Lawn Chair Larry, also known as Larry Walters, had always dreamed of flying. As a kid, he planned on becoming a pilot in the airforce. Unfortunately, he was turned by air force recruiters away due to his poor eyesight. In the wake of the death of his dream, Larry became a truck driver. Despite his inability to build a career … Read More
Lawn Chair Larry – Larry Walter’s Sketchy Balloon Chair Flight
Episode Transcription
Made for robots, by robots. Only read if you're weird
Hey Man, what's going in not much have you heard, have you heard of Larry Walters Wary Walters Yeah. Is that later the cucumbers official? Last name? No? No, you might know him from his more infamous name lawn chair Larry. Yes, yes, yes, yes! Yes! Yes! Yes, yes, okay! Yep M! So I know what we're talking about. So you may have heard of this guy yeah he's pretty famous yeah. He murdered somebody with a lawn chair, just like stood over him lawn chair and then just got guillotine like a Oh God. You know. Is that not longer Larry Yeah? He announced himself before to yes that person's the one I's going to spread his rumors he's. Like you know, the wet bandits were the wet bandits with a lot I'm voluntarily on chair Larry. He was not a murder. No! No! No! No! We know of. I don't know he could have been. I could have been this God on his escape. It took so long because they had put it on the back of a truck and drive it down a highway. I'm just going to Vedal blind people and he's making history as the first blind pilot for American Airlines. You go into a hospital with a Pella in your hind and someone's like what happened. Well, I was looking up at this guy, but forty three heroin, Molin Tiso launcher Larry, was a dude who lived in San Pedro, California, and loved the sky and all things flying and one day he thought it would be cool to strap a bunch of balloons to his lawn chair and go for a flight yeah because it is like what up is based off of right. I think so. I think so there's a lot of imitations after this. He actually wasn't the first to try this though, but we'll get to that. Let's start with dried it huh different people tried it. Oh yeah, it became a thing so because of him or like they had tried it before him. One person tried before him. He got the idea from someone else, let's, let's pack it up. Let's start the story right lawn, chair, Larry, born Richard Walters went by Larry is no name Laurence. Okay, Larry always dreamed of becoming a pilot for the: U S Air Force. He was born in one thousand nine hundred and forty nine. I always dreamed of becoming a pit pilot spent his free time, military surplus stores, buying model airplanes, yeah laying out in his yard, watching the planes fly by wanted to be a pit so bad. Eventually, when I became an adult and sis en listen, the air force wanted to go through their pilot training program become a pilot was to tall no had that eyesight. So you can't see far enough and contact haven't come out yet so we can't do anything for sorry. You can't fly on account of the you know, forehead on your face, there's just no eyes there. Yet you need eyes to feed eyes to fly yeah. You know what they say eyes in the sky, not for heads in the sky. You know so yeah unqualified. I saw the panic in your eyes as you try to figure out a way to end that prose you're like not for heads in the sky. You know you tried that was great yeah, okay, so so he gets, gets, kicked out of high school and is like Hey, you could go, do something else in the air force and but he tried so he was like. No. I can see he's like. I can see he's like he's like look at. I see the here's a thing about flying, though, is like listen here: Ma'am, okay! Well I maybe this is a I've played a lot of flight simulator and here's the thing about flying. You definitely need to see your instruments, but when I fucos life, here's the thing about marriage stupid. You see your instruments, that's important, that's really important yeah kind of. But you look at the window and here's a thing. You know I've died, I've driven a lot. You see your instruments right, you literally go to that one, because you freaking drive here's the thing, but flying is not like driving like you driving on the highway. There's a lot pretty close to you that you need to be able to see pretty well flying. Things are pretty far away the ground's pretty far away. The Sky is pretty far away. All the things are going to hit, but they're pretty far away, so it doesn't matter how good dry sight is. It's bory like it's poorty for everybody, because it's far away yeah. So, let's be honest, does he need good eyesight? I don't know M, maybe to land. No, no, because here's the thing you don't need, if it's blurry is there been a blind pilot? We look that up. please. Is there been a blind? I seriously doubt it. I think it's against the law, but yeah we'll see I guarantee someone's on it. O. Oh, is this another episode? Is there a blind pilot hold on yeah? I believe in that guy or girl. What that's right do an inception. Okay, so hey man yeah, have you ever heard of Miles Hilton, Barber Miles Hilton, barber? HMM! No! Does he happen to be blind just on a guess, yeah. I was just a guess. I your born. I haven't done any research, so this is going to be very good episode or inception episode, but here's a fig in Si shod Miles Hilton Barber as a British adventurer who I'm literally just reading the wikipedia article, despite being blind, undertook a variety of expeditions all around the world to raise awareness for raise awareness and monote money for a charity organization and blind people in general in general. What you raising money for blind folks, please get Juan, I'm just gonna Ven me blind people is his accomplishments, include climbing mount blank and running across the Gobi Desert and accomplishing a flight from London to Sydney Bola by himself. I don't