Original subtitles

♪ See my baby, she knows how to rock ♪

♪ See my baby, she knows how to rock ♪

♪ She knows how to rock, heads straight to the top ♪

♪ See my baby, she knows how to rock ♪

Oh yeah, this... This, this is cool.

I'm pretty sure this is about the same surface area

as the wings on a T-45.

♪ See my baby, she knows how to rock ♪

F-18s, freaking coolest aircraft ever.

So these very jets,

literally the ones we're looking at,

you could be flying in 6-8 months?

That's the goal. Really hope so.

I've always talked about putting warheads on foreheads

and blowing stuff up,

and like this is 100% what I want to do.

Like this is absolutely sick.

Like, this is the best job in the world.

Here's where the ladder comes out.

I wouldn't say I'm reckless,

but I think there are small moments of rashness, I guess.

There's one incident a few months ago where my head

was up my own butt.

So!

ANDREW Here we go

I was in the shoot, flying like crazy,

screaming at the Earth at 450 knots.

I saw the target, pickled, and then,

when I looked back,

I saw a number like 200 feet lower than I expected.

Pull up, pull up, pull up, pull up.

It surprised me, and so in that surprise,

I like flinched.

I grabbed the stick just a touch too hard.

Yeah, he wasn't happy with that one.

Seepe

Yes, sir.

I want you to download your jet data

Right now

Yes, sir. I'll get it download right now

So I was like, oh, that's not a good tone.

Oh [bleep].

He wants me to go pull the HUD tapes.

You get to watch frame by frame every little thing you did.

Guess what happens here?

And you're like, oh, that's where I messed up.

He had overstressed the jet, didn't realize it,

and that's not what we want.

You've got to rely on the training you've had already.

Yes sir.

That was a very difficult moment where I was like, okay,

there's a lot more learning going on here as opposed to me

just ripping around the pattern and pickling bombs off.

Yeah.

I gotta behave,

that's really baseline here because I gotta

stay out of trouble.

Powerdive 4-1 Take off single 3-0.

After five months of advanced phase training and

with dozens of flights under their belts,

some of the students could be weeks away from getting

their wings of gold.

Good morning, how are you?

Hey good morning.

Good to see ya.

Six or seven years of my life have gone into like

getting my wings,

the goal that has been so hard to get to,

and we'll see if I get it.

I think every one of the students here knows

why we're here, and it's to fly an F-35

or an F-18 and-and go overseas and yeah, see combat.

INSTRUCTOR Get back on that tail

MICAH Yes sir

Most recently, the students were tested on their

attacking skills in offensive dogfighting.

INSTRUCTOR There you go, back to the left

Take the shot if you have it

MICAH Fox 2

INSTRUCTOR Right there, good

But now, the hunters will become the hunted.

I see him loud and clear.

Dogfighting, known in the Navy as

Basic Fighter Maneuvers or BFM,

featured heavily in the wars of the 20th Century.

Whilst many fighter aces were celebrated for the planes

they shot down,

it was their ability to execute effective evasive

maneuvers that ensured their survival.

To this day, defensive BFM remains a vital part

of fighter pilot training.

INSTRUCTOR Fight’s on

BFM is hard in general, right?

Defensive BFM is even more difficult because now you're

trying to fly the aircraft while looking backwards at

the other aircraft.

INSTRUCTOR Drive towards him

You're kind of craning your neck in all sorts of

weird ways to try to like, see the other person.

I've got degenerated discs in my neck from doing this.

It hurts, plain and simple.

INSTRUCTOR Break right, 3 o'clock, high

SPENSER I’m blind

Did a BFM defensive flight. Got my ass handed to me.

INSTRUCTOR Fox 2

Man, they've killed me every single time.

INSTRUCTOR Fox 2

AUSTIN ****

I mean, you learn more from getting shot, probably.

So, I'm learning every flight.

EVAN Man, I'm horrible at that, but that's a lot of fun

- Sir. - Indeed.

That’s word on the street, bro.

The next student to face defensive dog fighting

is Andrew Seepe.

Must be this, above this tall for the ride.

Honestly, I can't believe I get paid to do this job.

Every time I put on the gear, like it always gets me a little

excited that I'm putting on my big boy clothes

to go to work, you know?

