Come Back To Me // Top Gun: Maverick

[Rooster] Try Again

"Time is your greatest enemy." Maverick says.

          

We were in one of the classrooms with Mav and me explaining the mission as well as today's exercise to the graduates.

        

"Phase one of the mission will be a low-level ingress attacking in two-plane teams. You'll fly along this narrow canyon to your target. Radar-guided surface-to-air missiles defend the area. These SAMs, they're lethal. But they were designed to protect the skies above, not the canyon below."

      

"That's because the enemy knows no one is insane enough to try and fly below them." Rooster than says.

           

"That's exactly what I'm gonna train you to do."

           

"On the day, your altitude will be 100 feet maximum." I start to explain. "You exceed this altitude... radar will spot you and you're dead. Your airspeed will be 660 knots minimum. Time to target: Two and a half minutes. That's because fifth-generation fighters wait at an air base nearby. In a head-to-head with these planes in your f-18s, you're dead. That's why you need to get in, hit your target and be gone before these planes even have a chance of catching you. This makes time your greatest adversary."

        

"You'll fly a route in your nav system that simulates the canyon. The faster you navigate this canyon, the harder it'll be to stay under the radar of these enemy SAMs. The tighter the turns, the more intensely the force of gravity on your body multiplies... Compressing your lungs... Forcing the blood from your brain... Impairing your judgment and reaction time."

          

"So for today's lesson, we're gonna take it easy on you. Max ceiling: 300 feet. Time to target: Three minutes. Good luck."

          

In different groups, they all went out and had a go of the route. No one passed. We were all back in the classroom trying to figure out what had happened out there and what went wrong. First up, Coyote with Pheonix and Bob.

          

"Why are they dead?" Mav asks Coyote.

         

"We broke the 300-foot ceiling, and a SAM took us out." Pheonix explains disappointed in herself.

              

"No. Why are they dead?" Maverick tries to ask Coyote again.

           

"I slowed down and didn't give her a warning. It was my fault." Coyote says.

           

"Was there a reason you didn't communicate with your team?"

            

"I was focusing on..."

           

"One that their family will accept at the funeral."

             

"None, sir."

            

I know that if this was the real thing they would be dead but I feel like dad was acting a little too strict.