What do musicians, athletes and jet pilots have in common? All of them have to constantly make rapid decisions without thinking. Wunderkinds aside, all violinists require an excellent teacher and all football players a proper coach to do so. Military jet pilots are no exception, and proper training means making it home in one piece to enjoy all the sex, drugs and rock’n’roll that civilian life has to offer. In this exclusive interview with AeroTime, Topgun instructor Dave “Bio” Baranek talks candidly about how the US Navy prepares its pilots for combat.​

What was the main reason for you to become a Topgun instructor?

I thought about that a lot, especially since writing my book Topgun Days. I can’t think of a specific incident, where I suddenly knew I wanted to be in aviation. But I will say this: I grew in Jacksonville, Florida, surrounded by Navy bases. When I was a kid, my parents took us to airshows, so I saw airplanes regularly from a young age. I guess I wanted to fly jet fighters from the time I was about 10 years old. After that I looked into it, I did the research. That was in 1968. There was no Internet back then, but I went to the recruitment office, I got pamphlets, I read books and did whatever it took to get to that goal. Then, and this is very important, my eyesight went bad. So first I was not a pilot, I was a Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) in the F-14 Tomcat. Fortunately, when I was in college and my eyesight went bad, I made that decision. Some of my friends said that if they could not be pilots, they wouldn’t want to be in aviation.

I said I’d rather be an F-14 RIO than not be in aviation.

I got glasses when my eyesight went bad, so 4 years before I started training. I made the decision in the first year of college and had the goal of becoming a RIO, a backseater. Still, it was very competitive. You don’t just go “Oh, I want to be a RIO”. I hear a lot of people saying “oh, my eyesight went bad, so I gave up”. And I tell them: “Ok, man, that’s your decision”.

From your experience, do you think there is such a thing as “pilot personality”?

When I was writing my first book, I thought I was going to be Mr. Insightful. I thought I was going to be philosophical. I thought about all the pilots that I’ve known (and the RIOs) and tried to distill their characteristics. Really, they’re the same as for any successful person in any line of work. You have to be committed, flexible, and reasonably intelligent. It’s more interesting to talk about the differences. If there were a room full of people and no one wore glasses, you could not tell the pilots from the RIOs. Or the non-flyers. It’s not like pilots are taller or RIOs are smarter. Not the case. In my experience, all aviators represent the full spectrum of humanity. Some of them are borderline brilliant. I remember two guys in 1980. One was a pilot, one was a RIO. They were using their little HP calculators to calculate the ballistics for a 20mm cannon fire. They were just doing it as a math problem. Just for something to do. And then there were RIOs and pilots who were body builders. Short and tall. Full spectrum of humanity. If you have to fit into a group… Some guys prefer to be alone. Some don’t get along that well. You’re in a squadron. You work closely with people. It was a fascinating community.