He was causing ulcers before the landing, maintaining radio silence all the way in to Palm Beach International Airport, in Florida, Wednesday. It wasn't as though they didn't know he was coming -- the 172 looked just fine on radar -- but they didn't know what he was planning to do.

Controllers, trying several frequencies, couldn't get a response from pilot Mark Davis, and didn't know what to expect when he landed... or even if he would make it. Did he have an inflight problem? Was he being hijacked? Was he seriously ill?

Fortunately, as Davis was preparing to pay the airport a visit, no commercial traffic was storming into the airspace, and controllers there kept everyone else out of the area, trying to help the slow, silent plane.

When Mr Davis landed, airport security and Sheriff's officers met him; they were quoted by local television as saying he appeared "strange." They administered a typical "roadside sobriety test," which WPBF, Channel 25, reported, he didn't ace. When 'requested' to take a breath test and urine test, he reportedly refused.

The FAA and the police don't seem to be taking this escapade as a security breach of any kind; but this display of airmanship is not smiled on by those who fly, and those who regulate.

The American Flyers flight school, owners of the plane, wouldn't comment to media, immediately following the report.

Davis, for his part, celebrated the night of his 54th birthday in jail.

FMI: www.americanflyers.net/about/bro_ppilot.asp