Shot on VENICE: Top Gun: Maverick – New Trailer Drops - Most Intense Film Training Ever – A Pilot and Filmmaker’s Perspective

Why fly the aerial sequences practical? Because it’s impossible to simulate on the ground what fighter pilots actually experience in the air while flying maneuvers, and it’s impossible to simulate G forces and their pull as they affect the face. Flying an airplane like the subject aircraft in the film, the F/A 18 Super Hornet, is brutal and exhausting. This author, also an experienced pilot, has yet to fly the F/A 18, but I have flown the F-16 Falcon jet fighter, operated by the U.S. Air Force and allies around the world. Since so few get the opportunity to fly these airplanes, I wanted to take a minute to discuss what it is actually like to pull eight or more Gs (units of gravity, 1G is what you are experiencing as you sit reading this) in these airplanes while wearing a G-suit, the garment fighter pilots wear to help keep blood from pooling in their abdomen and legs when pulling Gs.