Short Final: Outer Limits

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