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Larry Walters, Airborne Adventurer It was a typical warm summer in the LA area. There had been some discussion about airships and lift after seeing one of the blimps cruise around the area. It was jokingly said that you could probably tie a bunch of balloons on a chair and go up. Of course the debate went to the "balloon men" who sell helium balloons and they don't lift off the ground. Then it went onto how much would it take and how big. No one did any calculations, it was just a verbal "what if..." and "I bet you could do it if...." type bull session. No one really thought much about it. It was an idea he had had for years, but had never "put feet to it". But Larry kept thinking about it and finally went out and got a bunch of "weather balloons." Now these were not the real long weather balloons, though that's what someone called them. (A real weather balloon has a shape that can keep expanding as the balloon gets higher up and the pressures change.) They were more like six foot diameter advertising balloons. He had enough background to know that a balloonist used ballast to dump to go higher and that one had to release helium to descend- hence the pellet gun to pop balloons. I wasn't there on that day or I would have had him do a "lift check" for he was definitely over-buoyant. and had too little ballast. But that was Larry. He had a group of friends hold the tethering lines for him. When they did release the lines, he expected to ascend slowly, but shot up like a cork from underwater. He was in San Pedro at the time he made his flight. According to some people he hit 16,000 feet...I'm not sure that is quite accurate. He did interfere with air traffic and planes were re-routed around him. There was fear that prop wash, turbulence, and rotor wash would spill himout of the lawn chair. Some sources say he lost his pellet gun, others say he used it to pop some of the balloons. He actually had everything tied to the chair and as I recall, he dropped the pellet gun, but later was able to retrieve it from where it dangled below his chair. Larry had prepared for most problems from something to drink, to CB radio, to ballast, and a way back down by popping the balloons. He just didn't anticipate being quite that buoyant. He also had a real concern when the afternoon winds shifted that he would be blown out to sea and he hadn't made plans for that. That is what really motivated him to start popping balloons. He realized his need to get down before he lost total control. Larry was an easygoing, likable guy. Many people will call him a nut, but what he did took courage and a bold step. Larry's bold adventure has helped me set aside both fears of what people might think and also start taking risks to do some things that were a bit more adventurous and beyond what I normally would do. Yeah, crazy adventure, but is it any crazier that someone sailing around the world alone? Or someone trying to make a land speed record in a jet powered car? Or swimming from Catalina to San Pedro? I think it was a great spirit of adventure and had Larry been around at the turn of the century, say 1900-1910, he would have been heroically hailed for his spirit and his acheivement...but now with so many regulators, and such sophistication that we can say it was "illegal, insane, and Darwinistic" we miss out. He fulfilled a dream, far more than most truck drivers or teachers or cops or bureaucrats will ever do. So I like to honor Larry both with the story in my classes and use him as an example of lifts and buoyancy, vectors, etc. Maybe this year I will finally tell my classes of his fate, I don't know. He was a great guy, and a great adventurer. Thanks. Mike Michael Chouinard Physics teacher, Calaveras County, California. Back to Lawnchair Larry