'Lawn Chair' Larry Walters
Created | Updated May 8, 2007
Urban myths and stories have been floating around e-mail systems and the Internet for years. Famous stories such as the JATO car crash1 regularly make us laugh, but we all know that they are not true...or do we? The Darwin Awards show that people can be ridiculously stupid some times, in fact the hero of this tale almost earning himself a Darwin in the process. Step forward one Lawrence Richard Walters, or as he became better known Lawn Chair Larry.
Lawrence Richard Walters was born 19 April, 1949 he led a fairly uneventful normal life as a truck driver in southern California until the fateful day 2 July, 1982. On that day Larry turned himself into a legend. Ever since he was a boy Larry had dreamed of flying, but he'd been turned down from becoming a pilot by the US Airforce due to his bad eyesight. Years before whilst still a young teenager he'd seen weather balloons and now he decided to go for it himself. Larry planned to purchase some weather balloons and tie them on to one of his patio chairs2 and sail to the Mojave desert 300 miles away.
Higher and Higher Baby
So with the plan devised, Larry and his girlfriend Carol Van Deusen forged a requisition from the Filmfair studios. They then used this to purchase 45 four-foot diameter weather balloons and the necessary helium tanks from the California Toy Time Balloons store. The cover story Larry used was that the studio needed the balloons for an advertising shoot. They returned to Carol's house in San Pedro, California and started to set things up in her back yard. Larry's friend, Ron Richlin, was also there to help out and to act as 'ground crew', and the team proceeded to inflate the balloons with the helium and attach them to the patio chair. The team attached some plastic bottles filled with water to act as ballast and Larry picked up an airgun so that he'd be able to shoot the balloons when he needed lower himself back to the ground. Other equipment included a CB radio so that he could to talk to his ground crew and a camera to take photographs. With the plan, of a pleasant afternoons floating ahead Larry packed himself a few sandwiches, some soft drinks3 and then strapped himself into the chair. At Larry's request one of his 'friends' then cut one of the two cords tethering the chair to Ron's Jeep. All was okay for a while, but then the other nylon tether snapped and Larry started to rise. But instead of a mere 1000 foot or so the balloons rapidly took Larry up to a lofty 16,000 feet!4 At this fairly shocking development, Larry’s glasses fell from his nose. Fortunately he had a spare pair, so simply radioed his ground team saying:
I can see perfectly — don't worry5.
Larry did not dare shoot the balloons as planned in case the chair became un-balanced and he fell. So he was helpless when the chair started drifting first over Long Beach Harbour and then over the landing approaches to Long Beach airport. Here he was spotted by TWA and Delta airlines pilots who reported him to the tower. Larry then had contact with REACT, a CB monitoring organization, who recorded their conversation:
REACT- What information do you wish me to tell them (the airport) at this time as to your location and your difficulty?
Larry- Ah, the difficulty is, ah, this was an unauthorised balloon launch, and, uh, I know I'm in a federal airspace, and, uh, I'm sure my ground crew has alerted the proper authority. But, uh, just call them and tell them I'm okay.
However things were not okay. He'd been in the air for 45 minutes and at that altitude it is very cold, with planes flying around him Larry realised he needed to get back down to terra firma. He took the airgun and shot out a couple of balloons. This seemed to have the correct effect and Larry started to descend6. Larry hoped his descent would land him at the lawn of the Long Beach Country club, but instead he came up short. Landing at 432 45th Street a residential neighbourhood in North Long Beach, where his amateur aircraft finally settled on some high voltage power lines 10 miles from his starting point. Larry was protected from electrocution by the plastic safety covers but was stuck in place until the fire brigade and utility crewmen could cut the lines to free him, consequently blacking out long Beach for 20 minutes.
Trials and Tribulations
Larry was immediately picked up by waiting members of the Long Beach police but there laid a problem, the regional safety inspector of the Federal Aviation Administration, Neal Savoy is reported to have said
We know he broke some part of the Federal Aviation Act, and as soon as we decide which part it is, some type of charge will be filed. If he had a pilot's license, we'd suspend that. But he doesn't.
With the reporters on Larry's tail a law needed to be found that Larry could be charged with and at the FAA hearing on the 17 December, 1982 Larry was charged with a total of 4 counts;
- Operating a civil aircraft for which there is not currently in effect an airworthiness certificate.
- Operating an aircraft within an airport traffic area without establishing and maintaining two-way communications with the control tower.
- Creating a collision danger for other aircraft.
- Failing to take care to prevent hazards to the life and property of others.
This created a grand total fine worth $4000 which Larry immediately decided to fight stating 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.
The following April the FAA relented slightly and decided to drop the charge based on the chair needing an airworthiness certificate and lowered the fine to $3000. Larry requested that if he change his plea to guilty on the count of failing to make contact with the control tower and pay a $1000 fine the other two charges could be dropped. The FAA agreed but only if he compromised to a $1500 fine their statement said,
The flight was potentially unsafe, but Walters had not intended to endanger anyone.
Notoriety and Tragedy
Larry became a celebrity over night he was interviewed by the press and media, stating that
It was something I had to do. I had this dream for twenty years, and if I hadn't done it, I think I would have ended up in the funny farm. I didn't think that by fulfilling my goal in life — my dream — that I would create such a stir and make people laugh.
Larry was invited on to The Tonight Show and Late Night with David Letterman and did a few guest appearances as a motivational speaker. However he never made a lot of money from his adventures other than a few hundreds dollars here and there and a $1000 deal to appear in an advert for Timex watches based on 'adventurous individuals'. Meanwhile Larry's personal life was falling apart, he split with Carol after spending 15 years of his life with her, he left his job as a truck driver and becoming increasingly depressed. On the 6 October, 1993 Larry hiked to his favourite spot in the middle of the Angeles National Forest and committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart.
The Chair
Perhaps the most famous item of the flight was the actual chair. Larry gave it to a young boy called Jerry who lived local to him and was interested in his story. Long thought vanished7 the chair turned up some 20 years later in the same condition it had originally flown in. The now adult Jerry had contacted Mark Barry, the owner of a website documenting Larry's famous flight, and stated he still owned the chair with ballast water bottles still attached and was going to donate it Larry's mother.
So to the moral of the story; next time you receive a funny story by e-mail please don't just assume it's only a tall tale. You never know - there may just be some actual grain of truth in it somewhere! Oh yes and if you're wondering, as most people seem to do, why Larry even considered the flight in the first place perhaps we can let the man himself answer, as he told the first reporter who also asked him the question why....
A man can't just sit around.
Later Carol reported she had found his glasses, to which he replied, 'Well, that's good news.'6Larry actually managed to drop his airgun during his descent, not during his ascent as many versions of the story tell it!7Larry actually had to turn down the Smithsonian Institution's request for the chair as he no longer had it.
