Niall Matter and Heather Hemmens Get 'Top Gun' Experience in Hallmark's New Movie 'Come Fly with Me' (Exclusive)

"The Thunderbird team pulled out all the stops to make these scenes a highlight of the show," director Michael Robison tells PEOPLE of the United States Air Force's special flying unit being called in to advise on set

Hallmark movies have been set in cozy bakeries, snowy Christmas villages and romantic castles. Now there's a new location where love soars — and it's thousands of feet up in the air!

In Come Fly with Me, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries' new movie with a Top Gun-esque vibe, Emma "Blitz" Fitzgerald (Heather Hemmens) is an Air Force pilot who lands a spot on the renowned Thunderbirds flying crew, and finds a way to balance flying, family and her budding romance with widowed father Paul (Niall Matter).

Real members of the Thunderbirds, the United States Air Force’s special flying unit, were called in to advise on set, making sure everything was authentic — plus they flew their jets in breathtaking formations, giving a real-life feel to the movie!

“It was our first day of shooting at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas and the Thunderbird team pulled out all the stops to make these scenes a highlight of the show,” Michael Robison, the director of the movie, tells PEOPLE in a statement, referring to the scene where Blitz takes Paul on what he calls "the flight of his life."

“It’s a critical bonding moment where she introduces him to her love of flying,” he adds.

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In one of the behind-the-scenes clips shared exclusively with PEOPLE, Blitz is in the cockpit ready to take Paul up in the air.

"Alright, ready back there?" she asks him as she pulls on the throttle. Seated behind her, Paul responds, "Go for it."

"You feel that kick?" she asks as they speed down the runway before lift-off. "Now we're going to pull some G's."

The jet makes several spectacular big loops through the air and Paul can't help but smile. When they land, he tells Blitz he felt like his "face was going to slide off... I'm just so happy I didn't throw up."

Another exclusive clip obtained by PEOPLE shows Blitz frustrated with herself because she flew into one of the jet formation exercises late.

A fellow Thunderbird crew member tells her, "That's why we train. So we can improve. Besides, no one gets it right on the first time."

In a statement to PEOPLE, Robison says aeronautics has held a special place in his heart and it all started with visits to his fighter-pilot uncle’s office.

“My uncle, Bill Farnsworth, was a fighter pilot for the Navy who went on to become a test pilot for McDonnell Aircraft and NASA. His home office was filled with models of every jet he’d ever flown so when we visited he’d love to tell us stories about each one of them,” Robison recalls. “I’ve always been intrigued with fighter jets so when Hallmark offered me a project about the Thunderbirds — it was a dream come true.”

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The greatest challenge of making Come Fly With Me, Robison says, was integrating so much F-16 flight footage into the love story.

“It was fun to create heart-pounding sequences that captured the spectacular precision of the highly choreographed Thunderbird maneuvers,” he says, lauding the “incredible” crew and visual effects team who brought it all together. “Our goal was to merge the excitement of a new romance with the exhilaration of flight.”

“Come Fly With Me was a chance to tell a wonderful love story with themes of honesty, trust and devotion,” Robison adds. “Creating the tightly knit camaraderie of the Thunderbird team was a rewarding challenge. The competition, the self-doubt, the mutual support, the teasing and laughter. All of it had to be developed and choreographed so that when the team performed in the air, the audience was right there with them enjoying every moment.”

Matter and Hemmens aren't strangers to Hallmark movies. Matter, 42, previously starred in the Aurora Teagarden Mysteries series, Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater, and A Christmas Together with You, among others. Meanwhile, Hemmens, 35, has starred in Christmas in My Heart, Love, Take Two, Caribbean Summer and A Pinch of Portugal.

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Come Fly with Me airs Friday, Sept. 15, at 9 p.m. ET on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel.

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