Top Gun: What is the call sign used for?  Can we reach 10 max?  The fighter pilot answers your questions after Maverick!

Top Gun: What is the call sign used for? Can we reach 10 max? The fighter pilot answers your questions after Maverick!

You have just seen the blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick” and you may have technical questions. AlloCiné met with a French Navy fighter pilot to get a clearer picture of everything.

You’ve just seen Top Gun: Maverick in theaters and, while still breathless, you might be asking yourself a few more or less technical questions about the adventures of Tom Cruise and his students. What is the call sign used for? Can we really reach 10 max? What is a cobra maneuver? The good news: AlloCiné went to an interview with a real fighter pilot to answer these and several other questions.

Meeting with Frigate Captain Etienne Bauer, Deputy Commander of Landivisiau Naval Air Base, and Rafale Marine (on-board fighter) pilot within the French Navy. Sailor as Captain Pete Mitchell played by Tom Cruise!

Etienne Bauer: Yes, exactly, I am a similar sailor in the French Navy. And like him, after an operational career, I am a flight instructor, in this case on Rafale Marine. My daily life is divided between operational training, i.e. I am responsible for the runway and air traffic control at our Landivisieu base and my functioning as a flight instructor to train young pilots who have just had a patent. In the United States who return to us and who start at Rafale.

When we see Top Gun: Maverick, we ask ourselves a lot of questions. We have listed a few. First of all, how does the bell ring? What is the point ?

The call sign, in the navy, we call it nom de guerre. nom de guerre is used when communicating on the radio if the enemy has met us so that the latter can not understand our true identities. It bears a slight resemblance to an approximate name.

When we go to the first unit, the fighter flotilla, it is the group that chooses our name for us. These will be the remaining days of our final career when we qualify for boarding a carrier.

nom de guerre is chosen either according to the young pilot’s temperament, or because of the small mistake he is going to make. Often it is a small word on his name or an English translation of his name. The call sign is always chosen on the humorous side.

Can we really reach 10 max?

Today I do not know any of the pilots who did this. It may be possible, but to my knowledge, it has not been done. Finally we sent pilots very fast in the 1950-60s when we were doing very fast manned objects like the X-15. Today, what goes very fast are often uncontrollable objects. This is the dilemma at the beginning of Top Gun: Maverick, between a manned aircraft and a remotely piloted aircraft or aircraft.

Etienne Bauer.

What is a 5th generation fighter? And why isn’t Maverick a pilot?

The 5th generation fighter is usually the F-35. We sort hunters by large generation to compare. The Rafale is more of an intermediate aircraft between the 4th and 5th generation.

Indeed, the Maverick does not fly the F-35, it flies the F-18, which is the 4th generation. Why does he fly this plane? I think this is the merit of the script. This is a sign that we can accomplish a mission even with an old, less modern device.

From what age can female fighter pilots take part in combat?

It’s been a year, I do not know. At least for us it is not a subject. About a month ago we had Americans at Landivision base, there was an F-18 female pilot and a female navigator, a weapons systems officer. Man, woman … there are only pilots and navigators, that’s not really a question we ask ourselves. Men and women can fly a fighter plane as well as go into battle, this is not a problem.

At what age can a pilot no longer fly in combat?

There is no age limit. Here’s the good thing: As long as we’re in shape and in a position where we need to fly, we can continue to fly well. I, I know a reservist pilot in the Navy, retired from the Army, but who works as a fashion flight and reservist instructor, he is over 50 years old. He still flies on the raffle … and very well!

Are the instructors all ex-pilots?

Instructors are definitely pilots who have experience and have completed an entire operational career. Their purpose, obviously, is both to provide technical training in combat maneuvers for young pilots, as well as to provide them with combat experience. We bring them both technical subjects as well as skills, state of mind. A bit like in the movie, after all.

Why are there two pilots on some planes and only one on others?

Top Gun: Maverick has single-seater and double-decker aircraft with a pilot and navigator responsible for weapon systems. It is a technical and tactical choice of different armies. For example, we have only single-seater planes in the French Navy, only single-seater rafts. The pilot is responsible for both the flight and the management of his system, as Rafale has a sufficiently integrated system to enable the pilot to perform both functions simultaneously.

What is the cobra maneuver that Maverick performs in the film?

A cobra maneuver is a maneuver that is almost more of an air show than a combat. The pilot raises the control column very strongly to pick up many load factors, strongly increasing the angle of attack to literally land in the sky. This is what Maverick does when he moves to another plane. It’s a movie again. He is very beautiful, very spectacular, but I do not know anyone who will use him in battle.

