Top Gun: Maverick

[Colonel]

I would like to apologize. Previously I criticized your PM for violating his own lockdown rules and taking a Caribbean vacation in the winter at the taxpayer’s expense on a government jet.

See, I thought he was just vacationing on the beach and now I realize he wanted his kids to meet their family.

Family is important. I get that now.

[John Swallow]

Vacationing? Beach? Meet the family?

Andrew: what ARE you talking about?

[Colonel]

I know. Sometimes the truth can be a bit surprising:



What I see:

[John Swallow]

I have to admit that you have a cute little aircraft.

Task specific, but cute...

You done any upgrading? EFIS? GPS? Anything like that...?

[Colonel]

Ripped out all the engine instruments, replaced them with data logging engine monitor. 3 samples per second of twenty thermocouples and transducers. Cost the earth. Worth it.



USB download to thumb drive after every flight. Handy to compare the two. Anything imperfect, fix it. Engines have never run so smooth and powerful. Diagnosis is a cinch.

GAMI injectors make the sIx EGT and CHT graphs tight.



MT 3 blade props with nearly zero gyroscopic precession and gentle on the crank, Gerd has the tips at mach 0.9 at 2700 RPM for maximum thrust and drag.



Smoke systems. The usual.

I use my eyeballs and on rare occasions my phone for nav. Visibility is always a million miles here. Monster dewpoint spreads every day. No Cb’s, no haze. Marine layer burns off in the morning then blue sky every day. Don’t really need any nav equipment if you have a high school knowledge of geography.



Gets kind of boring after a while, to tell you the truth.

[Slick Goodlin]

Went and saw it today and my wife and I agree it was probably one of the all around best new movies of the last several years. Part of me wishes they had left the Su-57s out and just left the bad guys to be not-Iran but whatever. It was paced well, told a clean and linear story, and from what I could tell was real wherever it could be. Looked like it was hella fun to make, too.

Also my twenty five year running crush on Jennifer Connelly continues.

[Colonel]

I had the hots for her in 1991.



Then someone told her she was fat. Sigh.

Back to the movie. It’s through a Billion gross, worldwide which isn’t bad. Thst’s not a lot of money, but it’s nice to pick up the ones and twosies where you can I guess.

Has anyone asked Molly Ringwald about this? Because in 1985 she turned down the female lead in the original movie and sneered:

“Who wants to watch Tom Cruise fly an airplane?”

Ah, the irony. How is s her career today?

[Slick Goodlin]

Started with The Rocketeer for me. I think a lot of things did.

As for the billion dollar gross, I imagine this is going to influence a lot of movies for the next few years what with superhero fatigue finally being a thing. Hopefully it means more movies that are honestly good, with relatable characters instead of one’s trying to be influential and nothing pretentious but I think we all know it means jet fighters in everything.

Funny thing is, before the movie when Tom Cruise came on with his spiel about how they really enjoyed making it and how it’s entirely for the audience my wife leaned over and said that was dumb. In the car ride home she admitted she thought he was full of shit at the time but the movie proved him right.

[Colonel]

The air-to-air photography in the original was outstanding IMHO.

What I loved about this movie was that it wasn’t entirely CGI. That would have been the easy and cheap snd shitty way to make it.

I really appreciated that they put the actors in a Cessna then an Extra then an L39 as preparation for riding in an F-18.

Again, time and expense that the studio didn’t want to spend, but they did the right thing and it shows in a quality product.

This movie like the original will stand the test of time. People will still be watching it decades from now.

[Nark]

And this is the stud we got for Army Aviation...





I've lost track of all the zipper suited sun gods I've either chatted with or heard on Jocko's podcast how the original Top Gun inspired them to join the Navy/Marine Corps and select fighters.

Here I am in the corner like Rodney Dangerfield...