I very much look forward to getting into that jet and

you know, see what it can do.

Despite being a skilled pilot,

Andrew has faced disciplinary action for reckless flying,

he’s also gained a reputation amongst instructors

for being cocky.

To pass this next stage,

he must keep his behavior in check.

-Ocean 131 ready.

For his first defensive flight,

Andrew is facing a highly experienced F-18 fighter pilot,

call sign ‘Hot Cakes’.

So, in defensive BFM,

it is a very distinct advantage for us.

We have not only done it in the fleet in an F-18,

but we've also done hundreds of BFM flights,

and they've never done it before.

ANDREW Waypoints are set

Transponder 5551, standby.

This part of the course consists

of three flights.

Andrew will have two flights with an instructor

in the back seat to evaluate whether he is ready

to fly the final test solo.

In defensive dogfighting,

students are under attack by an enemy instructor.

They must avoid becoming tracked and

locked in their opponent's sights,

representing a hit known as a Fox-2.

But if a student's aerial maneuvers exceed the G force

limit of 6.5, the jet may be damaged,

so the flight is terminated.

'MAGMA' Don’t pop the nose

ANDREW Yes sir

In the back seat is instructor Russell Gogan,

call sign ‘Magma’.

‘HOT CAKES’ Three

Two

One

Fight’s on Inferno 1-1 high

ANDREW Inferno 1-2 low

‘MAGMA’ Go! Go! Go! Go!

‘MAGMA’ Figure out where he is

‘MAGMA’ He’s on our six

ANDREW Oh ****

In defensive dog fighting,

your opponent has a game plan,

and your job is to complicate that game plan

as much as possible.

You're trying to get your jet out of their crosshairs.

‘MAGMA’ Dump some air speed

Pull into him as much as you can.

With Hot Cakes on his tail,

Andrew's best chance of escape is to execute a

defensive break turn.

By reducing airspeed and aggressively

pulling the control stick,

a jet can turn at angles of almost 90 degrees.

‘MAGMA’ On our six

Don't accelerate.

ANDREW Screw me

But instead, Andrew accelerates,

attempting to outrun Hot Cakes.

‘MAGMA’ I see where you’re going, but this ain’t working

ANDREW ****

I lost sight of him and figured he was about to shoot

‘MAGMA’ Well, tighten down and try and regain sight

‘MAGMA’ Keep pulling, he’s on our six

‘HOT CAKES’ 1.2

‘HOT CAKES’ 1.1

‘HOT CAKES’ Fox 2

ANDREW No way

‘MAGMA’ Alright, roll your vector

‘MAGMA’ Gotta keep your nose up

‘MAGMA’ Keep pulling into him

‘MAGMA’ Not where we need to be

'HOT CAKES' Fox 2

ANDREW Dang it

'HOT CAKES' Fox 2

‘MAGMA’ It’s not working, we’re just getting shot, shot, shot

ANDREW Yes sir

'HOT CAKES' Fox 2

ANDREW ****

It's extremely frustrating because I'm working

myself to death and he's not even breaking a

sweat back there.

Like, "Fox Two."

'HOT CAKES' Fox 2

I don't know what to do.

And he's just ripping you up.

‘HOT CAKES’ Fox 2

ANDREW Oh, this is a lot

‘HOT CAKES’ Knock it off, Inferno 1-1. Knock it off

ANDREW Inferno 1-2, knock it off

On average, students get hit seven times

on the first attempt.

Hot Cakes has hit him eleven.

ANDREW I fricking suck

That was the first defensive BFM flight.

Yeah, it was tough, so.

Any questions from the brief?

No sir.

All right, cool. Overall, ooh baby.

Overall, actually, name of the game is you like to die.

Um, you enjoy death.

I have no idea what that was.

His defensive flying, it wasn't good.

And also you're very, not aggressive.

Seepe failed his flight.

He probably thought, oh, that was just kinda like

a mediocre flight.

I'm, I’m good, though.

But then when you say, yeah, that's an unsat, like,

that’s a oh, okay.

- Questions on that? - No questions, sir.

That's all.

He does have a kinda like little arrogant

attitude about him.

Andrews poor performance has led

to a failure.

He will need to vastly improve in his second attempt

at defensive dogfighting or his dreams of flying an

F-18 could be in jeopardy.