know, there's no way yeah, you would have to wow from London to Sydney. I was literally thing like a right brother situation where he flew like a couple hundred yards or whatever that's a light man. That's like a real flight first blind by it to take undertake what the heck. How would you feel? Was it a solo flight? I don't know, I'm still I'm s so he. How would you feel if you're, let's say you're on American Airlines and ower the Intercom to cup? Ladies and Genleman, we just have a announcement to make our head pilot for the day is making history and everyone claps, and it's like yes, he's making history as the first blind pilot for American Airlines and you you can't be like hold on right, because that seems rude. So here's the deal. Okay, so I don't know exactly I'm still trying to figure out. If I, the Word E of I'm, worried that he might be more interesting than the actual topic, an I'm like I'm a little worried about. So do you want to like? Do you want to do research on it? We talk about a different episode or an you want to. His conception was just as I think, we're kind of to the end of his accomplishments. So he his flight is, what's called a micro flight, I'm still trying to figure out what that means. But you know it's kind of like a microwave right. What yeah it's just based on radio active stuff? Okay, I don't know where I was going with it. Okay fight, so micro flights are okay, microplates are not planes technically they're like they, so you could be a blind like train engineer, that's on track! You you! Let that control you so microplates there like this: Oh okay, okay, sitting them and apparently, and I'm still trying to figure this out. It sounds like the remote controlled. So it sounds like he just sat in this plane. While someone flew into Sydney in this remote control play, I'm not I'm not a hundred percent positive. What year is it? I don't know I mean it seems relatively recent, I'm trying to figure out, because this guy he's a motivational speaker now he he's still alive yeah a rational speaker. Oh here's, his website. Okay, what your one flight happen! This will be helpful. Okay, he took a fifty five day. Twenty twenty one thousand flight, my Columbro flight from London to Ciney fifty five days. Yeah took him fifty five days, so he did have a sited, copilot O, but h he used a speech output technology. I don't know that means to help him pilot his place. So he piloted it. Oh, my gosh and he broke the sound bear okay, but this is it. This is what all I did he. What is happening right now? Who is this guy he's set waiting for you to tell Siruta the globe using eighty different forms of transport, including boat, Bob sled, Whitewater, rafting and swimming scuba, diving Pari sailing. He dined blind, scuba diving stresses me out yeah, that does. Let's see he was the first blind person to participate in a drag racing event driving out a hundred and fifty miles n now got that mountain. I mentioned that he took a four hundred. Kilometer sledge is what this says across Antarctica. He ran across the Sahara. Was He on a hundred and fifty miles across the say? Who is this m? So was so he did a did. He do a dog sled team yeah by himself across him, well yeah, but you got twelve seeing eye dogs to pull your slit. This man is a legend. This guy's I was what was his name again Miles Hilton Barber, myles, Hiland Barber. We should interview them yeah. We should I mean we can we can reach out to him Jus, but it does events yeah. I we got a couple O weeks. We try to give it at the live show no, but I think we should try yeah. I mean no fiddle off that guy, so launcher Lange Larry couldn't make it in the navy or in the Air Force. He couldn't do. What myles could do. That's what's unfortunate. Is that it's been done. It's not done now. Yeah all Lanchere Larry Larry Walters. He was near sighted, okay, Hilton Barbaras, blind yeah, so it's like, so you can see you know you can see some stuff larry. I just can't see all of it. Just can't see all the stuff. We only want people who can see absolutely everything or absolutely nothing, no inbuilt thing we want in the guys. So instead do you play Microsoft flat simulate with your ice clothes, though I've never tried it. But piles do do do do this when they're learning how to fly. I Afar there's two kinds of fine. This vfr Nir VR is visual, so you're, actually looking at the windows and looking where you're going, I a far as instrument so you're flying completely with your instruments and that's what like, like airline Palette, they're all instrument flights, they're, not looking at the window. I mean they'll, look at the window, but that's not how l they're figuring out, where they're going and stuff it's all instrumenting and when they're learning they that they do what's called Hood flights and they have a hood that they wear. That literally attaches to the instruments. So you can't see out the windows, all you can see as your instruments and that's the most terrifying thing in the world to me like trying to fly and not being able to see at the windows, but it's important that were driving one. So I made it downtown. I got pulled over and he was like what are you doing? I was I'm a HOO driving, I'm od training, yeah yeah, so ended up in the hood. I was pretty crazy. You know I was like Whoa, Hey that joke what I just followed my yeah. Well, it's kind of like you see, did you watch bird box now, oh, where they just went off of GPS because you can't, for whatever reason it was like. If you open your eyes, the monster is going to get you or whatever yeah, but they so they covered the car windows and everything and then went off the GPS and they're just driving through the streets just based on the GPS. Interesting yeah same concept. I guess wait. So is this like a post apocalyptic like yeah yeah, it was a little bit like yeah, okay, but