Returning to San Carlos airport late one day, I clicked the mic five times on tower frequency to see if it would do anything. I don’t fly at night so the last time I tried this would have been more than a decade ago.
Controller (slightly irritated): “We have control.”
Me (slightly embarrassed): “You have control of the horizontal and the vertical?”
Controller (laughing): “Cleared to land three zero.”
And all was well again. I wasn’t sure he’d be old enough to have seen “The Outer Limits” but was glad he got it. Humor is so helpful to peace.
Jeremy Bloch
San Francisco, CA