Failing is part the program here.

We learn the most sometimes when we fail.

Pull up, pull up.

AUSTIN ****

AUSTIN That was a deck violation

INSTRUCTOR Sure was, bud

You got greedy.

The program here is so challenging.

It can be very intimidating when things are a struggle.

We're putting ourselves in a bad spot.

It's really hard not to doubt yourself.

Failure is always around the corner in this jet.

You do one thing wrong, that's it.

INSTRUCTOR If we go low again, dude, we’re going home

AUSTIN Yes, sir

They all try to tell you that the consequences

of failure here are you never get wings, you wash out,

you're done.

That's a huge thought in the back of your mind of like

you can't shed that responsibility.

And that's the hard part,

is nobody can make you believe that you can do it,

so you have to get back up after something went

really poorly and just keep trying.

Fall down seven times, get up eight.

- Hit! - All right, I think I got it.

Nice shootin’.

We're all flawed, and we're all trying to learn.

That humility, I think,

has helped us work together and figure it out and

there's been a lot of bonding moments in the suck.

So it's beating them up and breaking them down and

getting them to come through that knowing they're

going to survive if they do what they're taught.

You see the self-doubt, you see the failure,

you see the intensity, you see the emotion,

and how important this is to all students.

We bleed and we fail.

I came here for an indoor soccer game, and I,

I had pizza and chocolate milk right before it.

I threw up and I--

Projectile?

I, it was so bad.

The guy in that stall next to me,

I could see his feet like moving.

Like a little shuffle.

I think I couldn't have asked for better classmates.

We joke around a lot, and we have a really good

sense of humor.

I think I'm probably considered the class clown,

partially because I can't keep my mouth shut,

which is a double-edged sword.

Andrew's super extroverted,

just kind of a loudmouth and you know super funny.

He loves flying, and uh yeah, I enjoy having him as a classmate.

Marcus Figueroa has been facing his own

struggles on the course.

So I kind of came into advanced training with like a

little bit of a chip on my shoulder, so to speak.

Very, very much like an anxiety-driven student,

trying work hard,

trying to keep up with the rest of the students.

Is everyone good to go?

No one's sick today?

No injuries that have popped up since then?

All right. Let’s go. Two laps.

I really don't party.

I really don't try to go out too much.

For the most part, I come home from flights,

and I'm right to the books,

just trying to keep myself as consistent as possible.

Grab water if you need it, and we'll meet on the track.

Don't bully the Marines, please.

You know you watch movies and you think it's all

Tom Cruise and Top Gun,

but reality is that you're a 25-year-old kid out of college.

You left home, and you're just trying to find your way,

and of course, you have self-doubt.

INSTRUCTOR Go!

In the strike bombing stage,

Marcus had a hard time.

INSTRUCTOR You’re slow

MARCUS Roger

MARCUS Checkpoint altitude I'm not making it

INSTRUCTOR Copy 4, no drop

INSTRUCTOR You have a really weak rip

You're literally not doing anything.

MARCUS Sorry, sir

It was probably my worst fight.

It was a point of which I felt like I had met my limit.

You know?

Dude, did you go up in a lame duck,

like what happened with you?

Ugh, it was a, it was kind of a circus for me.

Yeah.

To look at Figueroa is to see somebody who is incredibly

dedicated, somebody who is trying very hard to do well.

Eh, I had the worst bomb, 137.

137?

Holy [bleep] that's not great.

I have spent the last three and a half years

chasing this goal.

You also had the worst first bomb.

So that's like a double, a double whammy.

Yeah, yeah.

But the biggest fear that comes of it is that realization that

you may not be good enough.

That is super scary because, oh, man,

have I wasted the last three years of my life?

Hey, Marcus.

Hey, what's going on?

Dude, I had a really bad flight, and uh,

I got even harder flights coming up.

I'm sorry to hear that, but you know it's been a challenge

all the way, so--

Yeah.

You got what it takes, man.

It's gonna be ups and downs, but.

Yeah.

You just gotta stay focused, you know?

My stepfather raised me since I was three years old.

He lived in Kuwait during the first Gulf War

when Saddam invaded.

So he got to come here as a, a refugee of war on a C-130.

And uh for me,

it's kind of an, an honor to fly for the military,

which saved his life.