here's the thing. So it's like Im Night Shamela made a movie in like two thousand and ten, maybe called the happening. Did you see that one that's got our guy? I don't know if I saw it, but I yew Jackman Mark Walberg S, Robert Den Robert down a junior flash blash, Bon Jovi, you know it's got that guy in it yeah, but the idea of that movie was that the plants are emanating a cent yeah. Whenever I remember the people breathe it, their brain chemistry turns their survival, instinct, flips yeah and they commit suicide. This is the same thing for this was that whatever it was, when you see it, it flips your survival instinct and you kill yourself, weird yeah, it kind of seemed. Like movies had happened. It was like a mix between the happening and the quiet place because you couldn't open your eyes, so it was like a yeah. It was. It was a center book with the Borneo and e they're going down the river blind, yeah yeah, and you can't open your eyes or whatever anyway interesting yeah, so about that yeah. It wasn't. I didn't hate it, but I was like you know. I don't I guess in Killin movie reviews all right. Well, one res so Larry he was like. Well, I can't be a pilot, so I guess I'll do the next best thing and I'll become a truck driver, so he starts driving trucks and in the s he was like. Okay, maybe there's a possibility of me actually flying because in the early s he heard about a story from one thousand nine hundred and thirty seven, where a guy named Al Mingoon. He was a photographer for Para Mountain News. He was putting together a feature photography assignment in Maine, where he needed, like some scenic photography, and so but the the it was thirty seven. So it was not easy to get arial photos like you in one thousand, nine hundred thirty seven yeah, so he this is a so got any pilots that can get arial photos. I mean it was more difficult because you not a lot of is the this. The ES pilots are aren't readily available, there's no helicopters. Yet I think helicopters were like two or three years out. That's how long they took to get anywhere helicopters took. For I mean at that point it was like you know they had to stop every couple hundred feet. You know they hadn't really figured out the fit took so long because they had put him on the back of a truck and drive it down a highway. You know and figure out the flight or yeah. We can get your a helicopter e h. o I hit you like. I go worry yeah get to the CHAPE. You know what I'm saying yeah, IT'S RIGHT! It's over there on the truck. Can it fly? Oh yeah, I mean I was going like eighty down the highway today. Have you or a love one been diagnosed with too many advertisements during the till in podcast? Have we got good news for you? Our patrons enjoy, add free experience and they get early access to content behind the scene, stuff, exclusive merchandise and access to a private discord channel. We all are in it our producers and the hosts. So if you'd like to be a patron today and solve that problem, why don't you text till in to six six, eight six six, but he he read this story about l Mingal. What aw did to get his aerial photos as he bought thirty two weather balloons and he got a like parachutes like harness and he tied it to these weather balloons and tender. I sells the MESELF and let himself lift up so he cud get those photos in Maine for his assignment. Oh my God, and got the time en done, got the photos. Everything turned out great yeah, and so later he heard this story and Larry said well, I could gole, he says I could do that didn't sound like they had a sight test for that one. I could see that I don't need a weather balloons to just about anybody that there's no eye test for weather blue. You show up with one eye and they'll, give you a weather balloon, so he says door. The kid that got like you know was disappeared, and would they thought that he was on the weather balloon Dover with that as the re or I following those Blo, they were following this they're like there's a child potentially trapping this balloon whole time in his parents adic, and that kid that kid you're not gonna, believe it you're not going to leave it Ferdinand Waldo der. I hate you, we wateer so anyway, so Larry, he starts doing the math and he says okay. I want to get about eighty feet into the air. If I want to do that, what i'mm going to need to do is i'm going to need to calculate how much helium like the lifting power of helium and how much helium i could fit in balloons and then figure out how many balloons i'm going to buy so originally he was like i just going to go to a party city and buy like seventy packs of balloons. Is i do in the math and he realizes i'm going to need so many balloons, hardy cities, just selling balloons well yeah like for party blunts and as like i'm gonna, go to a party city it just by like two hundred balloons. Well, he starts doing them now, they're suspicious. At that point they go. They don't sell you over like a hundred a yeah. I definitely happening they go. We he's like nothing. I used to love my kids, i'm just having a party, but what a arty he's like that kid kid kid: child, antike kid cuddy and my other one kid ruck. Okay, so he's like doing actual calculations. I he's doing the math. He realizes. Okay, wait! This is going to be a lot of balloons right all right, and so then he says i could get military surplus balloons and i would only have to get like twenty of them. Military, sor, plus yeah, which i don't know what the i don't know. Why? O? No? U g i mean enough for there's a surplus. You know the military is like here's, the blots. We didn't need this yeah. What is the militia? Did you need? Well i mean everybody. Everyone in the military is got a body. Everyone's got a birthday, doesn't matter for the soldier or civilian like we've got to celebrate oh yeah. What are their names? Sitisens soldier soldier