Frank Weisser is a two-time Blue Angels Pilot who was deployed in combat three separate times, including to Afghanistan and Iraq. He has accumulated more than 5,000 flight hours and nearly 500 carrier arrested landings. His decorations include multiple Meritorious Service Medals, Strike Flight Air Medals and various personal and unit awards. Because of his experience flying at extreme low altitudes and inverted, he was the pilot for the most complex and memorable air combat scenes in Top Gun: Maverick. His book is titled Lead Solo: Learning Life's Vectors from an F/A-18 Blue Angel Aviator.
Summary
Frank Weisser's career sits at a rare intersection: Navy fighter pilot, two-time Blue Angels pilot, combat deployments, and the low-altitude stunt flying that helped make Top Gun: Maverick feel real. Early in the conversation, Frank reframes what looks like "crazy risk" from the outside into a disciplined craft: aviation is inherently dangerous, but the real skill is identifying known risks and systematically mitigating them through the right people, the right preparation, and the right standards.
The episode then rewinds to a formative disappointment: Frank entered the Naval Academy intent on becoming a SEAL, didn't get selected, and had to confront a painful identity-level failure. What changed his trajectory wasn't a new goal, but a reframing of motivation from "how I serve" to "that I serve," even if the role wasn't what he originally wanted. That lesson becomes a through-line for everything that follows: mission first, ego second, and meaning found in the sacrifice itself.
From there, Frank breaks down what makes the Blue Angels such a high-functioning team. "Glad to be here" isn't a slogan; it's a culture-building mechanism rooted in gratitude, humility, and the idea that the work is bigger than the individual. The team reinforces that culture through small, repeatable behaviors and through the "great equalizer" effect of an environment that demands confidence without cockiness.
Finally, the conversation translates elite aviation into practical leadership. Frank shares specific approaches to focus (compartmentalizing distractions), decision-making under pressure (the discipline to "underreact in the extreme"), trust-building (earned trust through vulnerability and consistency), and learning velocity (a debrief culture that prioritizes what went wrong so tomorrow gets better). Woven through it all is his definition of excellence: pushing past comfort, taking measured risks, being willing to fail, and then rebuilding smarter.
Takeaways
· Risk isn't eliminated in high-stakes work; it's acknowledged upfront and managed through preparation, expertise, and process.
· "Mission first" is a practical operating system, not a motivational poster. It keeps ego from quietly taking over.
· Gratitude can be engineered into culture through small rituals, and those rituals compound into trust and performance.
· Confidence is required, but cockiness is actively corrected by a team that refuses to let anyone go rogue.
· Compartmentalization is a skill: name the distraction, surface it with the team when needed, then "do not disturb" your mind for the task.
· When you're solo, focus comes back to priorities: stop saying "I didn't have time" and tell the truth about what wasn't a priority.
· Fear shrinks when you're properly prepared: know the systems, memorize the critical failures, rehearse in simulation, then execute.
· The best operators train themselves to underreact. Even one second of composure can be the difference between solving the right problem and making it worse.
· Trust is built fastest through earned vulnerability and consistency, not "blind trust."
· Excellence, in Frank's words, is helping yourself and others attempt what feels out of reach, being willing to fail, and restarting with better intelligence.
Notes:
Book: Lead Solo: Learning Life's Vectors from an F/A-18 Blue Angel Aviator
Frank Weisser leadership consulting: https://frankweisser.net/
