Space Shuttle Missing, Found in Iceland, Barefoot Bandit Suspected
By: Norm Goyer
Newsflash Sunday July 11, 2010: Colton Harris-Moore has been apprehended in the Bahamas in a stolen boat. Coming up next a movie, no doubt, more waste of money. Norm
The Barefoot Bandit was finally captured in the Bahamas while attempting another escape in a stolen boat.
Nineteen year old Colton Harris-Moore, The Barefoot Bandit, alias the AH (Anti Hero), of course I prefer the other definition of AH. Once again the International Media, whom I have always suspected of possessing extremely low I.Q. has fallen in love with a loser, and I mean loser. The six foot five criminal, in jail at 12 years old, and on the lam ever since is not a hero, he is not a genius, as his gravel throated mother loves to insist. She claims her love and respect of her genius son, “only a few points below Einstein. I am so proud of him, flying a plane and he never had a lesson.” Too bad the AH never learned how to land one of them. Let’s discuss this “airplane flying” without a lesson. I am not saying that this didn’t happen, but only that it is highly unlikely that it did. I am assuming a wait and see position of this whole story. Why does the press insist on putting airplane garbage on the front page and burying wholesome aviation stories in the want ads? I guess good people doing good things is not news. Look at Captain Sully, he was the same great pilot many years before he lucked out and splashed down in the middle of the Hudson River. The press has been guilty of this for decades.
He was previously suspected of stealing a Cessna 182 and crashing it while attempting to land.
Remember the fiasco the press caused when they followed the little girl, Jessica I believe, who was going to “fly around the world” or some such nonsense. Well the instructor that was really flying the airplane and keeping Jessica supplied with lolly pops and coloring books wasn’t so hot a pilot either and managed to crash in lousy weather killing them both. For What? So the parents could bask in their kids questionable accomplishments, the same as the cretin parents who allowed their 16 year old daughter to try to sail around the world and almost died. Joe Jackson and Lindsey Lohan’s dad are others in this category. It takes no skill to be parents, hell, even the dumbest animals in the world are better parents than some of the “reality show” seeking moms and dads. But if the press did not give them front page and prime time coverage, there would be no reason for their actions. Shepard Smith on Fox News Channel last Thursday at noontime PDT, interviewed Lohan and it took about two minutes before Lohan revealed what type of parent he really was, it was one of the most dramatic interviews I have seen on TV in years. The dad even managed to toss the “F” bomb before it could get bleeped out.
He is also accused of stealing a high performance Cessna 400 Corvalis in Indiana and flying it to the Bahamas where he again, crashed it on landing.
Now back to the latest aviation loser, the Barefoot Bandit who reportedly stole three airplanes, none proven so far. I was able to uncover only two, a Cessna 182 and the Cessna 400 Corvalis (Lancair) which he alleged ditched in shallow water in the Bahamas. Now there is no way that an untrained pilot could start, taxi, take off and get back on the ground in a 182 on his second ever flight without killing himself, if he had not had some actual in-the-cockpit instruction. His mother told anyone who would listen that he learned from books and he had a Microsoft flying simulator game, and of course he was a genius. Sure didn’t get his brains from his mother. That short flight was a very remote possibility under some conditions that we do not know about as yet. But stealing a 310 hp low wing speedster with a glass cockpit and complex flight controls and engine management requirements, and then flying it over a 1,000 miles from Indiana to the Bahamas through complex airspace, military restricted zones, airport altitude restrictions requires a lot of knowledge about flying. It almost requires IFR knowledge, from two short flights, I don’t think so. So what happened? Either he has had extensive pilot training, he had someone with him, who knew how to fly these complex airplanes, or he didn’t take them in the first place. I was talking to son Robert about this guy and both of us agree that taking off a plane is not that complicated whereas getting it back on the ground is very complex. So it is remotely possible that he simply managed to take off, and then ignoring all other rules of safe flight bored a hole in the sky until he was forced to crash land. Nothing he has been accused of so far has ever been proven. Again, these excursions might have happened and for one I dearly hope that they catch this clown and stuff his butt into the AH cage for a very long time. (He was caught a few days ago and is now behind bars) He has been lucky so far, all he is accused of is stealing over a million dollars in property and causing untold property damage, but nobody has been killed or injured, as yet, I don’t believe.
Once again the public is presented with a negative, stunt type, criminal type of activity that is 100% wrong for aviation at this time. The Red Bull races, really time trails, stunt flying at air shows and the balloon boy exploding all over the front pages is not the way to attract young or old people to become pilots. NG
July 15th, 2010 at 2:07 am
Norm,
I’ve no idea what the truth is, but I have to disagree that one could not self-learn, even to the point of landing the plane (albeit not pretty, as has been the case with Colton).
That being said, I am only annoyed by the fact that this cocky idiot will probably make a million bucks from selling his story. Hopefully, he will see the movie the first time from a jail cell.
I will concur that neither he or his mother are likely members of Mensa International.
Dan