TOPGUN Instructors React to 'Top Gun: Maverick'

have a big ego they're much less likely to listen to you so if you're not if you don't think you're dealing with ego you're missing something because everyone has one and they usually lose control when you feel threatened and that's what they are representing, I grant you. I was on staff recently when I was on staff we would talk about a possible brother if he comes on staff brothers just a topcon instructor name and invariably someone would say he's a great stick but he has a certain attitude vs uh he might get better, but man, he's an amazing guy, which one of those will he usually take when they're sitting in those staff meetings?

I'm going to pick the awesome guy that I can usually improve well because that's the guy that can get along with everyone, I mean, and it goes to his point, the ego that's not in check, I mean, he's the guy that ends up in the phenab , that's the guy you can't control because I mean, I would say a little ego is good in our business. Yeah, that's right, you probably want to think you have a good confidence, sure, right, and maybe a little ego because you want to be good at your job, like it's not worth not being good at this job. but I'm going to be 100 I'm going to take the guy who's the life of the room set up and he can pull everyone around him and I can just have to work on his stick and rudder skills because it's probably easier to work on sticking to the writer of what it is go and i can i can we can teach that guy to fly alright we'll get him there alright we can make it so fantastic i can add a very poetic description we use when but you gotta rhyme you can't push a string and you can't polish shit , so when you come across a guy like that and I know someone who's heard it before, that's when you realize that yeah that's it, you know you have to do it. cut them fantastic ok we have a few minutes left and if we have any questions from the audience oh here's one hey what do you know?

Okay, go ahead, Hillary, what's your question? Hey guys, so it's not like my background is similar when it comes to life and death situations, but I've been to a school where it's like the top one percent of the one percent, you know, I've been through that with music, huh, and I've been through something like the weekly, like you feel like everything you do isn't good enough as

instructors

. Kind of motivating people the right way so that they get better, but not so that they're a little beaten down. Is there such a means that you have to say?

Oh I would say if I can jump on that then I will. hand it over to one of you guys i think that's really the true mark of a top notch instructor it's not that he just knows what he's doing but he can hand it over and instruct it and make someone better and not just beat them but uh happier graham it would help me here i think also what i see is the guy he is and you become a better instructor by being willing to admit your mistakes like you know if you are the type to show that i can i am willing to own up to my own mistakes you make the The guy you're teaching he makes him or her a better instructor than because they learn that kind of humility like you know and I don't mean you beat a guy up to make him or her a little stronger but but sometimes you're nice to do things alright like you have to do that a little bit so that the boy like training camp works a little bit well to go alright well let's drag it out let's keep going let's keep going through the report and we're going to do what e you feel better, that's how I see it, yes, for me, it's interesting to think about it.

I came on staff in the summer of 2002, right after OEF started, and then the whole world had gone from a peacetime world to a wartime world, and so the cool thing about that is that everyone wasn't raining he was going to war right after top gun they are going back to their fleet squad they are going to war what i learned there is something i keep thinking about today is that you can be very very hard on someone you can Actually be really brutal on some of those report points and a top weapon. You're going to get into the nitty-gritty if the person you're talking to thinks you care about them if they think what you were doing is to help them stay alive help them succeed and help them win and if they think you really You don't have to worry too much about how they're going to

react

because they know that everything you told them was for their benefit so for me the most important thing wasn't necessarily just the quality of my report, which of course is essential that you do it right, it's for them to realize that everything I was saying was to try and help them get better and if they thought you could say anything and you really didn't have to worry about how they would

react

because they knew it was what was best for them and they would usually take it for a good cause and they would take it and improve it fantastic jimbo you want something real briefly the challenge I found when there's a guy who was struggling was I took it upon myself to try to find ar another channel to communicate with him so i ended up becoming a better instructor along the way fantastic ok i think we have another question from the audience yeah who is the best pilot you have ever seen we are in uh can tell me you can if you want to be like um why am i oh the right things talking about a great question btw um talking about the right things its the only movie i ever did i dont think this movie is a bit borrowed but i watched star wars just with the trench behind enemy lines with Snow Firefox.

Come on, I know you all remember Firefox stealing planes. ight chip Who's the best driver you've ever seen? I don't know who is the best I've ever seen, but the list of people better than me is a really long list, so it would be hard to name one, I'll, I'll. i gave this very quickly when i got on staff as an instructor as sort of a senior j.o having been in top gun as a student i had been a fully qualified pilot and had been in the war i was pretty comfortable with my own abilities and went out on my first bfm flight with a guy named dan dixon who was the best captain ever and he did things on a plane i didnt know you could do i was an ip at the time top new weapons instructor and hes the one who opened my eyes from that there was a whole world of capabilities in an airplane that I didn't fully understand and I'll remember that flight I did with dix that was overwhelmingly unbalanced not only because he was so much better than me but it made me realize that I didn't realize how much I could getting better and i owe a lot to that early on i learned i had a lot to do and i never got to a point where i thought i knew everything but flying against that guy was really humiliating really cool but with a lot of be humble, sure it's you, we're about to leave. of time and I have a couple of notes here to wrap up Top Gun Maverick are you ready?

Six crashed planes Five ejections Two stolen planes Just one death Thank God and a buzzing tower Of course in the middle of it all That, of course, is an interpersonal drama. with the son of goose and the old adventure of

maverick

penny benjamin there is humor drama romance grief redemption great and closure whatever else is missing from the movie you expected i don't think you have everything i really liked i thought it was great yes i think you have everything that's a small price to pay for freedom i love it i was on board ok jambo well we went head to head with tony scott about the movie and he basically said look im not going to tell you how to fly. the fan a plane no tel me how to make a movie effort i'm not going to tell those guys how to make a movie it was a home run yeah fantastic well i want to thank you gentlemen for being on the panel today hereby i want to thank everyone who might be watching and certainly once again i would like to thank our corporate sponsor cubic for making this possible for everyone watching go watch the fighter fighterpilotpodcast.com you can follow us on your favorite social media channel that I will do it from here in San Diego, good night, you