MSFT has a lot to answer for!!

[bobmrg]

Just finished reading "The Barefoot Bandit," by Bob Friel, and it turns out that the guy who was trumpeted as having taught himself to fly was actually taught by Microsoft Flight Simulator. He was flying Skylanes before he was ten. Mix in Sporty's Private Pilot course and a few POHs that he found in planes he had broken into and you wonder what we poor beknighted flight instructors are good for. Of course, he never really learned to land...but because he wanted to avoid landing at actual airports where his activities might have raised an eyebrow or two, he just found places that were semi-flat and without really big rocks or trees and just drove the planes onto the ground. Didn't care about the plane itself because his next step was to steal a car and drive across country until he found a camping spot within walking distance of an airport...where he would steal another plane.

He liked Skylanes, Cirruses, and Columbia 400s. Learned how to use the GPS from reading about them.

Law enforcement comes off looking really bad. Except for those whose job is flying or have pilot certificates, police at all levels seem to be clueless about general aviation (keep in mind that Friel based the book on interviews with the Barefoot Bandit among many others). He stole an airplane from the McMinnville, OR, airport where the state patrol apparently has an operational headquarters.

FBOs and airport managers look pretty bad as well. If a plane was stolen from a hangar at Podunk Hollow (or if a dozen hangars had been broken into), the airport manager or FBO did not bother to call nearby airports and warn them that there was a thief in the area.

Only about ten percent of the book is about airplanes...the rest is about how he came to be such a sociopath.

Bob Gardner

 

[saracelica]

Are you willing to pass it on to another PoA member? PM if yes.

 

[Banjo33]

Was it a good read? It's definitely an interesting story.

 

[LJS1993]

Yea Colton Harris was a real PAIN in Washington State for some time and made law enforcement look like total idiots. If only this kid would have used his brains for something good instead of crime and mayhem. I think this says a lot about MSFS.

 

[LJS1993]

Check this out guys. He wants to be a pilot!!!!!!!!!!! You could be sharing the skies with this kid someday!!!!!!!!

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/bare...-judge-seattle/story?id=15458299#.T-AYExevJ8E

 

[KSCessnaDriver]

Check this out guys. He wants to be a pilot!!!!!!!!!!! You could be sharing the skies with this kid someday!!!!!!!!

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/bare...-judge-seattle/story?id=15458299#.T-AYExevJ8E

So what your saying is, any criminal shouldn't be allowed to fly?

 

[TMetzinger]

And MS Flight Sim made him do it? Man, I don't know how I avoided becoming a criminal, since I've used flight sim since if came on two 360K floppies.

 

[flyingron]

So what your saying is, any criminal shouldn't be allowed to fly?

Not any criminal, but a sociopath? Here is a person whose view of reality is so distorted he has no limits. If criminal law with the possibility of multiple years of prison, then what will paltry FAA regulations mean to him?

 

[AdamZ]

Yea Colton Harris was a real PAIN in Washington State for some time and made law enforcement look like total idiots. If only this kid would have used his brains for something good instead of crime and mayhem. I think this says a lot about MSFS.

mmmm don't think MSFS has anything to do with this anymore than an accounting text book has anything to do with someone becoming an white collar thief.

I think you can expect the movie that will portray him as a hero or at least a likable character. Think about Frank Abignaile and "Catch me if you can" Abignaile now makes a LOT of money helping prevent fraud.

 

[Greebo]

It says MSFS is a damn good flight simulator.

 

[jnmeade]

Society places many expectations on us to stay within a set of normal behaviors. Those of us who give society the most fits seem to be the ones who uses society's tools just slightly over the edge.
As Bob alluded to, we have devised constraints that not all accept. The idea that we can learn to fly out of a book and computer is anathema to the "orderly" among us. The FAA guy versus Waldo Pepper in the movie.
We make a lot of rules and laws trying to force these outliers into a mold that someone forced us into.
I have utterly no sympathy for the miscreant because he gives us all lots of headaches. Bad press, the threat of new rules, more oversight, etc. But, as Pogo has said....

 

[Anthony]

Think about Frank Abignaile and "Catch me if you can" Abignaile now makes a LOT of money helping prevent fraud.

A friend of mine is an investment banker and saw him speak at a conference a few years ago. You are correct, he's legally made millions from the skills he learned as a thief. Cool movie though.

 

[bobmrg]

Are you willing to pass it on to another PoA member? PM if yes.

Got it from the library, Sara.

Bob

 

[LJS1993]

It says MSFS is a damn good flight simulator.

This is exactly what I mean right here guys. I know very well MSFS didn't make him a criminal. On another note the sympathy for this kid from the public is absolutely nauseating.

 

[bobmrg]

Was it a good read? It's definitely an interesting story.

I thought it was. Filled in a lot of gaps for me. For example, the media coverage emphasized his stealing airplanes and never mentioned stealing cars, so I had a mental picture of his taking off from somewhere in the Pacific Northwest and flying southeast to the Bahamas...couldn't understand how he learned to land well enough to make fuel stops or why he wasn't identified and picked up at a fuel stop. I didn't realize that his final flight took off from Illinois with full tanks, and I didn't realize that he purposely "landed" away from airports to avoid being identified and caught.

Bob

 

[bobmrg]

And MS Flight Sim made him do it? Man, I don't know how I avoided becoming a criminal, since I've used flight sim since if came on two 360K floppies.

MSFT didn't make him a sociopath, Tim, but it gave him the tools to carry out his dream of flight. The fact that he perverted those dreams into criminality is obviously not the fault of MSFT. I'm just poking fun at the media "never took a lesson" idea....and it made a catchy forum title, right?

Bob

 

[raider]

hey kids, commit a spectacular enough crime and you could be in movies! nice.

 

[Anthony]

I have to admit, the guy had a lot of guts. Getting into planes he never flew before, with absolutely no training in anything, off airport landings......

Foolish? Stupid? Illegal? YES.

 

[Threefingeredjack]

It says MSFS is a damn good flight simulator.

It is. If I am about to fly to an unfamiliar airport in IMC I try to shoot a few approaches on MSFS. Each approach has, to me, a certain rhythm, a beat if you will, and getting the headings, altitudes, times and frequencies into the flow seems to help me. I still do all the in flight briefs of course, but it is one more tool to build my situational awareness in an unfamiliar setting.

Although I do seem to be looking longingly at a friend's PC-12 lately....

 

[denverpilot]

I have to admit, the guy had a lot of guts. Getting into planes he never flew before, with absolutely no training in anything, off airport landings......

Foolish? Stupid? Illegal? YES.

"Nothing to lose" is often mistaken for "guts".

 

[steingar]

It says MSFS is a damn good flight simulator.

You bet. However badly he mangled his stolen aircraft, he walked away from his flights relatively unscathed. All from a sim and some reading.

He can want whatever. He is a convicted felon, ineligible for any profession with a pay grade higher than janitor.