[Feature] 'Six times your body weight': What it's like to train like a 'Top Gun' fighter pilot

"For those 20 seconds at six times your own body weight, you sweat all over. Your head spins, your vision blurs, and your thighs feel like they're about to tear apart. It was brutal."

On June 17, this reporter underwent G-force tolerance training — known formally as the G-force tolerance test, or G-TEST — at the Air Force Aerospace Medicine Training Center in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. The G-TEST has a fearsome reputation: even Korea Air Force Academy cadets frequently black out on their first attempt. It is also the training made famous by the cast of the American film "Top Gun: Maverick," including Tom Cruise, whose character is among the elite fighter pilots put through the regimen.

Reporters who had gone through a first round of testing a week earlier had tried to talk this reporter out of it, describing the experience as "the longest 20 seconds of their lives." But journalistic resolve — and a stubborn refusal to back down — ultimately won out.

The session began with a slow ramp up to 4G, four times the force of gravity, giving a first taste of what was to come. The key was how well one had absorbed the L-1 breathing technique and the Anti-G Straining Maneuver. Seated in the cockpit, when the instructor asked whether the breathing method felt natural, this reporter — somewhat ironically — bellowed back with full confidence: "Not really." In fact, that slow build to 4G turned out to be the hardest part.

The sensation of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo — something this reporter had experienced twice before — came rushing back in an instant. The world seemed to flip upside down, and vision began to fade. "This is already rough," this reporter told the instructor, asking to run the 4G sequence again. The answer came back: given the physical toll, it would be better to go straight to 6G. There was no choice. Even if it meant blacking out, there was only one way forward.

"Tighten your lower body — thighs, glutes. Get your breathing set, then we're going up to 6G. Pull the stick. Short, fast breaths."

The machine activates only when the trainee pulls the stick, pushing themselves into the extreme 6G environment. That design gives trainees a moment to steel themselves mentally — and ensures that if G-induced loss of consciousness, or G-LOC, sets in, the training stops naturally.

Dizziness and a narrowing of vision — the phenomenon known as grayout — hit instantly, far more intense than anything at 4G. This reporter held on with one thought: 20 seconds is still just 20 seconds. The instructor's shout — "Keep your head up!" — sounded like a voice from above. Following the order, head raised, consciousness sharpened back into focus.

A piece of advice from the reporter who had gone before suddenly came to mind: "Squeeze your lower body and your vision clears." As G-forces increase, centrifugal force drives blood away from the brain and toward the extremities. Tensing the abdominal muscles, thighs and glutes as hard as possible keeps blood from pooling downward.

This reporter survived. And in the strange way the human mind works, having endured it, the thought crept in: that wasn't so bad after all.

The confidence from getting through the G-TEST made the subsequent sessions feel manageable. The spatial disorientation, or SD, training simulates the flight illusions that can occur during actual combat flying. When the training device began to rotate, the body felt as though it was tilting and descending to the left — yet the instrument panel read level flight. The instructor warned that turning one's head to the side would trigger dizziness, but this reporter felt comparatively calm. "You must have a strong vestibular system," the instructor said.

The low-pressure flight training facility brought another challenge: adapting to the hypoxic conditions of high altitude. The stable ceiling for human flight without supplemental oxygen is 8,000 feet. But at 25,000 feet, removing the oxygen mask sent blood oxygen saturation tumbling from 99 percent to the 60s. With mild dizziness setting in, this reporter endured again — holding on until the mask went back on. It was a moment of genuine awe for the pilots who must operate complex aircraft systems and make split-second decisions in exactly that state.