We're rooting for you.

Just don't let the moment overwhelm you.

Yeah.

I'm the first person to go to college in my family,

and I'm the first military officer in my family.

So I'll keep you guys posted. I love you guys.

Thanks for the call. We love you, too.

My parents are expecting to be here to put those wings on me,

so, I use them as kind of a crutch.

You know when times get rough, I think about all the things

they went through and what it took for them to give

me this opportunity.

Tomorrow, Marcus starts a new stage

of the course, close air support.

which includes the very technique that

shook his confidence, precision bomb dropping.

This time, there's even more pressure,

he'll be against the clock.

How am I gonna turn it around in 24 hours,

being able to drop bombs without being

behind the aircraft?

It's one of those things,

either you get crushed or you rise to the occasion and

you do something that you honestly didn't believe

you could do.

It's who I am, it's what I want,

but there's that X-Factor that you don't know whether

you're good enough to do it or not.

Central tower.

25 16-mile northeast of the field for an overhead to 6.

Close air support is when we are going to drop

weapons on enemies in order to provide support to

our troops on the ground.

In this simulated combat scenario,

students are given coordinates of friendly troops

in danger of an enemy attack.

They must arrive within a time limit and deliver a

simulated bomb drop with pinpoint accuracy.

Arriving too late will allow the enemy to attack.

This trip over to the hangar is kinda like try to

get a little bit, like calm.

You should just get nervous about just the entire thing.

I mean, you're being evaluated for close to 2-3 hours.

Between the brief, the debrief, and the flight itself.

You want to perform well, so it's easy to kind of fall

to the nerves right before an event.

INSTRUCTOR Roger, ready for game time

MARCUS Copy, sir

INSTRUCTOR Hammer 1-2, this will be a Type 2,

bomb on target

Enemy consists of mechanized infantry

Once he receives the coordinates,

Marcus has two minutes to locate and destroy the enemy.

INSTRUCTOR North 31 45.33

West 088 06.10

Friendlies currently North West of the target area

about 2000 meters

12 miles

2 minutes facing

MARCUS Copy, sir

INSTRUCTOR Hammer 1-2, go

MARCUS Hammer 1-2, IP inbound 270

Close air support has been one of the critical

missions in naval aviation for the better part of the

last two decades.

MARCUS Heading 250

When I was a lieutenant in the fleet,

we did a deployment to Afghanistan.

You take off from an aircraft carrier,

you cross Pakistan,

you find yourself in Afghanistan.

The next thing you know, you get that voice from God

that tells you that, hey,

we need you to go from this place to some other place

as quickly as possible.

So you bust it from point A to point B.

You check in with troops on the ground.

Rage 3-7, Hard Rock 5-2. Over.

They tell you that they are in contact with the enemy.

INSTRUCTOR Target at your 1 o’clock, right there

MARCUS Copy, sir

It's an incredibly stressful situation.

If you get it wrong, lives are on the line.

INSTRUCTOR Hammer 1-2, this will be a 30 degree roll

in on the bridge target

Your final attack heading is 230

MARCUS Copy, sir

Your training kicks in.

If you are doing your job well, you are able to deliver a weapon

on a precise target exactly where it needs to go

at the right time.

INSTRUCTOR Got 2 miles to action

MARCUS Copy, sir

Marcus has successfully located the target

but only has seconds left to strike.

INSTRUCTOR Theres the rip

Looks good

No one outside of this community knows how difficult

it is to do this.

MARCUS Hammer 1-2, in heading 232

No one can fly the jet for you.

No one can save you. And you have to make it happen.

MARCUS Hammer 1-2, off safe blind

INSTRUCTOR Good effects on target

The bridge appears to be destroyed

Ground commander's intent has been met

Hey, look at that

Sweet!

Timing, I think you were 3 seconds early, so nailed it.

MARCUS Yes, sir

Figueroa did really well.

He's showing his mettle,

and I was pleasantly surprised with the performance

out there today.

Marcus now has two more stages standing

between him and his fighter pilot Wings.

Overall, pretty clean there. So, nice job.

It was fun flying with you guys.

Sir, thank you so much.

Thank you, sir.

Why not dare to do something great?

Achieve the highest achievement that you can.

To become that person,

you have to be someone that puts it all on the line.