for christ, that checks out? Here's? Here's a bob billion balloons, here's a balloonin blues! Yeah! Do you have i'm looking for balloon? A balloon? An balloons yeah shaped like balon, that's gonna, blue abalone and balona raise the debt ceiling, so we're going to have to attach a few balloons to the debt ceiling so that it comes on up. So we can afford a billion balloony balloons yeah. Hopefully it doesn't balloon the economy yeah. They come from buffalo, so they're buffalonian, but it's a buck. It's a balloonin, buffalonian belloni balloons. I'll tell you what and we actually you know we had enough of them and we had a western teamed restaurant right. So we that's where we stored all of them. We filled we. So we had. We actually renamed the restaurant. It was called the bolognian buffalonian belloni balloon saloon, balloon saloon and they actually, on tuesday nights, we have a bassoonist, so you can come on down to the buffle. No, the balona buff buffalonian balone balloon saloon bussons. He goes by buffoon too much it's too much so anyways. He realizes he could get a bunch of militario military balloons whole military. I used one though yeah. You know what easier on us to a belies and so he's actually on the math with that yeah and there is the what's the: how much helium does it take to lift a person say how much it takes to lift a person's spirits whatever amount it is. That makes you go. You know, that's a good amount. Yeah actual, i could kill a person now, it's so sorry they got so intense. The way i said that was a that was that was very launcher are to ask how to murder somebody. So what a tea spoon of helium take someone out. So, according to house stuff works a helium balloon can lift about fourteen grams. So you need about how many drams of lions to lift one pound. Oh my gosh! So but that's an average party city balloon kaso, here's actually on union university. How many i am twelve years old and weigh about a hundred pounds. How many humian balloons would it take to lift me? This is right before the blo get into it. So yeah posted that day, so they said it would take over. It would take two thousand seven hundred fifty four balloons to left a hundred pounds. So that's why he shifted to the military surplus point, because it's about fifteen or twenty, but he had a hard time finding enough of those. Apparently they weren't in surplus. So instead he shifted and said. Well, i just get weather balloons like the original guy. Who did this and so yeah? He was able to get forty three, but how much? How much our weather balloon lift? Do you know we? Let's see, i hate when you fake type, that's how i type stop it you're going to break my screen. I would rather type like that than this. I could yeah, so a weather balloon can carry a pay load of up to two thousand grams. So let's just figure out graham's to pounds, one grand two and how you know we don't do like hard to does go it's four and a half pounds. So, oh, whether billion can live four and a half pounds, so you need about a hundred of them. To lift i mean about fifty of them lit to two hundred pound person. I guess yeah, so he he got forty three okay, i was gonna, say yeah forty three balloons and he tied him to his lawn chair, fill them with helium put on the parachute captin. I you hold it down whenever you're yeah, so he tied it to his jeep. He tell it. It is g, a sense, and so now what? If hear me out, yeah gets it wrong and the jeep just starts going. He was, oh god, oh god, estro pull the gout. This just did we're we're at a seventy second and pedro. There is a man attached to forty three army surplus weather balloons, weather balloons and a jeep floating across the valley. I'll tell you what's on me. I really hope that someone can wrangle that wrangler and bunch of cowboys running down. Why, with the late trying to last soon, they all catch it and it starts lifting a last a week then, and then the horses go up with them, because i don't know, i don't know how that works, they're strapped in tin, so that they're just because then you got the weight of horses pulling your legs right, just like you're like so the cowboys are screaming rites, pain, and so they are now this. These weather blooms are just blowing al, and i mean it looks l like parlamentare and there just picking stuff up along the way right. The only thing you know what they had to do to save everybody was that someone had to go with a giant axe and then to cut into the town's molasse supply, so the molasses spilled out and they came in strong. Yes, that's the only way to catch. Like a giant, i drap what a crazy in you the turn the city of phoenix into a flis. The phoenix fly trap. That was super quick guys, i'm really proud of that one so anyways on a july. Second, one thousand nine hundred and eighty two he set up those blons fill him with hair with helford three ramballo for heroin. I'll tell you what you want to get high, i just don't get it. We have forty three balloons full of heroin and they're all just on the ground hold on. If these helium tanks are full of heroin, what got sent to the kid's birthday park- and i m k- i got kids rigous- just shoot leave at each other at these. Why is that the thing? Are they syringes now a hell? It is right, we're the ring harlin yeah, but i was thinking they got. Put in the helium tank, no because the heroine was in the helium tank, so the helouan, the hair with sericans. Do you buy heroine by the tank? We don't know yeah. Clearly, this is how you know that me and to him are never involved in anything, sketchy is how often we joke about sketchy stuff, and we don't know they. We don't know a single lingo. You know we got how many grams are in a powder. We don't know you know what is i pa stand for not a clue: yeah anyways i just quited beer, drinking and heroin us, but whatever they are, the same. The same so