An amazing inverted coasters, the best of all that I've ridden! It's fast and intense, and you feel as if your feet will smack into the trees below!

This roller coaster is awelsome.

I have been on many inverts, and this one is my absolute favorite. The first drop was very fast and intense as the Gs at the bottom were very strong. That was followed by two insanely powerful inversions: the massive vertical loop and Immelman. After that was an excellent hang-time enducing zero-G roll followed by a very fast and furious batwing. Then came an air-time hill, a very smooth corkscrew, and a fast helix. The whole ride is just plain relentless.

one of my favorite rides at the park. I loved the Immelan and the zero-G-roll. it was about a 5 minute wait for me.

Top Gun: The Jet Coaster is a steel sit down roller coaster. (Inverted). It was built in 1999. It has 6 inversions. It was built by B&M. It is 130' tall, it is 2,956' long. This coaster is very fast and intense. You climb the lift hill and go a hard right into a vertical loop, this is followed by an Immelan roll , this is followed by a zero G-roll, batwing, bunny hill and cork screw. After riding this coaster youll feel like a pilot in Top Gun. I also liked the music playing before you load the ride. This is a must ride at PCW. It is fast, fun, rerideable, it has a large capacity, and a long duration.

I had to be very careful on this one. I wanted to go in with an open mind. I didnt want my opinions on other inverts to cloud my judgement on Top Gun. I wanted to go in with a clean slate. I was worried that I would find something I liked better than Alpengeist. Well, no worries there. I feel like I went in with a very open mind and came out very under-whelmed. Dont get me wrong, this is still a very good coaster. It is fast, intense and really hits the elements hard. Therein lies the problem(to me, of course). You head straight out of the station up the lift hill and at the apex you bank hard to the right and down, increasing speed into a vertical loop. After that into the famous Immelman element(a great element to me), but it is too short. You blow right through it. The ride doesnt allow you to feel the positive or negative gs. As you head up the half loop, you should feel the pressure pushing you down into the seat and then as you crest over the top into the barrell roll, you should feel the negative gs or the feeling of falling out. But Top Gun is going so fast that it doesnt happen. If you blink, you missed it. That isnt the point of an immelman. Anyway, after that you are sent into a zero-g roll that again seems to come and go before you know it. Then it is onto the batwing. A very unique element that gives Top Gun major props. The batwing is a strange element for B&M because they pride themselves on aircraft manuevers. The batwing is not a manuever. Sure an airplane can bank to the right and down and back up and then back towards the way they started but it is not a designed move, if you understand that. If not, I mean moves that pilots learn to hone their skills. Moves like the immelman, split-s, barrell roll, vertical loop and diving loop are basic moves. I dont mean to nitpick, I am just curios why they included this move. Anyway, back to the ride. After the batwing comes a rather strange bunny hill that does nothing and then into a hard corkscrew and around to the right and back to the station. It was done, and I felt cheated. It is just too short. Maybe they didnt have the space or money but it definetly could be longer. Maybe thats the point to be quick and intense since it is named after Top Gun. Of course, this was going to be called "Godzilla" but that was changed when the movie was no good. Anyways, in the end the ride just seems to be lacking enough to push it into the upper echelon of the inverts. It has solid themeing but not spectacular and goes by too fast to hold a lasting impression. Top Gun: The Jet Coaster is good; but Alpengeist, Raptor and Montu are just better.

This ride is definitely a great invert...its compact layout and intense inversions make for an amazing ride. The Batwing inversion has become my favorite type of maneuver after riding this coaster. If nothing else gets you to come to Carowinds, go just to get a few rides in on this B&M masterpiece

TG:TJC may not only hold the title of the longest abbreviation, but it also may just be my favorite Invert. It has been three Sping Breaks since I rode Montu, so I will not call either better as of now, rather, just go with equal until I ride Montu again later this year. Top Gun is not very big by the standards of some other custom B&M Inverts, but it sure packs a punch. The lift heads out towards the parking lot, clanking along. Then you dive down at speeds over 60 mph into the vertical loop, which was especially cool due to its unusual design, which resulted in some different (but still) awesome forces. After diving back down through a short tunnel, the coaster hit the Immelman for some true joy, followed by an inline Zero-G roll. The next element may be the best, it certainly sets TG apart from the likes of Raptor and Alpengeist. The batwing was simply awesome: it snapped through the inverions at a torrid pace, but not to the point where it hurt. Diving under the path made my RCT envisions become reality, not to mention that the non-muffled rails made the tunnel roar as the trains went through. The ride then has its only weak point, a psuedo-airtime hill hill back over the lift, the only point in which the ride lets up. Back down you go, pounding through a corkscrew at relentless speeds, which can be a bit too much for the neck at times. After a few turns, you hit the brakes for the first time (no MCBR, a plus!). Top Gun is simply breathtaking, it can make grown men weep and beg for more. After 17 rides on a slow spring day, including at least one in every row and one in each of the front row seats, I would say that the far right side up front is the best, simply because the front row doesnt have a blocked view, and the right side to me proveded the best visuals, regardless of row. In the end, Top Gun endows us with a chance to be Tom Cruise while flying through the air at high speed and intense forces and maneuvering through wild inversions that resemble fighter jet moves (specifically, the Immelman and Zero-G roll). If you do not care to join to Navy and fly with the Blue Angels, or wear glasses and cannot do so anyways, take a few rides on Top Gun, it is as close as any coaster has ever gotten be to feel like a fighter jet.Bumped to a 10... also, in retrospect, I declare Top Gun to be better than Montu after some so-so rides this past fall.

This coaster just goes to show size doesnt matter. At only 113 ft. Top Gun really packs the punch. The inversions are non-stop, and the Batwing is the coolest part of the ride. I loved hearing the Top Gun theme before getting on the ride, made me feel like this was even closer to the expirience of the movie!

My 2nd favorite Invert after Alpengeist. Very quick and has one element after another. Best coaster at Carowinds.