Tom Cruise had said previously that one of his requirements for making a new Top Gun would be that he got to get up in the air and fly again, so I just sort of figured that would mean the same methods would be used, but it seems that may not be good enough this time around.
The original Top Gun was able to get the actors in the air to film scenes on board actual fighter jets, but in each scene somebody else was actually piloting the plane, and the actors just pretended to be doing so.