Pilot draws sky art with Cessna Skylane RG tracked by flight-tracking fans

A pilot known on social media as "Pilot Picasso" has spent recent months drawing elaborate shapes in the sky, with flight-tracking users watching in real time.

He is Benjamin McDaniel, flying a 1978 Cessna R182 Skylane RG registered N1810R, according to flight-tracking coverage of his activity. His subjects have ranged widely: The Lord of the Rings, the Mona Lisa, The Scream, and a self-portrait.

His flights have been followed more than a million times, and the sky art has consistently ranked high on most-tracked flight lists.

The latest drawing, a rendition of Munch's The Scream, is also his longest. The swirling path took nearly six hours, and the aircraft was airborne for a total of 6 hours 9 minutes.

For Halloween, McDaniel turned to film. A 6 October flight depicted two Ghostbusters in proton packs, their streams framing a "Happy Halloween" message with a ghost above them. The scene took about five hours.

That duration is unusually long for a drawing, and the work demands sustained concentration: McDaniel says he hand flies all of his sky art rather than relying on automated navigation.