P51Mstg wrote:Easy to confuse........ Happens more than you think....
I've been on two military birds that did that. Was in a C-130 which landed at a decidedly unfriendly airfield that was laid out exactly like the one the pilot was looking for. One of my SGTs looked out a window and I'll never forget when he looked back and said, "Sir, those look like MIGs on the flightline, what do you think?" Real pucker facotr for us pax who were all armed to the teeth but weren't carrying any live ammo!
Another time as a brand new 2LT in 1998, I was riding in a UH-1 out of Edgewood airfield in MD, we were riding in a national guard Huey to an airfield somewhere in PA. We landed just after the sun went down, the crew chief and the pilot started arguing over a map (after taking the old "concrete compass" and missing a turn somewhere), the tired old CWO pulled off his helmet, looked at me and said, "Hey, LT, could you run over to the tower or the nearest civilian and ask where the hell we are?" I thought he was kidding at first but as I walked into the tiny little terminal, a guy at the NOAA desk leaned back in his chair and started snickering, saying, "Let me guess, you meant to land somewhere else and your pilot has no clue where you are, right?" Thank God he saved me the red face by thinking I got them lost, he was ex-Army from the Nam era and recoginzed I wasn't Aviation branch so I had to be pax instead of aircrew...