High Flyers

I'm Dutch, have flown professionally for over thirty years myself. I heard about this show from one the Dutch Air-force pilots that works in Arizona where parts were filmed. Thought it was a show about a group of student pilots getting their training. Had hoped it would show more about the actual flight training. I was wrong. It's basically a soap opera. It takes about two years to train an F16 pilot and there's no room for the shenanigans, hotdogging and busting regulations that they do in the show. Taking an aircraft without it being signed out by a crew chief or without orders would never happen. If it did, you'd be fired faster than you can say "pull up". The first episode disappointed me a bit because of the lack of flying and unrealistic military depiction. The producers took some creative liberties here. Once I accepted the fact that I was looking at a soap opera instead of a documentary I suspended all expectation of reality. That helped making the show enjoyable. It watches like reading an old time adventure book for kids. Everything is very predictable with a mostly happy ending. Watch it with an open mind. If you enjoy aviation and can accept the glaring mis representation of military life, discipline and procedures, you'll enjoy the show. The air to air footage is beautifully filmed. My acquaintance has a few extra parts and there was a closeup of his F16 a few times. He enjoyed working as an advisor and flew with the actors in the F16 for close cockpit shots. It's not Top Gun but in the end I was pleasantly surprised.

Big Dutch production with very improbable storyline. All the flyers seem to be able to do their one thing. Whenever a pilot feels like flying, he or she takes a plane up into the sky without any form of approval. The Dutch airforce is depicted as a bunch of rogue cowboys. There seems to be no command structure. There's a lot of overacting. I wouldn't recommend watching this series.

Great character building, directing, acting and viideography. Good storyline with a balanced mix fiction / non-fiction. Build up to speed could be a bit faster. All in one, definitely worth watching. Pity it's not available to a larger audience (eg. Netflix)

Totally unrealistic. Footage is okay but story completly nonsens.....

I had high expectations, but was disappointed. It's not a realistic representation of military training and discipline, let alone in aviation. There are many beautiful shots of landscapes and aircraft in flight and that's the only thing to help digest the silly, shoddy and childish story, the many mistakes, the annoying dialogue and the lack of respect towards military pilots who aren't flying F16's.