We might have found the most dedicated Grand Theft Auto VI tribute as of yet. A commercial pilot flew for more than eight hours straight so the GPS trail of his plane would sketch out GTA 6's cover art across the flight-tracking maps.
The pilot is Benjamin McDaniel, who posts as The Pilot Picasso out of Bentonville, Arkansas. On November 5, he took off from Bentonville Municipal Airport late morning and didn't land for a full eight hours, give or take, hand-flying his 1978 Cessna 182 Skylane RG in one continuous loop.
The finished track is unmistakable, the "Grand Theft Auto VI" logo, a helicopter, palm trees, an alligator, a sports car and a woman in a bikini holding a pistol are all visible based on the flight path.
He even shared a time-lapse of the whole path forming on his account, tagging Rockstar Games, with a caption that nails the mood, "I spent 8 hours drawing GTA 6 in the sky but realistically I've been waiting 11 years for this moment." There is no skywriting here, nothing was visible from the ground. The art exists only as the GPS line on Flightradar24, or other similar apps, drawn by flying the route by hand with no autopilot for the picture itself.
McDaniel is not a hobbyist with a gimmick. He is a commercial pilot and instructor with more than 1,800 flight hours, who started turning flight paths into art in 2023 as a way to build time and stay sharp. His gallery already includes the Mona Lisa, Edvard Munch's The Scream, Spider-Man and a Skyrim dragon, alongside awareness pieces for causes like breast cancer and suicide prevention. Each design takes weeks to plan and is flown as one unbroken line, sometimes paid for. This one though was purely out of his love for Grand Theft Auto.
The helicopter, palm trees, alligator and pistol-toting woman go heavy on the same Vice City and Leonida iconography. So far, Rockstar has not acknowledged the flight. Every report calls it an independent fan project with no studio involvement, while McDaniel keeps urging followers to tag Rockstar so someone there notices.
The Pilot Picasso's GTA 6 flight, by the numbers
Detail | What we know |
|---|---|
Pilot | Benjamin McDaniel, "The Pilot Picasso" |
Based | Bentonville, Arkansas |
Plane | A 1978 Cessna 182 Skylane RG, registration N1810R |
Date | November 5, 2026 |
Flight time | About 8 hours and 8 minutes, hand-flown |
The image | GTA 6 cover art, logo, helicopter, palm trees, alligator, car and more |
Where it shows | Flight-tracking maps only, no skywriting |
Official | No, an independent fan tribute |
Benjamin McDaniel's eight-hour flight path drew GTA 6's cover art across the flight-tracking maps.
Fans have found some wild ways to fill the wait. Kai Cenat is streaming five GTA games back to back. The Grand Theft Auto V community is planning one last mass cruise through Los Santos. An eight-hour flight to draw the cover art fits right in with a fanbase this invested.
With that said, McDaniel's eleven-year wait is an admittedly long time to wait for a video game. People are marking the moment however they can and McDaniel marked it in his own special way, by strapping into a 48-year-old Cessna and turning the sky over Arkansas into a canvas.
Whether or not Rockstar ever notices, that is a love letter traced on flight-tracking maps.