Hey there, Elijah.

You want to roll again?

Ready? Ready? Ready?

He's like, no, I got blanket now.

Good job, buddy.

Most people would strongly dissuade trying to

have a kid in flight school.

Everybody is like, focus on getting your wings.

Don't add additional responsibilities to your life.

It's been an interesting time for both of us,

to say the least.

It's got its rough parts,

but you know that's how we grow, right?

It is tough, but I don't know.

There's nothing quite like the feeling of when you're looking

at your little mini me,

and he just lights up when he sees you.

Huh! Yeah, is that right?

I've really appreciated seeing the dedication and the

love for his family.

Oh, a naked baby.

Being responsible for a small person,

it's really exhausting, hard work.

It does make it more difficult.

He shouldn't worry about us whenever he needs to

be in the plane because his focus and his priorities need

to be flying so that he can come home to us.

Andrew is facing his second defensive

dog-fighting test.

Following his failed flight,

this is his last chance to progress to the solo.

ANDREW ICS check, switches set, norm 2.9

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ Also I’m set, norm 2.9

Coaching Andrew from the back seat is instructor

call sign 'Lord Fartquad'.

'BAMBI Base 30, 32 taxi.

Flying against him is instructor call sign ‘Bambi’.

Getting up super tired, dragging myself here.

But we all want to succeed.

So there's kinda that like, can I push myself further and

harder than the next person?

But, yeah, do that, you can get yourself in a bad situation.

To improve his performance from last time,

Andrew must defend more aggressively.

‘BAMBI’ Three

Two

One

Fight's on

'LORD FARTQUAD' Nice pull, there

ANDREW Yes, sir

Instead of following Andrew...

‘BAMBI’ 1-1 high

...Bambi tries to hide from him by pulling

into a steep climb towards the sun.

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ Follow her vector

ANDREW Lost visual

ANDREW Damn, I'm too blind

We have this cliché where you lose sight,

you lose the fight.

If you can't see what the bad guy is doing,

you can't defend yourself.

'BAMBI' Fox 2.

ANDREW ****

I think Seepe flies by the seat of his pants.

'BAMBI' Fox 2.

ANDREW Argh!

And sometimes he does things that maybe he shouldn't be

doing that is outside of his abilities at this phase

of his career.

Determined to avoid more hits,

Andrew also attempts a steep climb at high G,

a physically challenging maneuver for a student.

‘BAMBI’ Dealer 1-2, Dealer 1-1

ANDREW Roger

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ Recommend terminate

‘BAMBI’ Knock it off, Dealer 1-1. Knock it off

ANDREW Dealer 1-2, knock it off

Andrew has been hit only twice.

But by flying more aggressively,

he has pushed his body to a dangerous limit.

ANDREW ****

That was exhausting.

Some days you're tired and beat down,

and as soon as they pull on the stick, you're like,

yeah, this sucks.

Got to work on my neck because I tweaked it real good,

pulling six plus Gs,

and rotating while doing that was a bad move.

The blood just went "foop," and I'm like,

"I lost color vision. That's not good."

We'll call that greying out.

From there, you'll start to lose consciousness.

Think if you like pulled the power plug on your computer,

you don't want to play around with that,

especially when you're the only one flying this jet.

Flying at high G force increases the pull of

gravity on the body, draining blood from the brain.

Three, two, one, engage.

Deep breath.

All the students have undergone centrifuge

training to prepare them for the effects of G force

they’ll experience during combat maneuvers.

One, two, three.

Squeeze your legs, squeeze your butt.

Hey, squeeze,

keep squeezing,

keep squeezing.

The transition from "everything is fine" to

blacked out and unconscious can be very quick.

How you doing? How you doing?

I’m doing alright.

You know what happened?

- No, I don’t. - G-line.

No.

It's a very dangerous situation,

and that's why the students are gonna learn the onset

rate of that G and staving off the blood loss in your brain.

Cool.

When I push you to spread, it looks like you just kinda

overshot it there.

So be diligent there and keep it inside of a 0.8 to 1.0.

Andrew is waiting to find out if he’s improved his

defensive flying enough to pass the flight.

A lot of people really undervalue, I guess,

the sun and sun angle.

ANDREW Lost visual.

You know, being silhouetted.