watch her larry. He fills this balloons with helium puts his parachute on and then straps himself into a literal lawn chair and he grabs his pellet gun, a c b radio, a couple sandwiches, some beer and a camera, and he asks his friend hey. Okay, when i tell you cut the cord that i have tied to my get and let me go for my flight and so, according to his calculations, his calculation said: okay, i'll, probably five on the. What is the pelagon for, like i'm assuming it is it for descent yest's when he wants to go ay he's goin to pu he's not gonna go around town shooting his in the nes from the bullet he's like all right. You go into a hospital with a pellet in your eye in someones, like what happened. Well, i was looking up at this. Guy fled over with forty three heroin bullions and suddenly there was, you know, just got a pellet in my eye. Yeah he's not like he's fining over oh's, like he's like barbara. This is for what you did he's not like hanging out the side of a helicopter non, a no i like, but it's a loch t he's going to shoot himself down: okay, okay, so he's gonna shoot the balloons and that's how he's going wen to come down. Okay, according to his math he's like i should fly about eighty feet in the air, be able to fly, shoot myself down and we're good. So his friend cuts the cord and his long chair starts rising rapidly to sixteen thousand feet. Oh my yeah! He really messed up like he's. Like something's wrong, this isn't going right where he was. Is he strapped into the chair? Yeah he's strapped in the chair? He does okay, and i bet he got an old seat belt that he just like tied to the it's a lot of chairs. It's got those little loops so lost there. I remind me a he's, got the pelagon and what else on a cb radio? Oh a couple of sandwiches, some beer and a camera, a couple, sandwiches yeah and he's way a pershod where's he trying to go. I mean i don't know he's obviously trying to have a picnic up. Eust want to go up. Yeah he's just wants to fly it, so he figured to go about eighty feet in the air. He thought he was just going to fly around like his neighborhood, his e e v guy. I owari there shooting the ether what if they call him on chair larry before this is so we know he's always out there in his long that old lot, chair, ligero up there, so drifting around los angeles at this yeah and slowly at sixteen sand feet. He drifts over a long beach and then is he going toward the ocean while he drifts over the primary approach corridor of the long beach airport, oh no, and so a couple of airplanes spot him and well how we use their their site instruments. They use their eyes. They have good eyesight. He doesn't oh okay, okay, he didn't see a a he's like. What's that noise yeah, like yeah, there's a guy out of chair, he didn't see us at all. I didn't even try to move didn't seem to acknowledge our existence. He had a gun e t even shoot at us. I don't think he knew we were there at a gun. Yeah, that's a hole to yeah so, but imagine also that he did shoot at him right because then you're in more of those little plans easier. What this guy got a egshels doesn't even damage the flame. He gets on the cvras and he's able to contact air trafton, rol and he's like hey. So i'm i don't know what to do and they hey guys oops yeah t a this point. What's up here is a talking dog and a boy scout with me, and i don't really know how to get down so he's talking to aircraft control. He changes channels she alex as drop all of his papers. I mean like they just so and he just washed a halo. Oh no, he just let it happen. He just let happen. That's a professional right there not faced so then he gets in contact with the citizens like radio station called react, and this is this is one of my favorite parts of the whole situation because he gets on the radio station on it react and react. The host gets him on the on the radio he's on his seamy radio on sixteen thousand feet. Yeah and the host is like what information do you wish to tell me at this time as to your location and your day this time at this time on and this he says the difficulty is. This was an unauthorized balloon lodge and i know i'm in federal air space and i'm sure grand crew has alerted the proper authority, but just call them and let him know i'm okay, so he just floats around over the airport for forty five minutes and eventually start he like. Let him know i'm okay, yeahlin up here i'll, probably float somewhere else in a minute o guys just want to let you know you've probably seen, but i'm fine thiry. That's literally not the concern they're on er, like is that guy, okay, the concern was like. Can we get him out of our er, but yeah? Can you go somewhere else? Yeah so is like we don't really have a way of controlling this thing. I do have one of those you don't want to go to a theme park and you get that little fan. You know i've got one of those just and i can try to like try to go through. That's how he's steering himself as other e too far so he's up there and he's really nervous to start shooting his balloons because he's really high and so he's afraid that what will happen yeah, because heroine he's super he's like he's like, if i shoot the balloon somebody can be covered in herein had to tear. When i got that's the every thing i was worried about to is that i am on federal property at me. Lots a hero, idiot amount of herward is illegal, i think, but i've got definitely over whatever the legal limited. We have the legal limit of heroin in bloway past the legal limit of zero heroin, so he he ends up si. If i shoot the balloons, a couple things could happen, one good guy. It could be like a rapid drop in altitude and he a he's afraid that that drop would like pressure and like it would be bad. He would pass out and then he's like he's a the other scenario. The other possible scenario is, i shoot the balloon, and then it puts