TUFAN A. (Group Representative)
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I was born in Eskişehir. After completing my primary and secondary education in Eskişehir, I joined the Turkish Armed Forces and graduated from the Air Force Academy. After serving many years in the Air Force, I joined Pegasus Airlines. I started in the Boeing fleet but later switched to Airbus. I am married and have one child.

As someone who can understand the problems that may be encountered on duty or in private life, especially the stress caused by aviation lifestyle, I have accepted to be a part of the PAPS program, which accepts that the pilot is a HUMAN with his psychological and physiological needs. I will be happy to assist my colleagues in this matter.
NİHAT P.
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I was born in Istanbul. After completing my entire education life in Istanbul, I worked in the Turkish Air Force for 20 years. I joined the Pegasus family in 2011 and I am currently working as a captain pilot in the Airbus fleet.

Throughout my life, my professional life has required management of time pressure, management of stress and struggle, and managing with empathy. My friends describe me as someone who can analyze and understand the problems that may occur in all areas of life, make a positive or negative assessment of a situation, and accepting of human values. I have agreed to be part of the PAPS program as I believe similar sensitivity is necessary. I will be happy to support my colleagues while improving myself also.
AKIN E.
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I joined Pegasus Airlines in 2014 after serving in different types of aircraft in my aviation adventure, which I started in the Armed Forces. First of all, the process that I started in the Boeing fleet continues in the Airbus fleet with the type change.

My dear life partner and my 3 children are currently living in Cyprus, our homeland where we were born and raised. I have been going back and forth between Istanbul and Cyprus in the process.

Since the day I joined civil aviation, I have observed that carrying out my habits, hobbies and my frequency of meeting with old friends have decreased due to the nature of the job and that I became a bit lonely in this process. I guess I would not be mistaken if I said that this observation is not limited to myself and that even though the ratio can differ, most of colleagues have a similar experience.

I accepted to participate in PAPS because considering all things we go through with family issues, our children and the job stressors, the best way to get support is when it comes from each other.
CİHAN U.
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I was born in Kırıkkale. I completed my primary education in Kırıkkale and my secondary and high school education in Ankara Atatürk High School. I graduated from the Military Academy as a Pilot Lieutenant. After serving in different ranks and units of the Turkish Armed Forces until 2009, I retired as a Senior Major at my own request. During this time, I completed my master's degree in Management and Organization Human Resources Management at Konya Selcuk University. I joined the Pegasus Airlines family in 2009. I work as a Boeing Captain pilot in Ankara. I am happy, excited and proud to be a member of the Peer Support team.

Since we practice a very difficult and very important profession, as a member of the Peer Support team, I believe that I can provide all pilots in our company with the opportunity to discuss, solve or guide their problems in a confidential, reliable and sincere environment considering the training we got and my life experience. I believe that the best person to understand us would be a colleague who does the same job.

We should not forget that a little help on time and on the spot will help us establish flight safety and protect us, our future, our family and our company.
GÜVEN T.
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I graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2000, which I entered after my primary and secondary education. I served on the F-4 aircraft until the year I left the Air Force.

I joined our company in 2016. I am flying as a Captain pilot in our B-737 Squadron.

I am excited and proud to be a Peer in the Pilot Peer Support program and to contribute to my colleagues as a friend who can understand the possible problems they may experience.
HALİL A.
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I was born in Poyrazdamları village of Salihli district of Manisa province. I completed my primary education in the village, went to boarding school for the sake of studying.

In other words, from the age of 11, to grow up with right and wrong assumptions while trying to solve their problems in life without their elders to worry about, lean on, laugh and have fun with, other than their peers who are only as much as themselves.

Afterwards, the Military High School and the Air Force Academy. Our peers, up and down, with whom we continued to tell each other about our troubles and sorrows, did not lick our shortcomings while we were rolling. Sometimes he chipped it off. Those were the years when the concept of psychologist was unheard of, let alone known. In my 12 years of life with the air force and Pegasus, new peers have joined us. We shared this with people of my father's age or my child's age that we could not even admit to ourselves in the mirror. In the early days, our minds were full of gossip, false counseling, and reasoning. Over time, I have experienced that these do more harm to those who do the most, who look down on them, such as the upper mind. The more I became curious about psychology books, the more I became curious as I observed that in closed societies like ours, people who see it as shameful or sick to go to a psychologist choose their peers more. Even though my shoulders hurt sometimes, I learned to support those who tell me about their secrets, desperation and predicament. As a matter of fact, when I was offered to be included in this program, which started in our company, I was very proud at first and accepted it without hesitation. Yours truly...
ÖZCAN Ö.
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I was born in Nicosia. I graduated from the Turkish Military Academy. I completed my master's degree in Public Relations and Advertising at Girne American University. In the following years, I attended a flight instructor course in Ankara and became a helicopter flight instructor. I retired from the armed forces in 2014 as a helicopter pilot. After graduating from Er-Ah flight school, I have been flying in the Boeing fleet of Pegasus Airlines since 2015.

