Continuity mistake: In the scene where Maverick and Slider are studying and Charlie slips Maverick the piece of paper with her address on it, Slider changes seats. First he is at one end of the table near the wall, then at the end of the scene he, and all of his stuff, is at the opposite end of the table. (00:40:30)
Continuity mistake: While Maverick is dogfighting Viper in Top Gun school he is in a F-14, and Viper is in A-4. Viper gets on Maverick's back, but in one scene you see the A-4 flies through the view before the F-14, although he should be behind him...
Continuity mistake: Count the doors opening and closing - Mav walks through a closed elevator door.
Continuity mistake: When Maverick goes to land while Cougar is in fuel trouble, the tailhook is down. He decides Cougar needs help and launches back off the carrier, the tailhook is up. The next view as he flies away from the carrier the tailhook is once again down.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film, the squadron commander enters CATTC with a chest full of ribbons, next shot, all ribbons are gone. There is no smoking in CATTC (for the equipment) and the radar in CATTC cannot be used to monitor air combat movement as they did in the film. The Combat Centre or CIC is used for that.
Continuity mistake: In the last dogfight, Ice says "two MiGs passing between us." It then shows the two passing between either Ice or Maverick and a single tail jet. The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a twin tail.
Continuity mistake: The scene where Cruise is holding Goose's dog tags before he speaks to Meg, his thumbnails are tightly groomed, but the next shot his hand is open and the thumbnail is different. (22:36:00)
Continuity mistake: When the F14 lands in the opening scene, it is number 205. When it comes to a full stop, the number has changed to 114. (00:03:30)
Continuity mistake: In the volleyball scene, Tom Cruise is shown oiled up, tanned, and with clear muscle definition. He then walks off the volleyball court in a new camera angle. He now does not have the muscle definition or neck area tan he had during the volleyball game seconds earlier. Additionally, the configuration and number of people in the stands is different from the previous camera angle.
Continuity mistake: Mav flies aircraft number 114 throughout the movie, then loses it in the flat spin. However when he is flying with Sundowner where he won't engage them in the final battle he is back in 114 again.
Continuity mistake: When Maverick hits the brakes on Jester he's wearing a stainless steel Rolex Submariner. Later when he lock-s on and "kills" Jester he pumps his fist and is wearing a "blacked-out" different watch. (00:31:00)
Continuity mistake: In the final battle scene, Slider sees two MIGs dead ahead and Iceman says he will "Take them down the left side." In a front view the two MIGs come towards them, but cut to a side view and the two MIGs pass, suddenly followed by a third.
Continuity mistake: The night before graduation, Maverick is parked on his bike at the runway. An incoming jet is seen, with gear and hook down. But in the next shot the jet just keeps flying. And it's not a test landing and take-off. It's two different planes mixed.
Continuity mistake: Towards the beginning of the movie Goose loses a bet to Maverick and must pay up. He extends his hand out with a bill folded. The camera switches back and forth and the bill changes from being folded in half to being folded in quarters.
Continuity mistake: While in the opening air scene, the names of the pilot and his RIO are backwards.
Continuity mistake: In the elevator scene Kelly McGillis's hair is a different colour (I think a shade of red) than earlier or later in the film. Apparently this scene was filmed months after Top Gun filming was complete while McGillis was shooting another film. This explains the baseball cap and ponytail.
Continuity mistake: When Charlie is briefing the pilots on what a MiG can do, Slider and the guy behind Maverick have their sunglasses on in one shot, then off in another and then on again in another.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Charlie picked up Maverick from the hospital, you can see the rear view mirror of her car is low, between the actors' faces. The camera zooms in and the mirror can be seen raised slightly above the top of the windshield. The camera zooms out and the mirror is low again.
Continuity mistake: After the volleyball game, when Maverick leaves on his motorcycle he's not wearing a belt on his way to Charlie's house. When he jumps the porch rail at Charlie's house to go around back, he is now wearing a belt. (00:42:25)
Continuity mistake: In the beginning scene of the movie, Maverick and Cougar encounter 2 Soviet Migs. When one of the MIgs is first shown from the camera angle on its right side, it is a delta winged aircraft. The next scene that shows the Migs, they have standard wings. The wings change at least twice during the opening air encounter.
Answer: The original F-14A used the TF30 engine which was prone to compressor stall. This problem was fixed in later aircraft. https://theaviationist.com/2014/12/12/f-14b-engine-goose/.