That definitely affects your ability to see.

ANDREW Damn, I’m too blind.

Nine times out of 10,

hopefully, environmental is not a factor.

But sometimes, like hey, this has real ramifications

on a fight.

‘BAMBI’ Fox 2.

ANDREW Argh!

Don't do that again.

Exactly. Questions for me?

No sir.

Cool. No big deal.

You pass complete, and that's it.

Thank you, sir, it was a pleasure.

Yeah, likewise.

Passed the flight.

Definitely some improvements I think,

as far as like turning the jet like it's supposed to turn.

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ Nice pull there.

But you're also just fighting the physiological part

of putting your body under G,

and you're trying to keep sight,

and depending on where they're at,

you're breaking your neck in half while trying to

break the jet around.

Moving on to the defensive solo tomorrow.

But yeah, defensive sucks.

I think I always, like in the beginning of a debrief,

I'm like always waiting for those, like the words.

You know what I mean?

- Pass complete. - Yeah.

They’re, if they're cool, they'll always be like, hey,

pass complete, like, and like now let's talk.

Or they might hit you with it, you, you, you did...

...pass but...

What was y'alls your favorite part of the syllabus?

Chuck and I was probably strike, right?

- See, I did not like strike. - You didn't like strike?

You were, you were more tweaking.

I was tweaking on strike.

I had a really bad flight in strike. So.

But you passed!

All three of us were in that flight.

Yeah, but it just from how much I had to get better.

Obviously, like, you know your worst flight’s never

gonna be your favorite moment.

So, yeah.

I think that's how all flight school goes,

is you go from like the high to like the bottom that

you've never been to like back to back all the time.

Yeah.

If you go back day one,

like what would you have done differently?

I’m gonna go back and keep my head down...

Yeah.

...And shut up a little bit more. Like--

- Yeah. - That’s a good answer.

That's kind of like something I'm trying to take

away from this.

Quite a few instructors are trying to kinda speak some

wisdom to me,

and it hasn't just been one voice that said that,

it's been multiple instructors.

So it's kind of like one of those flags, right?

Yeah, that's probably really good advice to keep my

giant mouth shut.

- Yeah. - So.

I've always wanted to fly fighters for the Navy,

but I've gone through so much to get to this point.

In 2013, when I applied for the Naval Academy,

they made me go get a bunch of testing done.

I got a small letter back from the Naval Academy,

and they had disqualified me for an allergy to bee stings.

It was a pretty dark period.

Sometimes he would get discouraged and try to

go a different path.

Working at a restaurant,

working at like a battery place to just make ends meet.

But I still wanted to be a pilot.

Then I'd be like, you know this is what you've wanted to

do since you were like six years old.

I had to start venom Immunotherapy,

where they inject you with really small doses of bee venom

to build your tolerance up.

My arms are just like purple and bruised from all the shots

I was getting.

I had to do that once a month for three years.

As a kid, I would have never pictured my path being this way.

I think God really wanted to humble me.

Anytime it gets really hard and I'm like, oh,

this really sucks, I can just take a step back and go,

look at all the stuff I went through to get here.

It just makes it all worth it at that point.

- Ready? - Yes, sir.

Dealer standby check in and out.

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ Dealer 1-1

ANDREW Dealer 1-2

Andrew’s had his ups and downs during this stage.

TOWER Ocean 131, clear for takeoff

He has just one flight left to pass,

but now he’s flying solo.

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ We’ll track a little bit further out

here, just for the clouds.

Yes, sir.

Andrew's instructor from the last flight,

‘Lord Fartquad’, will now be flying as his enemy.

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ Take it away

And knows his weaknesses.

'Lord Fartquad' peels away from Andrew to see if he's

learned to keep track of the enemy.

ANDREW Where are you going?

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ You got your eyes

ANDREW Yes sir

ANDREW Visual

'LORD FARTQUAD' Nice

'LORD FARTQUAD' Keep pulling

ANDREW Roger

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ A little acute

Bring it left, a little bit harder

ANDREW Roger that, sir

Andrew has learned enough from his previous

flights to stay out of trouble,

but 'Lord Fartquad' has one final test for him.

He will make a deliberate mistake,

leaving the chase to fly at an angle that will allow Andrew to

easily change course and escape if he spots the error.

