At Anacostia Naval Air Station, the river flows on one side of the
hangars, and the airport stretches on the other. They fly boats out of
the river side and land planes out of the airport side.
One pilot down there had been flying land planes exclusively for several
months. Then one day he flew a boat. One of the enlisted pilots went
along with him as co-pilot.
After flying around for a while he started in for a landing. But instead
of coming in for a landing on the river he started to land on the
airport.
The enlisted pilot with him let him go as long as he thought he dared.
Then he nudged him in the ribs, pointed out that he was about to land a
boat on land, and suggested that maybe it would be a better idea to go
over and land in the river.
The pilot agreed that it certainly would. He gave it the gun and went
around again and came in for a landing on the river. He made a good
landing and let the ship slow down. When they were idling along he
turned around to the enlisted pilot and started to apologize for almost
landing him on land. He undid his belt as he talked.
"That was a dumb thing for me to do," he said. "I've been flying land
planes for so long that I guess I just started coming in there from
habit without thinking. It sure was dumb." He was obviously humiliated
and confused.
"Well," he said finally, "it sure was dumb," and got up and climbed out
of the cockpit onto the wing.
"So long," he said, and stepped down off the wing into the water.