Kind of surprised no one on here has (to my knowledge) mentioned anything about the bizarre story of the pilot that claimed his windshield imploded. He put the plane on autopilot, bailed out and let the plane crash in a neighborhood in Florida. Looks like he tried to fake his death because he was swindling a bunch of investors.

Anyone have any inside info on the guy? He was an acrobatic pilot, among other things.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/14/missing.pilot.found/index.html

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Behind every great man is a great woman. Behind every great woman is a great behind.

I've heard about this over the past few days. I haven't read the article, but from what I've heard, he apparently wanted the plane to ditch over the Gulf of Mexico, but it ran out of fuel too soon and crashed on land instead. If it had crashed into the Gulf, not finding a body wouldn't have been a big deal. But because it crashed on land intact and no body was found nearby, they were able to deduce that some shenanigans had occured.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Wasted a perfectly good airplane, too! He has a pretty hot-looking wife. I guess she'll be moving on to greener pastures as he moves into the big house . . . .

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

His story has been circulating on a legal listserve to which I subscribe. Apparently he had stuff stashed around in different places, which is going to give some real teeth to the Federal criminal charges he is going to face about ditching that plane.

The real crime is what he did to that plane....a perfectly beautiful Piper...

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"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

X2

I noticed this story on the MSN home page. Figured someone here would bring it up.

I agree, the worst of it is the loss of the aircraft. Thank God it didn’t kill anyone on the ground. Or take out any valuable structure.

I’m thinking he must have thought it would make it out over the Gulf before it became a yard-dart. That way things might add up in his favor, with no body found, airplane last seen on radar over the water, no way to prove the screen didn’t come in on him, etc.

Instead – Oops !! A bit short.

So much for being a so called “great pilot”. Looks to me like he may have missed a simple fuel consumption calculation on this one.

I’m with you. I feel for the loss of the plane.

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

I heard on one of the radio reports that some planes were scrambled after his mayday message and that they observed the empty plane cruising along on auto-pilot. If true, one more flaw in his pea-brained plan.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

The moral to that story is, if you're going to rip off a bunch of people, do it in grand style, get enough money to buy your way out of it, and know where to hide it so nobody else can find it . . . Bernie Madoff apparently knew how . . .

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

It only looks easy in the movies.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

A Purdue grad!

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.