A childhood belief about aeroplanes

Even as a little kid in prewar New Guinea, we flew almost everywhere as there were no roads or other connections. Getting off the ground never worried me, but I couldn't work out how we landed, as my own landings off the high verandah at home were minor disasters, and planes were much higher. Then one day we were landing at the mining town of Wau, and I looked out the window to see we seemed to be running down a hill. That explained it - the pilot looked for a high hill, and just ran down the side of it! I was telling this story 40 years later to be told by my Uncle, who also lived in Wau that there actually was a hill at the end of Wau airstrip, and far from being a landing aid was a darn nuisance to pilots.