[ought-six]

“OTOH, San Diego is a major naval base and used to be a pleasant place to live, so I suppose it is child’s play for a retired Navy pilot used to flying off and landing on aircraft carriers.”

Very, very few commercial pilots have such experience.

[Vigilanteman]

Now they don't. I am guessing there were a lot more of them available when San Diego airport was designed.

I know a former US Air pilot, late 70s, who aged out of the commercial fleets but STILL has a job training younger pilots just because he loves the work. He was a USN Pilot who flew off carriers before he got the US Air job.