MovieChat Forums > Top Gun (1986) Discussion > The Hard Deck Controversy

The Hard Deck Controversy

posted 4 years ago by Oblivioid (1511)
3 replies | jump to latest

When Maverick forces Commander Heatherly below the hard deck of 10,000 feet, shouldn't that have qualified Maverick and Goose for the victory even without taking a shot?

My understanding of the Hard Deck here is that for training purposes, it is considered the ground, and engaging below this artificial boundary is in essence crashing. It is also considered out of bounds, similar to sports. When Heatherly cowardly runs for out of bounds, Maverick has won the engagement at that instance. Locking him up and taking a kill shot was not even necessary, Maverick should have disengaged and declared victory.

[–] DarkHorse (297) 4 years ago

I never really got that either, I know they have rules of engagement etc it is part of the game but in the end they still beat the instructor. Something the instructors even acknowledged after they disciplined Mav and Goose.

I guess that might have been the smarter thing to do though. In reality, if Mav had of gone after a retreating target and then killed him, that would not have gone down well, especially in a cold war situation.

[–] MovieChatUser497 (18943) 4 years ago

I asked this question on another thread and the answer I got was when you call “no joy” it means you have lost sight of the other fighter and you go below the hard deck as a kind of “time out”. Maverick had just done an incredibly risky move (the hit the breaks and he’ll fly right by) and Jester used that as a justification to call “no joy”. Of course this was all BS as he just didn’t want to be beaten by Maverick but officially that was the reason. (I’m also assuming it’s not common for a student to beat an instructor).

[–] TMC-4 (20277) 3 years ago

According to a former Tomcat flight officer, if this weren't a movie, and was for real, then Maverick should've lost his wings on the first day of his Top Gun training. He not only does a barrel roll after the tower fly-by in full afterburner, an extremely dangerous maneuver that's prohibited by Federal Aviation Regulations, but he also breaks the hard deck.

When Maverick says: "We weren't below the hard deck for more than a few seconds. I had the shot. There was no danger. So I took it." that's in essence, saying that "We didn't hit the ground for more than a few seconds..."

https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a863515/top-gun-mistakes-technical-blunders/