Good fiction needs to have a base in reality to be believable.
Your ersatz pilot would need more than intelligence to pull this off. He would need a basic understanding of aviation. Even then, a successful outcome would be unlikely.
THAT is exactly what would make the book scary and exciting!
Derring-Do, Risky, Dangerous and Unreal are all things
that enable us to escape the daily grind of our lives.
Never mind that it’s not “realistic”. Reality can be a
bit . . . boring. (Most of us wouldn’t know a Piper Cub
from a Boeing 747. Plus, you don’t want “experts” messing
around with YOUR book anyway. “Experts” can be very boring.
(Don’t listen to Twinkie. She’s a Twinkie.)