# Mig's in Air Force training **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 1, 2001, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/migs-in-air-force-training/64006 "2001-05-01T23:42:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2001, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/migs-in-air-force-training/64006/21 "2001-05-03T15:18:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Johnny L.A. \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > OK, lessee … the MiG’s in “Top Gun” AND “Hot Shots” looked a lot like T-38’s > > F-5s, the fighter version of the T-38\*\* Reason I said that is I know of an outfit, I think at Chino, that owns a few T-38’s and uses them in films and commercials occasionally. I thought they stuck fake missile racks on the wingtips. Ah, well… Anyway, [here](http://www.coastcomp.com/av/fltline2/avmovie.htm#T)’s a pretty interesting list of aircraft types vs. movie titles, if you’re interested. ---
**Author:** ![Nabber4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecccb3/32.png) [@Nabber4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nabber4)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2001, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/migs-in-air-force-training/64006/22 "2001-05-03T23:36:04Z")
Thanks for the movie list! That is just great! By the way, anyone remember one that was not on the list, and was quite a sleeper from the late 60s (I think), “Ace Eli and Roger of the Skies” (sp?) ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2001, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/migs-in-air-force-training/64006/23 "2001-05-04T00:27:04Z")
Cool list. I even sent a correction on one of the entries. I happened to be an extra on one of the crappiest movies ever made and saw the aircraft close up on the ramp. Guess which one. 😃 Hint: it wasn’t Iron Eagle, Iron Eagle II or Iron Eagle IV. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2001, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/migs-in-air-force-training/64006/24 "2001-05-04T00:37:51Z")
> [@](#): > > I happened to be an extra on one of the crappiest movies ever made and saw the aircraft close up on the ramp. I was an extra on _The Right Stuff_, but I didn’t make it into the final cut. ☹ I still look every time though… ---
**Author:** ![labradorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@labradorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labradorian)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2001, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/migs-in-air-force-training/64006/25 "2001-05-04T03:05:08Z")
German Migs train at Goose Bay Labrador, along with other equipment from Canada, the UK, and the Netherlands. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2001, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/migs-in-air-force-training/64006/26 "2001-05-04T03:40:53Z")
Johnny L.A, which scene _would_ you have been in? I’ll freeze frame the DVD and see if I can spot you. That’s one of my all time favorite movies even with the typical hollywood bungles like the NF-104 scene. I don’t have a lot of heros but Chuck Yeager is like a god to me. As for A:IE3 I happened to be riding bike with a friend by the small airport where the air show scene was filmed. I forced myself to watch the movie but never saw a fat guy and a skinny guy on mountain bikes. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2001, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/migs-in-air-force-training/64006/27 "2001-05-04T04:09:42Z")
> [@](#): > > Johnny L.A, which scene would you have been in? I’ll freeze frame the DVD and see if I can spot you. That’s one of my all time favorite movies even with the typical hollywood bungles like the NF-104 scene. I don’t have a lot of heros but Chuck Yeager is like a god to me. I _would_ have been in the scene where Crossfield is being congratulated by Yeager; the newsreel footage. I would have been in the very back with a 1950s crewcut, Ray-Ban® Aviators, and a white lab coat. Don’t bother looking. Believe me, I scanned that scene _very_ closely! I was almost in the scene where Royal Dano comes to the pilot’s house to give the new widow the bad news (at the beginning of the film). I and another guy were dressed in khakis as Air Force sergeants and we were going to drive a Jeep in the background, but the Jeep wasn’t used. I was “sort of in” one scene: Where the X-1 is being readied for its historic flight. It was a little breezy that day and they had three of us get on the off-camera wing with our legs pulled up to prevent the plywood mock-up from rocking. So I’m in the scene, but hidden by the X-1! 😛 Okay, so they didn’t use a real NF-104; but they could hardly pull the one off of the pedestal at the Test Pilot’s School! And the F-104 they did use was really pretty. I didn’t get to see it during the filming, but I did get to hang out in the hangar with the T-33s and the F-86s. Chartoff-Winkler Productions put on a good feed, too. Like, filet mignon for lunch. Pay was minimum wage ($3.45/hour at the time) but I had vacation pay from my job with a contractor in Ridley Mission Control Center. After filming at Edwards, they had a wrap party at the Essex House (now Ramada Inn) in Lancaster. Good food, friends from work, chatted with Levon Helm, and the production crew made all of us extras feel like an important part of history and the film. As for my co-workers, my boss (the late Gary Hall, a former test pilot and – I think – one of the charter members of the Test Pilot’s Association) _might_ be glimpsed in one scene, but I’m not sure. A girl I work with danced at Pancho’s, and you can see the back of her blonde head at one point. _The Right Stuff_ is one of my favourite films; not just because I was (almost) in it, but because I was at EAFB as a very very small part of testing new aircraft. (Remind me to tell you of the time dad picked up Chuck Yeager when the general’s AC Delco ultralight was forced down in the desert. 😉 ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/migs-in-air-force-training/64006.md?page=1)