They should make a movie loosely based on his life starring Burt Reynolds and call it “Smokey and the Bandit 3: Adventures of the Barefoot Bandit.” It could even be a prequel.
In a home break-in incident in South Dakota, before he stole the plane in Indiana and flew to the Bahamas, the home owner caught him in the basement in the dark. The ‘bandit’ shined a laser light on the home owner’s chest and said he had a gun.
He is lucky the home owner didn’t shoot him. But ha ha it was probably just a laser pointer, right?
Well, when he was arrested in Bermuda he was running away and had a gun when the cops disabled his stolen boat by shooting at the engine.
He is lucky he is not dead and did not get anyone else killed while he was at it.
He’s stolen planes and other property valued at several hundred thousand and he’s left $100 at an animal shelter. Robin Hood has apparently been hit really hard by the recession.
I’m wondering if the C-note was from the entertainment lawyer or perhaps his mom, or at least at their suggestion. It seems way too contrived. And while he’s not Taylor Lautner or otherwise gorgeous, his looks are on the fulcrum where you could sorta kinda make him cute if you wanted; if he had a face full of acne and was 30 pounds overweight he’d probably be a villain. If they do make a movie though I can totally see some Zac Efron/Kevin Zegers type playing him and it’s basically a remake of PUMP UP THE VOLUME with plane theft added, something like the film of Catch Me if you Can. (The real Frank Abagnale deserved an ass kicking that would have cleared the Atlantic.)
It’s just nice to see a gamer with ambition. I guess he got tired of playing Grand Theft Auto.
Now that I’ve got some extra time I think I might just buy that game and see what the youngsters of today consider good clean fun
Of course, if my plane’s stolen it’s covered by insurance, if my yogurt is gone, than I’m out a buck.
OK now who will play this young man in the made for TV movie?
I recall stickers on aircraft warning of FBI punishment for tampering. Biggest thing I ever stole was a 53’ truck trailer. Guys at the shipper wanted it moved, so…
Saw the news video of his arrest that day, him walking in handcuffs, never heard of him before that clip.
I have to admit I’m impressed he taught himself to fly, or more precisely taught himself to land (which to my understanding is the hardest part). Of course the Bahamian crash shows the problem with autodidacticism, but presumably he’d landed planes just fine before.
I heard he’s stolen at least three airplanes, but I can only confirm a Cessna 182 Skylane and a Cessna 400 Corvalis. He crashed them both. I wouldn’t say he really taught himself to land.
(I’m reminded of the time I took a friend up in a helicopter. He assured me that he could fly it, since he played so many helicopter computer games. :rolleyes: This is also the bonehead who had mud on his shoes and was trying to clean it off – putting his leg over the collective lever while I was trying to take off. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: )
Jesus Christ.
I told him very sternly, ‘Don’t do that again.’
Shit.
Should have shot him.
Robert Mason described trading off flying helicopters with fixed wing pilots.
I have no idea how they got away with it, but he wrote that helocopter pilots transitioned to fixed wing more easily than the fixed guys could fly a helicopter. Maybe they had muddy boots.
I got my fixed-wing certificate first. Helicopters came easily to me – except for the landings. My approaches were perfect. My flares were perfect. Everything was perfect until the very end. My instructor couldn’t figure out why I always messed up the stopping bit. I finally figured it out on my own. In an airplane you hold the nose up until it stops flying, and keep the nose up to bleed off speed. In a helicopter you flare, then level the skids and come into a hover. If you don’t level the skids, you descend backwards. So what I was doing was trying to land a helicopter like a Cessna. Once I figured it out I leveled the skids on the next landing. Beautiful. My instructor wondered how he finally got through to me. I had to tell him he didn’t, and that I figured it out myself.
But I hope it was a learning experience for him. Perhaps he had another transitioning pilot, and now knew what to look for. My learning experience with my boneheaded friend was never to trust a passenger – especially one who thinks he knows everything. Now I know to remind passengers to keep their appendages inside of the aircraft; and to be aware that although they seem to be behaving themselves, they’re liable to do anything when you turn to look for approaching traffic. Another instructor and I both learned to check the mixture control when the helicopter wouldn’t start. Even using a checklist, it’s easy to skip something. My dad was in instructor (fixed-wing) and he took another instructor up for a biennial. She shot the landing, and then threw up her hands ten feet above the runway. ‘Ta-da!’ Dad took control and landed, and asked her what the hell she thought she was doing. She told him, ‘I just wanted to remind you that your student will always try to kill you.’ 
Even though I’m waaaaaay not-current, I still like to learn from others’ mistakes, and remember the ones I’ve made. Someday I’ll get airborne again, and lessons learned make for safer flying.
In any case, as Harris-Moore demonstrates, computer games are no substitute for one-on-one instruction.
Damn, can we hijack a thread, or what?
Yeah, the OP is gonna be pissed!
Oh, wait a minute…
Say, I did try to get it back on-track at the end. 
Tell it to the Mods.
In recent news, the ‘Barefoot Bandit’ is on the loose, as a young boy with a shaved head and tattoos has posted bail.
Crashed-plane owners ‘not spiteful about kid’
I guess he’s just an Excitable Boy. I mean, he’s Only A Lad.
You know… I’m not a violent person. I wouldn’t beat the crap out of Colton-Harris. But there’s no way in hell I’d be that ‘understanding’.
Can that range be correct? It looks like you would need over 100 gallons of fuel to make 1200 miles, and usually they leave at least 2 hours of fuel in reserve, don’t they? At 17 gph, assuming 200mph, the thing would need to be aloft for 6 hours in order to clear 200 miles, and frankly that plane doesn’t look like it could hold 100 gallons of fuel unless it was all inthe passenger compartment.
In addition, looking at its capacities, it says the max weight is 3600lbs, empty weight is 2575lbs, and fully loaded with fuel it only leaves 418lbs for passengers and gear. So let’s do some math:
3600 - 2575 = 1025lbs
1025lbs - 418lbs = 507lbs
507lbs / 6lbs per gallon = 84 gallons.
84 gallons / 6 hours aloft would mean fuel consumption of around 14 gph, which is below the rate quoted in the wiki article, and would leave you on fumes.
In conclusion, I call bullshit.