Met Mr Cruise a few years ago when he was transiting through BDN (Nicole Kidman was making a film down the road and he'd dropped in on the wife and kids!). Short and scruffy, but a nice chap - had flown himself in a Gulfstream.
Another interesting plank pilot, Sir Ian McNair-Wilson - former MP for Southampton used to fly his Shadow from Bournemouth for French cheap wine, and back again, loaded up. A friend of mine challenged him on the safety of this and got the response "look, I'm a Tory MP in a government with a majority of one - they won't leave me out there".
G