I have a weakness for Tom CruiseI have to admit it. The actor has become a legend of celluloid and movies like Top Gun, Mission Impossible, born on the fourth of july o interview with the vampire they do nothing but catapult a legendary artist. The hollywood old guard that still prevails.
I was captivated in its day by the 1986 work, thanks to a fabulous soundtrack with unforgettable hits, a plot that combines action with romance and a visual force like I have rarely seen. Therefore, taking advantage of the launch of Top Gun: Maverick in Microsoft Flight Simulator, I have decided to go on an adventure.
I installed the Asobo Studio title right after I bought my Xbox Series X, but I never got around to playing it…until now. Am a rookie and I show up at the most demanding academy of the US Army. I will not have passed the tests with flying colors, but of course I have enjoyed it.
We will need that to live
It’s really not that I’ve never had contact with the Flight Simulator saga. In his day I enjoyed a few trips in X-Plane Flight Simulator 7which had a separate manual to explain how to fly a Boeing-747 on the airlift from Madrid to Barcelona.
While I managed to make that journey, the truth is that the entire game was a huge warning. The number of buttons, levers, lights and junk in the cabin was insanemaking it clear that touching something inappropriately could be the line between life and death.
For this reason, before getting into the flour, I head straight into the tutorial of Microsoft Flight Simulator and thus get used to the basic controls. There is a moment of doubt, because the update announcement already appears in the main menu, but I must focus on my task.
I’m on board a Cessna 152 or what is the same, the ridiculous little plane that we can find in Sandy Shores playing GTA Online. I know that in the work of Rockstar riding here is synonymous with crazy turbulencebut the first steps consist of recognizing the interior of the apparatus together with the fundamental notions.
Yes, for now it’s simple, although everything begins to overwhelm me a little. This is the problem that you find when you play a simulator and it is to think that if I have to take into account so many things for this plane, I do not even want to think about a whole fighter.
However, fears fly away as soon as I take off from the runway. Everything is much simpler than I expected, the sky is synonymous with freedom, that the only rule is to enjoy. I use the satellite data streaming connection, so the scenario representation is accurate. It is a pleasure to fly and I understand the reason for the success of Microsoft Flight Simulator.
welcome to top gun
Now yes, I have signed up to enter the Combat Weapons School in Miramar, California. Pete Mitchell, better known as Maverick, has left a trail of legend since his arrival almost 40 years ago and my goal is to be at least as good as him.
I have nine weeks of instruction, the most important of my training, as instructor Diana Drayer reminds me. Fighter pilots are some of the best-skilled soldiers in any military in the world, and they may not have perfect eyesight, but I’m going to give it my all aboard the F/A-18E Super Hornet.
Damn, Top Gun Anthem has played on the menu and I already have goosebumps, let the training show begin. First of all, I get to do a high-performance takeoff by learning how to use afterburner and a no-holds-barred climb. It is clear that the barriers are to break them, but I am amazed with the speed that I reach.
300 knots compared to 80 for the Cessna 152 and that already seemed fast. The launch from KNFL Fallon NAS is not the best of my career and Ms. Drayer takes it upon herself to remind me. I get a C after making beginner mistakes with the nod. The music is a true reflection that my first step is very improvable.
Sure, now is when reality hits me and I realize that the maneuvers I’m rehearsing are a fighter pilot’s survival guide. In the end, fighting is a very real possibility to deal with and I don’t want to repeat mistakes that lead to tragedies like Goose.
It is time to overcome the cliff of a mountain at a very short distance using the clouds as support. Of course, I end with a big, fat C for a note, acknowledging that I have no fucking idea where the tilt is of the fighter I am very lost and I lack teachings to know how to use the fighter optimally.
Turn of the reversal maneuver and now I have to believe the damn Tom Cruise doing a loop in mid-air to avoid the enemy. It is the last lesson, the last class and I must do my best. As I write these lines I admit that I still don’t know how, but I get a big A. The music blasts from the speakers, I’m the king of the skies. I’m ready for anything.
Pure spectacle at Mach-2
The wait is over, I have to show that I have learned the concepts. Interestingly, the tests are not different from each other, but the concept is basically the same. I must fly at the lowest possible height, with Top Gun music blaring and reach a specific point in the shortest possible time.
The lower the altitude and the higher the speed, the more points I receive. All this surrounded by dreamlike landscapes, huge green meadows, forests as far as the eye can see and crystal clear rivers. The definition after the first test is clear: it’s fucking crazy.
I have thoroughly enjoyed flying through the skies and this is precisely where the free update in Microsoft Flight Simulator. break the sound barrier, that the air hits the fighter, combing the treetops and feeling that nothing can stop you is incredible. I finish with a B, but the adrenaline that runs through my body is outstanding.
The rest of the tests are of a similar cut and I enjoy them very much. I get a B in all of them, but I feel confident and start to risk even more, with really good spins. Surely some West Virginia farmer lost his hat when I flew over his ranch at Mach-2.
The whole scene is so well recreated that when the G-forces start to reach worrying numbers, pilot’s breath hitches. My vision blurs if I don’t return to a more comfortable position and I could become unconscious. Special reminder for Alaska, a brutal snowy landscape. These are some of my results.
So far I’ve had a blast, but apparently we were talking about a game for children. I have to face one of the riskiest operations in all of aviation, which is landing in the middle of an aircraft carrier. To sum up my experience of trying, I will say that the Secretary of Defense of the United States does not take well that one of his pilots crash 51 million dollars because it is not clear with the visual references.
I look like an air surgeon, it takes brutal mastery commanding the ship and I take my hat off to any pilot who manages to do it. Eye, there is still one more surprise and this one comes directly from Top Gun: Maverick.
In the trailers for Tom Cruise’s film we could see that he was aboard a very peculiar ship, prepared for a very specific type of journey. I have come across it in Microsoft Flight Simulator and it is an experimental Darkstark. To give you an idea, it is capable of transcontinental hypersonic flights.
That is, my task is to cross from the American West Coast to Cape Canaveral in the impressive time of just 35 minutes. A madness that seems taken from a Concorde trip, although we will avoid a similar tragedy. They already warn me from the control tower that any movement must be very calculatedbecause a minor detail can destabilize the entire trajectory.
The truth is that I am excited, since the goal is to get as high as to be able to appreciate the curvature of the Earth and the darkness of space. My disappointment comes when I don’t make it and end up embedded in some mountain in the middle of the country. Evidently, I ended up expelled from the Top Gun Academywith an irregular service record and the tremendous satisfaction of having fully enjoyed the best possible aviation experience.