[ExI] The Flight of the Lawn Chair Man, Part II

[Amara Graps]

US Man Makes Balloon Chair Trip
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7491841.stm

Man flying lawn chair lifted by helium balloons
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j037p6KBSOGf46HoBgu15lsCUGUgD91O0IGO0


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If you're wondering if we have seen this audacious act performed before,
then you wondered right. Yes, indeed we have. This man was inspired
by that 1982 event.

What is is about Americans who like to take flights in lawn chairs
hovering ~15,000 feet altitude, lifted by helium balloons?

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The Flight of the Lawnchair Man
http://www.snopes.com/travel/airline/walters.asp

The incredible flight of Larry Walters, a 33-year-old Vietnam veteran
and North Hollywood truck driver with no pilot or balloon training, took
place on 2 July 1982. Larry filled 45 weather balloons with helium and
tethered them in four tiers to an aluminum lawn chair he purchased at
Sears for $110, loading his makeshift aircraft (dubbed the "Inspiration
I") with a large bottle of soda, milk jugs full of water for ballast, a
pellet gun, a portable CB radio, an altimeter, and a camera.

Donning a parachute, Larry climbed into his chair from the roof of his
girlfriend's home in San Pedro while two friends stood at the ready to
untether the craft. He took off a little earlier than expected, however,
when his mooring line was cut by the roof's sharp edges. As friends,
neighbors, reporters and cameramen looked on, Larry Walters rocketed
into the sky above San Pedro. A few minutes later Larry radioed the
ground that he was sailing across Los Angeles Harbor towards Long Beach.

Walters had planned to fly 300 miles into the Mojave Desert, but the
balloons took him up faster than expected and the wind didn't cooperate,
and Walters quickly found himself drifting 16,000 feet above Long Beach.
(He later reported that he was "so amazed by the view" that he "didn't
even take one picture.") As Larry and his lawnchair drifted into the
approach path to Long Beach Municipal Airport, perplexed pilots from two
passing Delta and TWA airliners alerted air traffic controllers about
what appeared to be an unprotected man floating through the sky in a
chair.

Meanwhile, Larry, feeling cold and dizzy in the thin air three miles
above the ground, shot several of his balloons with the pellet gun to
bring himself back down to earth. He attempted to aim his descent at a
large expanse of grass of a north Long Beach country club, but Larry
came up short and ended up entangling his tethers in a set of
high-voltage power lines in Long Beach about ten miles from his liftoff
site. The plastic tethers protected Walters from electrocution as he
dangled above the ground until firemen and utility crews could cut the
power to the lines (blacking out a portion of Long Beach for twenty
minutes). Larry managed to maneuver his chair over a wall, step out, and
cut the chair free. (He gave away the chair to some admiring
neighborhood children, a decision he later regretted when his impromptu
flight brought him far more fame than he had anticipated.)

Larry, who had just set a new altitude record for a flight with
gas-filled clustered balloons (although his record was not officially
recognized because he had not carried a proper altitude-recording device
with him) became an instant celebrity, but the Federal Aviation
Administration was not amused. Unable to revoke Walters' pilot's license
because he didn't have one, an FAA official announced that they would
charge Walters "as soon as we figure out which part [of the FAA code] he
violated."

Larry hit the talk show circuit, appearing with Johnny Carson and David
Letterman, hosting at a New York bar filled with lawn chairs for the
occasion, and receiving an award from the Bonehead Club of Dallas while
the FAA pondered his case.

After Walters' hearing before an agency panel, the FAA announced on 17
December 1982 that they were fining him $4,000 for violating four
regulations: operating "a civil aircraft for which there is not
currently in effect an air-worthiness certificate," creating a collision
danger to other aircraft, entering an airport traffic area "without
establishing and maintaining two-way communications with the control
tower," and failing to take care to prevent hazards to the life and
property of others. Larry quickly indicated that he intended to
challenge the fines, stating sardonically that if "the FAA was around
when the Wright Brothers were testing their aircraft, they would never
have been able to make their first flight at Kitty Hawk." He also
informed the FAA (and reporters) that he couldn't possibly pay the fine,
because he'd put all the money he could save or borrow into his flight.

In April the FAA signalled their willingness to compromise by dropping
one of the charges (they'd decided his lawnchair didn't need an
air-worthiness certificate after all) and lowering the fine to $3,000.
Walters countered by offering to admit to failing to maintain two-way
radio contact with the airport and to pay a $1,000 penalty if the other
two charges were dropped. The FAA eventually agreed to accept a $1,500
payment because "the flight was potentially unsafe, but Walters had not
intended to endanger anyone."

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(and there's more.. with a sad ending)


-- 

Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado