‘I never will be a ‘Maverick.’ I am, in fact, a ‘Goose.’’

OCEAN CITY — Growing up, I loved the movie ‘Top Gun.’ It ranked somewhere between ‘The Karate Kid’ and ‘Back to the Future.’ I longed to be as cool and reckless as Tom Cruise’s character Maverick. I even learned all the words to the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” and would sing it to a girl on my bus back in Pennsylvania each morning on the way to school, much to her chagrin.

Yet, on Wednesday, while flying with world class pilot Jeff Boerboon, who will be performing at at the Ocean City Air Show aboard the Jack Links Screamin’ Sasquatch, somewhere in an aerobatic inverted dive hurtling toward the ocean at a crazy speed, I succumbed to the realization that I never will be a ‘Maverick.’ I am, in fact, a ‘Goose.’

The 15-minute ride above the Ocean City coastline was as aesthetically breathtaking as it was physically challenging as Boerboon jostled me in every direction as he flipped and spun the plane in ways that would make anyone a bit queasy. It wasn’t my first time doing flips in an airplane over the ocean, but it certainly may have been the most memorable, if nothing else, but for the realization that I will never be as cool as the dude that flies 747’s during the day, and does aerobatics in a souped-up bi-plane with a yeti on it that has a literal jet engine attached for added “going-mach 2-with-your-hair-on-fire” effect.

Of course, we live in a world where every possible thing is recorded and shared nowadays, and while I was pulling 6 G’s in a ridiculous old-time bomber hat, I knew there was a small Go-Pro camera in the cockpit capturing every turn.

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