Mutta just happened to find yet another detail that will trigger a favorable opinion in that chief.

Sure, the VCR is just a stunt, quite easy for your fighter pilot*. But the important factor here is that it bears meaning to the one deciding whether Mutta gets to start lunar training or not.


* I was a little surprised an astronaut trainee with lots of T38 training could crash a plane while trying that move. I'm not sure if they said he was also a former airforce pilot, that would be even worse.
There are a boatload of technical problems that can cause a crash, but when you start a vertical climb, you are high enough and with enough power that if the machine is fine, nothing can go wrong. And it's not like it's difficult to perform or physically challenging either. Yet again, that plot device was dumb.