Bonk, Top Gun, Marine MAWTS-1 and Test Pilot Stories kick off with him bobbing in the Pacific after less than 500 flight hours in total flight time! Actually, that’s just the warmup.
This week on So There I Was, Fig and RePete sit down with Bonk, a former Test Pilot School graduate, Top Gun instructor, and MAWTS pilot whose career somehow became more insane every decade.
One minute he’s failing eye exams. Consequently, he almost misses aviation entirely. The next minute he’s disconnecting A-4 flight controls in flight and wondering if this was really the best career choice.
Then things get weird.
Bonk talks about ending up in the water early in his career. Furthermore, he explains what happens when you suddenly discover the ocean is now your office. There are stories about VMFA-531, absurd amounts of flight time, and the strange reality of becoming “the old guy” while still doing incredibly dumb fighter pilot things.
Wait, what?
At one point, Bonk casually explains flying through an afterburner plume because he heard it. Heard it. Not saw it. Heard it.
Naturally, that turns into a discussion about air combat maneuvering, test flying, and the tiny margin between “legendary story” and “aviation mishap report.”
The episode also dives into:
- Top Gun and MAWTS culture
- Test Pilot School insanity
- Zero-G flights
- Engine testing
- Why Boards of Inquiry can ruin your week
- The origin of the callsign “Bonk”
- The strange process of translating fighter pilot language into something normal humans understand
This episode feels like sitting at the bar after a squadron reunion while somebody keeps saying, “No seriously… this actually happened.”
And somehow, every story gets crazier.
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