Top Gun
I was about nine years old when I attended my first air show. It was impressive and confusing all at once. There were ultralight planes for one person that looked more like a kite. There were giant transport plant that carried other planes inside them. There were privately-owned jets that screamed excess.
And then came the fighters.
As dusk came I was busily looking at a heavy-lift chopper when I heard the noise. Though subtle at first, it soon grew into a roar. The FA-18 tore across the sky before triggering the afterburner which lit up the whole world in a blue-golden glow. Without warning it shot towards the sky twisting and turning in ways that seemed to imply that the laws of physics are optional for some.
So excuse me if I tell you that Tom Cruise’s diminutive efforts in his signature film failed to impress. The soft-edged studio-produced action Top Gun portrayed was so completely out of kilter with the power of the real flying I had seen. Take me back to the air show any day. Give me a real pilot with a real jet. Maybe it’s just the fact that I can’t stand the cocky, smug expression plastered on top of his toothy grin. Oooops. Hope there not too many Tom Cruise fans reading this!
Well if you’re looking for that real jet fighter experience it can now be yours. Top Gun Tasmania operates out of Hobart International Airport providing adventure flights in a former Royal Air Force training jet, the Vampire Proctor. Reaching speeds of up to 750 kilometres an hour the jet retains the manoeuvrability and threat evasion capabilities of a genuine warbird.
As you loop and turn at full speed you will experience the mind-altering impact of a thrilling 5G’s of centrifugal force. Each G represents the equivalent impact of one gravitational condition. Hence at 5G’s your body feels five times as heavy and your heart struggles to pump blood to your brain. The only way to retain consciousness is to clench every muscle in your body to increase your blood pressure.
Top Gun’s chief pilot and owner is Dan Duggan, a former US Marines Harrier pilot. He is every bit the dashing figure you might expect. Lean, handsome and chiselled, he retains the confident swagger and unaffected charm of a man who knows he has nothing to prove. Whatever questions you may have, they’ll be answered behind the controls.
The takeoff is forceful, but not violent. We accelerate through the air at low altitude where it is easier to rapidly gain airspeed. Within twenty seconds of becoming airborne we are travelling at 600 kilometres an hour and Dan drives the controls sharply down and we begin to rise.
Actually, stop. That just doesn’t do it justice.
We don’t begin to rise, we redefine gravity. It is as though all the force with which we had sought to travel forward is wrenched upwards without warning. My ears are now attached to my feet and my sense of direction (usually so reliable) abandons me completely.
For the next fifteen minutes Major Dan flings and thrusts the plane across the sky above Stormy Bay. Loops and Barrel rolls, Cuban eights and Immermans. The terms I’d heard at the briefing mean nothing now as I struggle to determine if we are belting towards the sun or piercing through the smattering of cloud to the frigid waves below.
But when the jet is suddenly jolted skyward twisting full revolutions every three seconds I finally lose my familiar sense of reality, and with it passes all my fear. The plane is no longer an object in the sky, but a function of it. Not hampered by the whim and pull of wind, the jet clambers free into the endless blue.
This is the impossibly perfect adventure. Fulfilling all my childhood fantasies of being a warrior of the skies while avoiding the tedium and commitment of actually training for a dozen years to earn my wings. Top Gun Tasmania is not a cheap treat, but an investment in your sense of self and your understanding of your place on our planet.
Oh, and when you’re doing the sums on the price, consider this. During my twenty minute escapade we managed to burn through $1200 of jet fuel.
Worth every damn penny if you ask me!!!!!