Just a few hours east you'll find the real life TOPGUN, Naval Fighter Weapons school. Many of the schools students and instructors have always dreamed of being a fly fighter.
“I think the first time I decided I wanted to fly I was four years old,” said Lt. John Taylor Gregg.
LT Briana Plohocky was only eleven when she started to chase her dream.
“I joined a junior sea cadets U.S. Navy program, so then I kind of just went with the Navy,” she said.
Now she and others who attended the program are some the Navy's best flyers.
“It is pretty mentally draining and physically draining. It’s twelve weeks and you fly every single day,” said LT Plohocky.
“You have lectures during the day, you have them on the weekends sometimes.”
These pilot fighters have over 13 thousand square miles of airspace to perfect their skills. They train in Northern Nevada in dogfighting an how to employ weapons.
The school fly's many planes like the F-18's but TOPGUN allows the instructors to fly different aircrafts like F-35 and the F-16's. Some of the aircrafts are only used by Airforce but this school has the access.
“Combat flights you can spend anywhere from six to eight, nine hours would be the longest,” LT Plohocky said.
“And the ejection seats are not very comfortable,” she added with a laugh.
“You come back and you’re ready for a nap, but then the process has just begun at that point,” said TOPGUN CDR Michael Patterson.
CDR Patterson says they help you analyze and better your skills so your ready the next time you get into that cockpit.
With the new blockbuster on the big screen it gives everyone a peek into their everyday lives. The squadron go to get a sneak peek at the new movie before it premiered.
“It shows the skill, the dedication, the courage that our young men and women display every day it’s just not on camera,” said CDR Patterson.
“There’s still some Hollywood to it to make it a movie, but they get it pretty accurate,” said LT Plohocky.
“I am really excited for my family and friends to see that because I think it will give them as close to a point of view of what it’s like to be in an airplane,” said LT Gregg.
“The families, loved ones, the friends are working just as hard when we’re away to support us and we wouldn’t be able to do the mission without them,” said CDR Patterson.
Patterson said he hopes people are proud of the dedicated pilots who train in Nevada's backyard.
SOURCE: FOX