Little Doug Masters (Jason Gedrick) has an Air Force pilot for a father, an incredibly irresponsible father who has been allowing him to fly training missions since, evidently, Doug hit puberty.  The kid has more simulator time than anyone on base (wherever that may be).  He's so into flying that he has a club of fellow high school aviators - officers' kids - who take their personal planes out on the weekends for fun...and to race paint-huffing morons on dirt-bikes through treacherous mountains.  He's a whiz at flying (but not acting).  Doug's happy little world halts when he finds out that not only did his application to the Air Force Academy get denied, but his father was also shot down, captured, and scheduled for a hanging in an undisclosed Middle Eastern country.