me off kilter and then i'm hanging in this chair, like sideways yeah, she's, afraid to shoot it basically air tram on trolls, like you guys, start shooting baloon the man, so he does it. He says: shooting balloons everything's, okay, he er she send. He does have a parachute, but i mean that does yeah, but they don't want him to just leave this balloon chair floating through the sky, he's still up there wensday to come, actually juster shoot it down and then lots just up there on the six pack of beer and two sandwiches, just you know up there, for whoever can get it literally is the date of this again. This is july s, one thousand nine hundred and eighty two okay, okay yeah you go to that airport and literally just floating over a runway b is just been to close down the whole airport. Now because it's not open, it's actually a protected national park, so he was very careful trying not to unbound the load. He shot a couple of them and then he accidentally drops his pelagon into the airport and they were like hey lara. We just saw something fall. Can you tell me that was literally anything other than your gun? Well, was it a beer? No was it a sandwich? Larry? No. Was it the pellet gun? You know i am fine. I just want to really know i'm okay, larious, not the concern there. We don't care if you're, no care or not lar, this suck concern over they're all their music. Do you think they abandoned the link that the official o? I don't know- i mean it, sounds like it like from their they're. Just like oh man, you done messed up where you're yeah larry. What are you doing? Hey? Have you er heard of till in podcast march? That's right. We've got a full march store of tilling branded, teas mugs stickers, hoodies a lot more and we put out new designs with every episode, but those are only available for a limited time. So you got to get those while there hot text tilono six, six, eight six, six to get access to our exclusive merchandise, so he now has no way to shoot himself down, but he had shot enough balloons where he's descending, so he descends very slowly. Okay back to the ground, eventually the cables for his balloon get caught and tangled up in a power line: oh no and break the power line, causing a blackout and he's just dangling in his lochar for these paralyses drinking his beer. Somebody get me down, i mean like if you, if it takes you a few hours, i'm fine yeah, i'm okay, i got a tersay, which is i've, got one more peers, and so they arrested them on an intoxicated fly and does get in flyinge flynt, two tousand and twenty vision yeah. So you pay your driving in impaired vision, yeah. So when they finally cut him down long beach, police department was waiting for him and they immediately arrested him. But it took him a while. It took a while to figure out what to charge him with, and they said well they're like if he had a pothesis ence, then we suspend that, but he doesn't so we don't know what to do yeah so eventually they they did get him and the charges that they gave him more a charge of operating a civil aircraft for which there is not currently, in effect, an airworthiness certificate. That was the charge. So basically you just flew something that we haven't said is okay, and so it's figure. I guess he got a fifteen hundred dollar fine, and that was it. That was that that was that did was there any fundraisers that helped him pay it? I would imagine you became a big new story right yeah, so yeah almost just after lying, he told our landing in till the press. I said it's something i just i had to do. He said 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. Oh what that, but did he enjoy it though it's the psych word. Did he enjoy it? Yes, yeah he loved it, he loved every minute of it. He apparently named his lawn chair in the flight, the inspiration one, which i saw where's the launch church today, we'll get to that. I saw in a a another. Video was talking about it and they said the he named it. The ispirito one, which was a missed opportunity called chair force, one o that one but yeah. So he ends at the darwin awards. He got a darwin award n. Ninety three with the title of at risk survivor. I don't know what that's supposed to me, but i the do jas. I don't know what that is either daron awards seem, like you know, dumb people dying, oh darcet ly what it is absolutely yeah, so he ten days afterwards, he appeared on david letterman and then flew in you bring your chair up for our yeah, pretty good share, and so he was kind of reaching this like level of like kind of fame right for it. He paid his fine and everything was whatever and he got in. He was featured in a timex ad, and so he had like a rent. A ran yeah and it was like it was like the ae. Time watch the skies. I don't know i teaboys, so he was the. He was the celebrity endorsement on this time ex ad, and so he quit his job as a truck driver and then became a motivational speaker telling people to pursue their dreams nice. The problem was, he wasn't a good speaker got guys. So i there's no enim. Okay, i'm fine over right and that's how i hits his speech, and so he goes. Others like he's like nine or nine er, and they were like what he is making up. What he thinks is er right, he's like airplanes, but he's like yeah he's a the weather is eighty five here today with the clear skies and visibility. You know what the in to tell you just too much information on planes: yeah thetis, like yeah, the visibile about twelve miles and now bar magic pressures about that and you're just like. Why are you telling me this yeah? I don't you're just bored any of this yeah yeah so but yeah, so he didn't have a career as a motivation. Speaker didn't last long, he ended up going back to truck driving. Imagine, though you do this big thing, you start booking speaking gigs and you're so dog time x at you do a time accent. You have to