Forgot To Think
IllustrationStory★★★★A pilot of a small plane was tired of driving from the airport to his country place, so he equipped his plane with pontoons, enabling him to land on the lake directly in front of his cottage. On the next trip he made his approach down the airport runway as usual. His wife became alarmed and cried out, “Are you crazy? You can’t land this plane here without wheels!”
The pilot snapped to attention, yanked up the nose of the aircraft, and narrowly averted certain disaster. Minutes later he landed on the lake without any problems. He sat in the cockpit, shaking, and said to his wife, “I don’t know what got into me. That was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done!”
And with that, he opened the door and stepped out of the plane, falling into the water.
The point
A pilot avoids landing a pontoon-equipped plane on a runway, then absurdly forgets and steps out into the water—forgetting to apply basic sense when shifting contexts.