[lfjokes] a cry for help ...

[Adam Shand]

this is old but cory really liked it so i'm re-submitting it as a personal
favour :)

adam.

From: Water on Mars <daddymac at doughnut.net>

A pilot and his copilot are flying a private helicopter Charter in
Seattle.  As they're flying along, they run into a fog bank and get lost.
Thry check their fuel gauge and notice they're low on fuel, so they decide
to head back to the airport.  Unfortunately, they can't see well enough to
spot any landmarks and have no idea where they are in relation to the
airport.

They fly around another half hour looking for the airport or some landmark
to get their bearrings.  The passengers are getting nervous because the
engine is starting to sputter.  They have mere minutes left of fuel.

Finally the Pilot takes drastic measures.  He flies down into the city and
pulls up to the window of an office building.  "Hand me a piece of paper
and a pen!" he says to his copilot, who does just that.  The pilot writes
on the paper "Out of fuel, must land.  Where are we?" and holds it up
against the window of the cockpit.

When the people in the building see the note, there is a flurry of frantic
activity, they look through maps, get on the phone to other people who
might know, write down coordinates on paper, the usual type of thing you'd
do in this situation when you're trying to help someone in an awful
position such as the passengers of the helicopter.  Finally they come up
with an answer and write it on a piece of paper.  They hold the piece of
paper up to the window so the pilot can see: "You're 30 feet off the
ground."

"Ah-ha!" says the pilot, who flies straigh in the air, adjust his heading
32 degrees, flies 27 miles, and lands at the airport.

The copilot is incredibly impressed with this, and asks "How did you know
where the airport was?" "Well," says the pilot, "they gave us a
technically correct answer that was absolutely no help, and I know where
that Microsoft has an office 27 miles South-West of the airport, I just
put two and two together."