I am married and have a son. We go back and forth between Kyrenia and Istanbul. In my free time, I go on nature trips and camps with my car and family friends. I love reading books, watching movies, swimming, making different inventions and tools, and doing research.

Thanks to my peer support system and good human relations, I think I can make good contributions to both my company and my colleagues. I think that the person who will best understand, help, support and empathize with a person will be people like him, in the same professional group, in the same lifestyle and experiencing similar events.
ÖMER A.
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I was born in Ankara. After completing my education in Ankara, I entered and graduated from the Air Force Academy. I retired in 2011 after serving as an F-4E Fighter/Bomber pilot in the Turkish Air Force. Between 2011 and 2013, I worked as a CL-215 firefighting pilot at THK Gökçen Aviation and then joined the Pegasus Family in 2013. I've been flying in the Boeing Fleet ever since. I am married and have a 23-year-old son.

When I was offered to be a "Peer Supporter", I first looked at the word meaning ... Peer means precedent ...

Then, I asked what this peer does… I said, “Well, this is something like “Güzin Sister” (Turkish columnist who gives advice).

As I kept thinking about what a Peer would do, it occurred to me that when my father passed away about three years ago, a colleague I knew from the company called me and offered his condolences ... He immediately asked if I needed professional help. Was this something like that?

Actually, it was like both and not, but something like that ... I thought I could do it, I accepted. You know, the three musketeers had motto like... "All for one, one for all".

I volunteered to join our company's Peer Support Team. Recently we were training by a group of aviation specialists. Of course, at the end of this training, although we cannot be like those valuable professionals who train us, we tried to learn as much as possible on how we can provide better assistance to you, and we are with you, we are one of you.

As pilots, we have stress-handling situations specific to our profession. Meteorological negativities, overlapping aircraft malfunctions, operational negativities and a lot of similar situations that we can reproduce… We, as pilots at a certain level of experience, knowledge and training to overcome and try to cope with these situations and keep the situation under control. In the meantime, we have supporters who support us right next to us, on the other end of the phone, to consult and help. Our other pilot colleagues, cabin crew, technical team, operation attendants, OCC etc.

Sometimes we chat with our colleagues and get into trouble. Our sentence begins with "Either brother, there was both heavy rain and a wind on landing in Tbilisi the other day ...". Then he tells, we listen, we tell, they listen.

Sometimes we chat with our colleagues. Our sentence begins with "Brother, there was both heavy rain and a wind on landing in Tbilisi the other day ...". Then he tells, we listen, we tell, they listen.

Sometimes there are such examples that some people cannot tell their friends about their negativities or the situation they are in, and they worry. Such as "If I explain my family / professional problem, I will be disgraced, I will be stigmatized", "I will be dismissed from my job, I will be punished" ...

We need help, what we have accumulated within us disturbs us. So much so that we can prevent us from doing our job, we cannot get out of it.

There is also a pilot definition that we can see as follows; “They are mentally strong, attentive and capable of controlling everything. They never mix their emotions with their profession. "

No!

We know that we are human beings first and there will be difficulties in our lives, and we have to deal with these difficulties. When we feel that we were having trouble coping; now there is a Peer Support reality in aviation and we have pilot peer supporters as well as professionals whom we can get help / support from. Moreover, we will be able to share the problems in a confidential environment, with an understanding of fair culture and trust.

Being noticed and reported by someone is a situation that one would not want to be in. Refer yourself for support to avoid causing such situations. Tell us about your situation, your difficulties, and we will try to find solutions together.

Maybe we are not like your close friend, we are not a trained professional, but we are here and willing to listen to you and find solutions together. Of course, if necessary, we can consult a professional or an expert of course.

"Pilot understands pilot",

"I have a pilot colleague who understands what I have experienced, and I can correct these negativities in my life",

"Problems decrease as they are shared ...",

We are with you, one of you, so that you can say "If I open up to someone, it will be good for me".
MEHMET YÜCEL İ.
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I was born in Istanbul. After completing my education, I worked in the operations department of a private bank for three years. When I had time, I would take photos of planes landing and taking off on the terrace of a shopping mall in Yeşilköy. At this time, I listened to my inner voice and in 2015, our paths merged with Pegasus Airlines.

Over time, I have personally witnessed how true the facts such as Pegasus culture and family environment that I heard in the early days are. When I encounter any problem, whether it is about my private life or flight life, the words "please tell me what we can do for you" are proof that we are a beautiful family. In this context, when I heard that our company, which always opens new windows about aviation in our country, has entered into a new formation under the name of PEER SUPPORT, I wanted to take part voluntarily.

We are with you with PEER SUPPORT, that is, the peer support program. The problems we experience daily and the difficulties we face greatly affect our daily life and business life. While we continue our struggle in all these difficulties, we are here to make you feel better with our "transparency, confidentiality and solution-oriented approach" in our program, which we set out with the principle that we understand us better.

Although we state that our meetings will be strictly confidential, we will be looking forward to stepping into good days together on this path we set out with the thought that one of you will be good for you.