In the 13-weeklong fighter tactics instructors' course, the pilots go through a demanding regimen of classroom instruction and studying, continually analyzing what they do in the air. Those who go on to become TOPGUN instructors have an even more grueling requirement. After researching some aviation topic with the goal of becoming a subject area expert, they're required to go through what's called the "murder board," and give a three-hour lecture completely from memory. Between flying, studying and teaching, an instructor could be putting in a 12- to 16-hour day.
That intellectual rigor is one of the reasons that flying skill is only one of the requirements for making TOPGUN.
"We're looking for three things," Papaioanu says. "The first one is passion. They have to be passionate about being good in the airplane, they have to be passionate about instructing, they have to be passionate about doing this job."
The second most important qualification is having the right personality. While Hollywood might make brash overconfidence seem like a prerequisite, TOPGUN actually is looking for the opposite sort of temperament. "If they come in confident, overconfident and co*cky, that's not like a personality that you can make better, right?" Papaioanu says. Instead, the program favors "somebody who is humble, who can go do an event, makes a big comeback, recognize that they've made some mistakes, and be willing to critique themselves or allow us as instructors to make them better."
Sheer talent as a pilot actually ranks third, according to Papaioanu. "The way we look at it is if they've got the passion and they've got the ability, we're going to make them better."
"TOPGUN pushed me to expand the envelope of my abilities, resulting in a much higher level of competence after departing the staff as an instructor," explains Guy M. Snodgrass, via email. He's a 2006 TOPGUN graduate who became an instructor at the school for three years and wrote a 2020 book, "TOPGUN'S Top 10: Leadership Lessons from the co*ckpit," about what he learned at TOPGUN that is transferrable to other endeavors.
"This constant demand for excellence spanned all phases of flight: preparation, effective flight briefing, mission execution and debriefing," says Snodgrass, who now is CEO of Defense Analytics, a national security and foreign policy advisory firm. "The secret to TOPGUN's success is unrelentingly high standards and the opportunity to gain experience at elite levels of training. The first time you rip around at 500 feet [152 meters] pulling 7 Gs is an eye-opening experience. But when you can operate at such a high level for several years, the ability to perform becomes second nature."
In addition to improving his performance as a pilot by refining his skills and reducing imperfections, Snodgrass notes that the training also pushed him to do things that he hadn't done before, to become more creative and a better problem-solver.
"TOPGUN is an immersive program," he explains. "You're going full tilt from day one. This means you're stretching your abilities across each and every event, AND you're being presented with unique experiences and opportunities along the way. Because the program maintains a high bar, students (and instructors) get the best of both worlds – personal and professional growth at an accelerated pace."
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