Cruising with Tom, HondaJet Owner and Pilot

My husband Jonathan is a Certificated Flight Instructor who worked for twelve years at FlightSafety International. During his final months with the company in 2019, one of his last students was actor Tom Cruise. Mr. Cruise had recently purchased a HondaJet for his own personal use, not only to be the owner, but also to be the operator. This required many hours of instruction in order to prepare him for his HondaJet qualification. Jonathan was a part of the team that worked with Tom to prepare him for certification. 

In the three years since, we have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Top Gun: Maverick. I consider this film to be a “time capsule” of Jonathan’s days with Tom. While on some breaks from working on the film, he came to Greensboro to work on his HondaJet certification. In the decades to come, even when all of us are in our twilight years, the Tom Cruise of 2019 who worked with my husband is also on screen in Maverick. I think that’s pretty special. 

So far the reviews that are coming in about the movie are glowing. We plan to see the film this weekend, and I can’t wait! Today we also really enjoyed a segment from James Corden’s “The Late Late Show” (photo at right) which featured some nice shots of Tom’s custom-painted HondaJet. Despite what James says in the video segment, Mr. Cruise really is an aviator– he doesn’t just play one in the movies. In the twelve years that Jonathan was an instructor, he never saw a more prepared, more diligent student. Regardless of fame or fortune, Tom Cruise really was the best of the best in Jonathan’s classroom.

The day of his final examination, Tom generously took some time to visit with me and my son Colson when testing was complete. Colson (then age 14) had many questions about movie-making, which Tom was eager to answer for him. As a student and customer, Tom was under no obligation to do this. I was incredibly grateful that we were able to meet with him. It was a remarkable episode in our history as an aviation family, and I’ll never forget it.