I think I would have scrounged up a corpse similar to me in age, weight and height. Ripped out the lower jaw and remove all the upper teeth as well. Strap it into the pilot seat, make sure the plane was full of fuel before departing. Set the plane on fire with a simple incendiary device using aviation fuel. Then bailed out. Of course you'd have to have a fake ID set up along with travel plans to leave the country for awhile. Or I suppose you could just pose as an illegal alien and stay in country. Even get free health care to boot.
There's always someone hanging around the shore doing something and the last thing you want is to go through all this and find out someone saw a parachutist float down near the shore. The authorities will put 2 and 2 together. Plus you need to call a distress signal so they think you are really in trouble. Be sure the plane goes down where there are no ships or boats around. Also, if you put the autopilot on the plane could get blown off course enough for it to go down where it can be found. It has to go down where it can't be found. This is critical or you will have that on your mind worrying about it. You just have to risk the water and sharks if you want to be free. So that's the plan, let me know if you need help executing , for a small fee.
OK, bad weather and let's say after sunset might help a little. It doesn't have to be right on the shore, the point was I don't want to land on water. The body not found in a still floating plane isn't that bad if the storm was strong enough. Any sensible person would leave a possibly sinking plane. The main point is that a plane going down into the water beats a plane crashing on land anytime. I do know much better ways to disappear. But if I ever need help, I will look you up...