Top Gun 2
Movie top gun pilots not wearing mask?
As a private pilot flying a bug-smasher that's lucky to top 95 knots, I know zip about military aviation. But when I see Hollywood movie pilots like Tom Cruise unclipping their oxygen mask so they can speak, that seems like BS. Am I right?
Thanks.
And BTW, respect with a capital R for the folks who flyer military aircraft, you're tougher than me.
Thanks.
And BTW, respect with a capital R for the folks who flyer military aircraft, you're tougher than me.
Cooperplace
I regularly remove my mask below 10000’ cabin altitude for comfort during low workload moments. I always keep it on at low level for face protection in case of a bird strike and for take off and landing in case I need to take control.
You wouldn’t take the mask off to talk. Quite the opposite in fact. You need it on to talk into the microphone. Fast jet cockpits are often bloody noisy and trying to talk with your mask off would be unintelligible even if the microphone could even register your voice.
You will also notice in the movie that they always use clear visors (except the faceless bad guys) to show us their handsome/pretty faces. The only time I use a clear visor is at night or on an exceptionally dark, cloudy day. Opinions vary on visor use but the dark visor has seen me safely through 4000 hours of flying jets so I’ll stick with it.
BV
You wouldn’t take the mask off to talk. Quite the opposite in fact. You need it on to talk into the microphone. Fast jet cockpits are often bloody noisy and trying to talk with your mask off would be unintelligible even if the microphone could even register your voice.
You will also notice in the movie that they always use clear visors (except the faceless bad guys) to show us their handsome/pretty faces. The only time I use a clear visor is at night or on an exceptionally dark, cloudy day. Opinions vary on visor use but the dark visor has seen me safely through 4000 hours of flying jets so I’ll stick with it.
BV
Avoid imitations
Leaving the mask on is very useful when you want to say something that sounds like “A gottle of geer”.
As BV posted - I did do a fair bit of backseating whilst groundcrew and would never have gone flying without mask and visor in place,much safer if you get a birdstrike/canopy or seal failure/or have to eject (both for the actual ejection and protection against MDC/canopy shard 'splatter').
Join Date: Sep 2020
Location: Scotland
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
And speaking as a long-time passenger of oil-field helicopters I can say it's perfectly simple to have a normal conversation between yourselves with no ear defenders necessary at all (copyright all movies)
It was rumored the loss of an F18 quite a few years ago in Australia's North was due to the pilot taking off his mask
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Outside the Fence
Age: 71
Posts: 371
Likes: 0
Received 4 Likes
on
3 Posts
Many years ago when Top Gun was made it was quite normal in the US Navy for Fast Jet pilots and RIOs to fly with their mask down a lot of the time.
Apparently their Regulators put them on 100% Oxygen and it was unpopular as it dried out their throats over a prolonged time. Any Comments?
From my own experience in the USAF, when flying with certain Ex Viet Nam aviators, they had to have the mask hanging down to be able to smoke their cigar.
There were some who had ash trays that attached to the cockpit so the evidence could be easily removed after flight.
Apparently their Regulators put them on 100% Oxygen and it was unpopular as it dried out their throats over a prolonged time. Any Comments?
From my own experience in the USAF, when flying with certain Ex Viet Nam aviators, they had to have the mask hanging down to be able to smoke their cigar.
There were some who had ash trays that attached to the cockpit so the evidence could be easily removed after flight.
Thank you, like I said i have the world's most restricted pilot's licence. This is all very interesting and confirms my view of Hollywood. I would have asked my cousin who flew WW2 Typhoons, they were on oxygen from start to finish, CO issues, but alas he moved on to a better place. He mentioned filling a tank with beer and flying with it to occupied France "it didn't taste quite right but by god everyone was pleased to have the beer".
Thank you, like I said i have the world's most restricted pilot's licence. This is all very interesting and confirms my view of Hollywood. I would have asked my cousin who flew WW2 Typhoons, they were on oxygen from start to finish, CO issues, but alas he moved on to a better place. He mentioned filling a tank with beer and flying with it to occupied France "it didn't taste quite right but by god everyone was pleased to have the beer".
There's an article on this here:
https://zythophile.co.uk/2014/06/06/...20more%20beer.
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Narfalk
Posts: 391
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
As Longeron stated, I have flown in 3 ejection seat armed aircraft flights and the double visor stayed down and mask stayed on all the time as I was a cat B pax, bar one time on my last Jag flight, the dark visor came up for the selfie to prove I was in the seat! I know certain Jag pilots did remove masks for comfort (amazingly one civvy LAE said to me "I thought military combat aircraft were unpressurised?" which I replied that they are, just not to the pressure diff of civil aircraft) at suitable cabin diffs and the odd cool photo, if you were T E with demon gezzer shades on.!
From my own experience in the USAF, when flying with certain Ex Viet Nam aviators, they had to have the mask hanging down to be able to smoke their cigar.
There were some who had ash trays that attached to the cockpit so the evidence could be easily removed after flight.