go back to truck driving yeah. That's sad that as a not the truck driving is sad, but it's just that, like you to go back to whatever your job was before, whatever your job was, it said that he thought. Oh, i just opened up this new career path, this exciting new career path, just to go back see this is a guy's. The limit belivin was sixteen thousand feet. How i found it so the lawn chair he is in the fight. There was a neighborhood boy named jerry who really admired what he did hung around after for a long time after this weird relationship, but o walter gave him the lawn chair as a gift, because he was a big fan. A few years later, the smithsonian reached out to him and asked if they could have the wan chair to put on the exhibit showed up, and he said no well, i don't have it. I gave it to that neighborhood boy, jerry. Oh, they lay said the larian asked: okay, okay, okay, they rased had to larry. I thought they asked us ary yeah. So, twenty years later, jerry is an adult cherry, jerry, jerry cherry cherry, joh. Okay, so all right shut up dude. He ended up with to the san diego aran space museum. Let them take it to put it in their exhibit, and this in so didn't get it yeah. This miss onny, didn't get it in a like sikeson space museum is never said, arrivals. You know the two top museums in the world, the smithsonian and the san diego aran space. I mean we all saw that movie at about the night and night, go where all the planes and lawn chairs come to life. The lancea i've seen that movie. So he ends up later in his life. He did some volunteer work for the forest service broke up with his girlfriend. Lary yeah larry broke up with his girlfriend of fifteen years, had a girlfriend at fifteen years. Yeah it's the sort of situation where it's like yeah. We don't do labels hey. What's what sounds like we'll get married after? I think why yeah and then work were sporadically as a security guard and died in one thousand, nine hundred and ninety three at the age of forty four really young. Oh so, but here's the thing what he did it spawned a legitimate extreme sport called cluster ballooning, where i could do that pope anything with the word clustering. It should be banned forever. That gives you not. The sport is just tie a bunch of balloons to something and write it somewhere. That's the whole sport, it's what he did just over and over again, so the first person to do it was a guy named kevin, wash n n nineteen ight four, just two years after him, he flew to nine thousand feet with fifty seven balloons and then jumped out of it with a parachute. He got a four thousand dollar fine, because fa regulation stuff you know, have they now approved balloon flights. I think you can go get a license for like a recreational pilot license to do balloons, flights, because the genes book of world records. What do you an do like, like you, get like a ses now? What you? What are you going to do? Elwes want to buy some balloons so, but imagine a guy tries to do all this right and he's goes home and just starts and you're walking in your apartment, flood with balloons that he's blown up like that and a in your list bloom. What are you doing he's like i'm going to fly with these you like? Do you know how okay and he just goes outside he's car he drives. His car looks like one of those like just married people, where is a bunch of balloons, trailing behind the car and he's a lot of extra because he knew they'd pop on the dry, so some of them are popping. He opens the back of his trail blazer right. They all start pouring out he's like he's like i gotta go faster. I got a hit eighty eight miles an hour fer to take it off its carpenter oxide, a so passed out several times, blown up all the balloons in two thousand, a d one in new mexico, a team, my coward and steve davis. They flew to eighteen thousand three hundred feet broke the genness book of our wiles record for it and a bunch of other people started doing these flights all over the place. It became really big er. The two sands yeah i feel like weird stuff, became bigger than two sands. You know we were in like slime and all that yeah yeah yeah, that's true! So here's a couple really notable ones: a roman catholic priest and human rights defender by the name of adali, antonio de carley. He took off from brazil and flew across the border into argentina, and this was a big civil rights demonstration. Was him doing this and he was a lawn chair, balloon cluster or cluster ballooning flight, another big a lost er ballooned. He won a darwin award for that as well. Another big one was in may twenty eight two thousand and ten, a guy by the name of a jonathan trap, cross the english channel wow with these balloons, and he actually ironically, this guy. He replicated the house from up for a national gography tv show. He apparently can also build how many balloons would it take to lift the house, i'm sure someone's on the math right, i'm yeah, probably i'll. Look that up a quick yeah you're, so you're just making it up most houses but way between eight thousand and a hundred sixty thousand pounds. So it would take about one point: five million cubic feet of helium or about as much as would be contained in about a hundred and five thousand balloons that were three feet in diameter, so giant balloons. Those are those big balloons that are like from the sivori girl pictures. Oh yeah, those are big bilin. I worry about the sorority houses. You know because they've got those shaped balloons that are just like you know, one two, two zero two one or whatever and like all of a sudden, this or house is floating, was gonna away. You know so jonathan trapp did that trip across the english canal. Big win right. I think i was a f win right, o huge wee winnow w what a win in two thousand and ten. So then, in september thusan he tried to cross the atlantic. You took off from