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Teaching Tom Cruise to Fly | The Making of Top Gun:Maverick | Revolutionizing Aviation Film Making and Stunt Flying | Combined 40K Flight Hours | Patriot Jet Team | Scott Intake Kartvedt, Randy Howell, Kevin LaRosa Jr
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Today we hear an aviation-focused Combat Story with three pioneers in the civilian, military, and filmmaking aviation communities who were the driving force behind the aerial scenes from Top Gun: Maverick.
Many will recall our interview with Scott ‘Intake’ Kartvedt as the Accountant turned Naval Aviator who went on to fly F/A-18s, command an F-35 Squadron, fly with the Blue Angels, and now flies the Number 5 airplane in the civilian aerobatic formation flight Patriots Jet Team. Scott’s fantastic book “Full Throttle: From the Blue Angels to Hollywood Stunt Pilot” chronicles his experiences in- and outside the cockpit.
Our second guest is the owner of The Patriots Jet Team, Randy Howell, who flies the Number 6 aircraft, and who taught Tom Cruise to fly the L-39 jet for Maverick. To give you an idea of how long Randy has been flying, he has 7K more flight hours than expert aviator Sully Sullenberger, who famously landed his commercial airliner in the Hudson River after an inflight emergency. Randy and Intake made up the pair of stunt pilots for Maverick, including the intense flying in the last eight minutes of the movie, for which they were awarded the Screen Actors Guild award for action.
Our third guest is Kevin ‘K2’ LaRosa who grew up in Hollywood as an aviation stunt man, pilot, and aerial coordinator. You’ve seen him in the air in over 100 films and TV shows, including Iron Man, Avengers, Transformers, Devotion, and Maverick. He is the VP of Aerial Production for Helinet Aviation. This is a rare glimpse into flying with three experts and pioneers in the field.
We dig into so much in this episode about flying on the edge and I hope you enjoy these stories of pushing the limits of aerial cinematography with both aircraft and cameras, teaching Tom Cruise to fly jets, and the close calls and near misses that inevitably come with aviation, as much as I did.
We have a special edition of Combat Story coming up where I go flying with Intake and Randy in the L-39 in formation with the Patriots Jet Team and try not to pass out or throw up! Stay tuned!
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- Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle
Find Scott Kartvedt Online:
- Scott's website https://scottkartvedt.com/
- Full Throttle Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7F91JCB
Find Randy Howell Online:
- Learn More about Randy https://www.patriotsjetteam.com/Media%20Package/Pilot%20Bios.pdf
- Patriots Jet Team Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pat
Published on 1 year, 5 months ago