18 yr old, solo, no cert., stolen plane

Sounds like the barefoot bandit all over again,picked the right town however.
 
Well, at least he's not playing 'Knockout'.

I wonder who will get more time in jail, teen plane thief or teen thug knocking out unsuspecting pedestrians?
 
To me he looks to be around twelve years old, but then I'm 70, almost all young people look that way to me. Landing at night on an unlit highway, then taxiing into the farmers yard...heck, I can't decide if I should regard him as a scoundrel or a hero.

If kids can teach themselves to fly without the aid of a CFI, or full knowledge of FARS, could it be perhaps that our FAA bureaucracy has made flying into something much more complex than it actually is?


-John
 
Impossible. No way you can fly without a plastic card in your pocket. Maybe this will inspire more young people to take up flying.
 
He can fly and navigate x country at night without the aid of any lights at his destination other than his airplane LL and perhaps the farmers house and barnyard lights....without any lessons....amazing.

-John
 
If this kid wasn't a habitual thief, I'd admire him. but no, he is a thief.
 
And to think I spent all that dang money $$$$$ "Learning" how to fly. Guess he wins the Solo hour award! Take that!, you guys who think your cool soloing at 4-5 hours. He just whooped your @SS!!
 
I wonder, if when he gets out of the slammer, if any of his flying will count? Like has he already done his solo? It's kind of like that tree falling in the forest thing, without a proper medical and a student certificate, did he actually ever fly at all?

-John
 
Wouldn't the precocious youth also be facing federal criminal charges? And shouldn't they charge him for each of the times he used the aircraft without permission?
Now if he only used his skill for good.
 
My dad was caught doing similar. For a good year him and a buddy would steal a 182 in a hangar next to my grandpas and would fly it all over. They were like 15. Finally one night it was snowing really hard and he flew over the town so low the cops went to the airport.

He ended up having to work at the owners business as community service and that was it. Times were different.
 
Wonder if he stole the computer and flying app he used to get ready to solo ?
 
jesse said:
Times were different.
Click to expand...

Boy, ain't that the truth. We had keg parties in the city park back in the 70's when we were in high school. Few of us were 18 much less 21. The city cops would write us "park permits" and tell us to be careful and make sure the area was spotless when we were done.

And we did!
 
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Tom-D said:
If this kid wasn't a habitual thief, I'd admire him. but no, he is a thief.
Click to expand...

Ain't that the truth.

I've told people time and again that learning the stick and rudder skills is the easy part - this just takes time and x number of trips around the pattern. The hard part is learning the rules, the judgement, navigation, and the weather.

But a thief is a thief.

-Skip
 
If I had tried that I would have promptly crashed somewhere on the left side of the runway
 
jesse said:
My dad was caught doing similar. For a good year him and a buddy would steal a 182 in a hangar next to my grandpas and would fly it all over. They were like 15. Finally one night it was snowing really hard and he flew over the town so low the cops went to the airport.

He ended up having to work at the owners business as community service and that was it. Times were different.
Click to expand...

Today it is not about the criminal or even what he did, it's more about providing busy work for as many bureaucrats as possible. Ever notice how many cop cars will show up to a one cop car job these days?

-John
 
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