What equipment lies in the seat to help the pilot survive in enemy territory?

When we go on a flight and for every flight, we have a life jacket. As in the first Top Gun, this is a life jacket that allows you to stay afloat if you fall into the water. Inside, there is a radio, equipment that signals to the helicopters that would come after us to look for us.

There is other equipment under the seat to survive for a while. There are a few rations, a little water and then there may be weapons on the ground to protect yourself. Everything is for survival when the pilot fell to the ground, potentially in enemy territory.

Can we really land without a landing gear?

Without landing gear, this is for movies. We never tried, we never imagined. The fact that the IDP seat does not work is somewhat unusual, but you will still try to leave the plane during the flight, which means potentially breaking the barrier by putting yourself on your back and getting off the plane. Rather than an attempt at extremely risky access.

Because there, we think about the risks for the plane and the crew, but we also have to think about all the people who are on the plane. The aircraft carrier is full of people with lots of people, fuel, ammunition. The purpose is not to return the aircraft at any cost if it intends to cause irreparable damage to the aircraft carrier.

Are dog fights common in today’s conflicts?

Currently, no. We have just invaded countries that did not have enemy air forces. But we continue to exercise. We are always preparing for every possible event, for future conflicts. We train every day and in addition, in a few minutes I will meet young pilots to prepare and prepare for air combat.

Do you think “Top Gun: Maverick” is true to reality?

I want to tell you that everyday life is better than cinema, the enthusiast speaks! This is a movie, but yes, you will feel the state of mind, a united group, and this is definitely what you will see in the French Navy hunting fleets with a crew. I also like Pete Mitchell’s relationship with his mechanic. It very much reflects what we do in the Navy, i.e. without a flying mechanic or without a mechanic pilot, it makes no sense. We are a really real team, so it is quite representative.

For reference, personally, more than two years ago, I participated in my modest scale as an expert in the translation of Top Gun: Maverick, so that the terms used in VO are well subtitled, well translated into VF. It was necessary to translate some very technical parts of the script as close as possible to the reality of flight and navy, so as not to make the small mistakes that you sometimes find. So the translation is very faithful to reality. It was quite a fun experience.

How does it feel to see your work on screen and almost at the end of your work?

ᲡIt’s fun. I really enjoyed watching Top Gun: Maverick. We are on the plane with him, on the deck of the aircraft carrier. For me, it makes me want to come back to myself for another twenty years when I see this movie. It’s so captivating, you want to go back there, relive those feelings as he then saw them.

The film reminds us that the character is part of the Navy. Many should think that Maverick is a member of the Air Force …

This happens often. If you ask a lot of French people, for them airplane pilots are definitely part of the Air Force. No, we are from the Navy. We have full knowledge of what is happening in the air and what is happening at sea and then our job is to be the pilot of the plane train. We cross the sea, as a crew, all together, we are sailors in the sky, as the Admiral says in the film. Sailors when we are on a carrier and sailors in the sky when we are in the air.

Are you a fan of “Top Gun” movies?

Yes, of course ! I watched the first movie as a teenager and then! Still a fun movie. When you are obsessed with aeronautics, the pictures are beautiful, it makes you dream, you are obsessed with these pictures, this story. But I almost have my slight advantage over Top Gun: Maverick, which is the current film, more representative of what we are experiencing today. I take great pleasure in cinema, cinema offers us dreams and gives us goodness in dreams. And then when we go flying, we take advantage of that, we tell ourselves that what we saw in the movies, this dream, we can live.

The absolute chance was the French. Like Americans, we have an aircraft carrier, we have a navy that has naval aeronautics, that’s a unique thing. We can be proud to be French, to be proud to belong to a navy that serves missions with our American friends. We carry out the same missions as they are, we are Number group With our American friends, we train with them, we work, we have the same equipment and procedures as them. I have been living in a waking dream for twenty years.

I’m also glad to imagine that the film can evoke calls?

See you in a few weeks. Anyway, if he makes calls, so much the better. It helps young people to say that it is possible. You can do this job, you can go on a plane carrier, and it’s an excellent job. These are wonderful professions because there are so many of them. Top Gun: We don’t see much in Maverick because he’s very “pilot focused” but there are lots of different professions, a lot of passionate people who work and work in a professional environment when you are passionate it seems like it does not work.

Interview with Clement Queer on June 9, 2022 – Many thanks to Etienne Bauer and Etienne Baggio for their generosity, generosity, and enthusiasm.

Top Gun Maverick: Looking for Tom Cruise to airlift Charles de Gaulle

Source: allocine

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