air Operator Certificate was a deep dive into regulations, manuals, and procedures to ensure we were ready to fly. The operation was started with ATR 72-600s, and I completed Type Rating (T4) on ATR through the ATR Training Centre. I got some hands on time as well, guided by some experienced members in the department, and it was here that I started exploring beyond Engineering and Maintenance into Flight Operations, sparked by the academic bent of the operations head at the time.

2017-2018 I worked as an Airworthiness Inspector at Maldivian, where I focused on inspection, compliance monitoring, and quality control across Air Operations, Continuing Airworthiness, and Aircraft Maintenance. I learned a ton about Continuing Airworthiness regulations, safety auditing, compliance monitoring, and the nitty-gritty of aircraft maintenance, a uniquely specialized domain that took some time to bridge from my engineering roots. Steering toward aviation was a natural fit, through blending Mechanical and Aerospace engineering into a fascinating practical playground.

I contributed to auditing efforts, completed IOSA Airline Auditor training, and mostly handled the Continuing Airworthiness and Aircraft Maintenance side of things.

2013-2017 BSc at Bilkent University in Engineering (mostly mechanical and moving things, their physics and control) was where I dug into the fundamentals of engineering and got hooked on control theory, dynamics, and fluid dynamics (especially control systems for space-based vehicles). I took a bit more courses than required with Yildray Yildiz (a brilliant professor who topped his PhD at MIT, and worked at NASA - very cool) who shared invaluable tips, and worked on developing an optimal control law for transferring a CubeSat from a parking orbit to a geostationary orbit using a Hohmann transfer (turned out this is not possible with current technology). The goal was to minimize the duration of those sluggish spiral orbital transfers for micro-satellites. I learned a ton along the way.

For my final project, I stayed in the control realm, but I also spent most of my time far from Earth..taking CFD and related courses to analyze airfoils in Martian and Earth atmospheres, comparing drag and lift profiles to explore how atmospheric density and composition shape those forces.

2006-2013 Grade school (O'Level, A'levels) and some work experiences. I was mostly learning all of the ways to do Mathematics and physical sciences (especially Physics). And of course, dreaming to be an astronaut one day.

I started being curious about nature and science during my primary grade, I was very lucky to receive some science books, and also, the small library in my primary grade school had some dusty old science books, which sparked my interest in science and engineering.