Top Gun

I noted the retirement of the F-14 Tomcat a short while ago. A sad day for all the fans of that famous cold warrior aircraft that, fortunately, never had to do the job it was designed for. There is, however, a bright side for those fans. With the retirement of the venerable F-14, there is no longer a need for the complex flight simulators that were used to keep pilots in top gun condition. So those gadgets are now available for top gun wannabes to try their hand at.

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Ever watched "Top Gun" and wondered if you had what it takes to evade surface-to-air missiles in an F-14 Tomcat? An exhibit that opened this week at the National Museum of Naval Aviation is giving would-be flyboys the chance to climb into the cockpit of a real F-14 military training simulator and experience a 20-minute joyride.

Flyers can grab the flight stick and experience mock air-to-air combat, practice carrier landings or simply cruise over Las Vegas, Iraq, Miramar, Calif., and other simulated sites.

"Everyone can be a hero in a simulator," said retired Marine Col. Deej Kiely, a fighter pilot in Vietnam and the museum's spokesman. "If they are proficient enough, they can mess around with the radar and lock up targets, they can interact with each other. I think for these purposes it's close enough to the real thing."

The only other F-14 simulators open to the public are at Patuxent River Naval Air Museum in Maryland, said Dave Kinney, owner of Eaglesims. The San Clemente, Calif.-based company converts retired military trainers and aircraft for public use.

"You get them and save them. They are rare pieces of art," Kinney said. "The experience is priceless for an airplane junkie who has dreamed for a long time about what it's like to sit in a Tomcat with all the actual controls."

Workers spent many hours working out how to keep the maximum number of levers, switches and alarms active in the four simulators while ensuring the experience would still be fun for those who have never sat in a cockpit before, Kinney said.

Better to see them put to use rather than just junked. A piece of history you can ride in.