Pilots Can Glean Many Lessons From 'Top Gun'

Applying fighter mindset to your everyday flying will make you a safer pilot.

Wednesday, March 11, 2026 at 08:00 AM ET

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Every pilot—student or professional—eventually encounters plateaus, frustration, and self-doubt. According to Top Gun instructors, these are not signs of failure but rather expected phases of training. [Credit: Adobe Stock]

Key Takeaways:

Elite aviators manage plateaus, frustrations, and fear by normalizing these challenges, emphasizing consistent, incremental improvement, and relying on thorough preparation.
A critical safety skill involves preventing errors from escalating by mastering emotions, containing mistakes, and knowing when to stop and regroup.
Debriefing is the ultimate safety tool, focusing on identifying a few key issues for learning, fostering ownership by encouraging self-assessment, and removing ego to promote continuous improvement.

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I am not, nor have I ever been, a member of the U.S. Navy or a graduate of the U.S. Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program, better known as “Top Gun.” But like many civilian pilots, I’m interested in how the best aviators in the world think—particularly when it comes to safety issues of managing risk, handling mistakes, and performing under pressure.

This curiosity led me to the The Fighter Pilot Podcast, hosted by Vincent Aiello, call sign “Jell-O,” a former Top Gun instructor, F/A-18 pilot, and now airline captain. What began as listening turned into email exchanges and, eventually, an hour-long conversation. That discussion opened the door to further talks with Dave “Bio” Baranek, Craig “Crunch” Snyder, and Greg “Hoser” Hansen—all former Top Gun instructors with thousands of hours in high-performance aircraft.