Terrible airmanship and the straw bale accident immediately came to mind. He is not just endangering himself but also anyone who flies that aircraft in the future. If I was the van owner I'd be pretty irate as well.
My little aeroplane pulled its tiedowns out of the ground and ran free during a night of rain and gales on a landaway nightstop some time ago. I had a nasty feeling a wingtip might have hit the ground during its escapade before it was apprehended. I inspected the thing at great length but was not willing to fly it until I had an LAA inspector check the wing internals himself. To knowingly hit the wing and fly anyway is shocking. Perhaps the same mentality as the supermarket moms who grind down the side of adjacent cars trying to nose into parking slots and then hope nobody noticed.