But if Andrew continues on his current course,

it'll be easy for Fartquad to circle back for the kill.

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ Keep the power up

ANDREW Yes, sir

ANDREW Lost visual

ANDREW Visual

ANDREW 1-2 low

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ Copy

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ Very good

ANDREW ****

I over-G’d

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ Copy, what number?

ANDREW 7.6

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ Copy that

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ Knock it off, knock it off

Dealer 1-1, knock it off

ANDREW Okey dokey

Andrew has over G’d the jet,

ending the test.

However, he has avoided being hit.

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ I’ll see you back home

‘LORD FARTQUAD’ Let’s roll out

ANDREW Roger that, sir

He is a very passionate individual.

I think if he was prevented from making this his career,

it would be heart crushing.

It would be something very hard to get over.

When a student over G's the jet,

the mission is terminated,

but if they've done enough before that point

they could still pass.

Pulled 7.6.

Pretty disappointed with myself for doing that,

especially having over G'd a jet before.

The G-limits are there for a reason.

You don't want them even bending, cracking,

and shortening the lives on these jets.

There's a bunch more work now that maintenance has to do.

Gave me the biggest screwdriver of all time. Golly.

The, um, PCs out there were saying,

this is your second one, so.

Yeah, it is my second one.

Uh, do you remember when it happened?

I was like bullseye nose low,

and then I was like 3K above the deck 60 nose low.

That's when I snatched the 7.6.

So, I did a deck--

That makes sense.

Now, if he had continued to fight,

I would have had to have downed him there.

But, you know, he recognized it immediately.

It's a high stress flight, you're constantly go, go,

go and you know what?

If he leans forward and over-stresses,

I'm not gonna fault him,

especially when he fessed up to it.

All right, cool. Just ease your mind.

We're pass complete.

Everything else was good leading up to it,

and so we say good attitude,

good knowledge, good effort.

That's pretty much it.

Alright.

A lot of ups and downs today.

Over G'ing a jet and getting all in my head about,

I probably could have unsat this event.

Not only an emotional rollercoaster,

but a physical rollercoaster as well.

But it feels pretty good to hear, pass complete.

Yeah.

ANDREW 121 passing 7.4 for a 1-0 thousand

Today, Andrew is taking his final flight on the

advanced phase course,

having passed all remaining training stages.

Going through the program,

a lot of changes have happened.

I feel like there's been a lot of professional development,

physical development, mental development.

It's just this constant growth.

ANDREW Clear to land 28. 121.

I know if I went back and looked at me day one...

...versus now,

just, like, what I can handle and what I can do.

Almost night and day difference.

ANDREW Good brakes

INSTRUCTOR Looks good

Andrew will soon join the naval fleet,

but will need to wait to find out if he’s ranked highly

enough in his class to secure his dream jet,

the F-18.

Over the arc of his experience here,

I was very happy to see his maturation,

his evolution from somebody that was rubbing some people

the wrong way to taking the feedback.

Hey, Marcus, get him good with the hose.

- Oh, I’m ready. - Oh, yeah.

He learned to have a degree of humility.

Don't forget to take your gear off.

Yes, sir.

I'm definitely very glad I stuck it out because

eight-year-old me would not believe I made it this far.

Let's go!

He's waited for this day for so long.

I think it'll be one of the proudest moments of his life.

That hose is cold.

I've told him that actually multiple times,

that the one thing I respect about you the most is that you

never give up.

Thank you so much, sir. It was a pleasure.

It's been very impressive to see how dedicated

he is to his work.

He has never done anything halfway,

and it's one of the reasons I fell in love with him.

Now I'm gonna squish the munchkin.

-Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull.

We're gonna fly at 500 feet and we'll invert it and go on

the backside of mountains.

Oh, don’t overbank that much.

Fear is intense.

Watch that rising terrain.

I'm fairly confident that he's gonna come home every day,

but there's always the chance that he doesn't.

Get the nose up, get the nose up.

It hasn't been smooth sailing for Spenser so far.

He's going to have to prove to the instructors that

he has what it takes.

Keep [bleep] losing sight of him.

I’m blind.

This is the most demanding and the most challenging thing

I've ever done in my life.

Hey, guess what?

This is what you signed up for.

-Watch your airspeed.