3holeover, I'll give the bear that one. It is quite natural to anthropomorphize inanimate objects. Why else are vehicles referred to as "she" so much in America?
"The a/c thought it was ok to climb, it helped," merely expressed the concept that the plane was designed to fly and performed accordingly.
(See, bear, I jump when it seems like there are outright conceptual errors or inconsistencies between assertions or conclusions and data. When you are merely being human I'll side with you. Otherwise I'd lose the right to cuss like a sailor at my computers.