maine but ended up having to land in canada because he was unable to control his balion. So you obviously went off course yeah, so that didn't work out well, he got the canada and was like this. Is india you're all indians, right and they're like bro? It's two thousand and thirteen. I know where i landed. I got a report back. They were like check your iphone like yeah. What's your chip called it's the may flyer, i found a new land in two thousand and thirteen joe barbara. He broke another. He broke the geest book of world records for height at twenty one thousand feet. Oh my gosh, it was a sponsor y rebel. I don't know. Actually it seems like the red bull are. I at yeah would have said hey. Let's do that and then here's my favorite one of all in september. Second, two thousand and twenty the record was once again broken last year, yep at a height of twenty four thousand nine hundred feet suspended. Why one hand, so he literally just held on by one hand- and it was broken by david- blame no way. No way show me a picture no way no way david blaine come on. I e g. He was sponsored by red bull. Of course, it was no way dad blame de david blaine, although you see if i could get a close shot, so you could tell to sometimes i think it's wild that we live at the same time as david blane e. What a wonder to be alive! I mean he's harnessed into it, though well yeah. Obviously they weren't going to be like yeah. We can put this on tv, you just hold on to it. What does arm pops out of socket how old's david blaine, i don't know, let's find out, because he n, i mean he's been doing that stuff for a minute. Would it even blame? We should do an episode. They were blaying, please yeah, okay, how old is this forty, eight forty eight, so i forty seven you're just like you know what i'm gonna. How do you tell your wife hey? I got this idea. I hate the e on the late wax suit is an and you know it's a tear away su so when he lanse is pulled off that, like i've been phoenix jones, this whole time you like what what does happen yeah. So do you remember what it was it like, two thousand and eight two doesna twos and six thousand and seven whatever the era where it was like i mean chris angel and david blaine were rock stars. Huh h i were they were. They were a big chiel and honestly now he's like i got to go out above the grand canyon in it with balloons, and i didn't even hear about it. That's how yeah yeah that's a that's faire, so yeah so in later lon, chair, larry. Obviously in was the inspiration for up yeah because he had the kid to. Even if she s the am to kistie. Also also also inspired an australian movie, which we need to watch. Oh no, based entirely on this cover. It's an australian comedy called danny deck chair, look at any deck chair. Any deck chair, look at the cover. It's like those dude sitting in a launch hair with the balloons and the balloons- and i mean like let's describe the dude, though, because the dude looks like an off brand early career owen wilson. He don know he does and then he deck chair and then whose face is in the balloon. The balloons are like when mufasa's looking over linking and then there's like a face in it, but the balloons are the face of somebody's face. Some girl's face. Oh my gosh, so yeah as the inspiration for that movie as well. Legendary film e ave inspiration. What led you to this topic? Let me take a little peak here. Actually, that's a good point. I should there is a guy in our patron. He goes by the name of michael i am which i assume means in diana. You don't know, i assume is indiana, because it's capital case would be michael in alike. Michael and what an he leaves it to, he goes lease it for mystery. I don't know in your mind now in this episode of telling, but today he actually brought our discord to level one he boosted on his gate. So i be you know yeah, and so that's here's. The reason why i bring that up because he boosted it to level one. I need somebody in the comments to let us know what that means, but we know that we don't do drugs and we are completely out of touch with all the kids are doing. We had no idea what it is so meeds, that's hilarious, yeah so and then obviously there's the bloom boy hoax, which i literally forgot about yeah. Until just now that this happened in colorado, oh yeah, it was there as the balloon boy. I know it being in the balloon he blame and so what what ended up happening was they found the kid the kid recent top his head on sipped his face right, david boy, steps out it does his weird, like you know, think whether it has had its david play right and so anyway, cool well. That is that, if you haven't listened to the live episode which we recorded last, like yeah, it's camot it come it's we release it now, it's available, you can. You know yeah, just watch the episode or listen o the episode right before this. Just just go back in the archive as the conte to do it. I don't know it's there. It's out. It was really really good. Okay, so is there anything else on on chair lary? No he's my hero, oh man, you know something about being at that height, though he didn't break the sound barrier right. He he and what was that guy's name hilton? Oh man, my s, elimi milton bow or something right, yeah. What something broke, the sound barrier, the sandbar they both you know. Actually i've in this is against all ods. I saw it on the week when you turn it around. I saw the miles hill look at pedia page. It said that you, though he couldn't see he was guided to sydney by the sound of fiddles. Things are tone that night is a production of space. Tim media produced by christian taylor, audio by as garnett video by conteret, are graphics and ar logo by kaleb, but goldberg and our social media is one by kelaba. Our host, our jern myres and tim stone falls on your favorite social media platform at tillin. Podcast is till and podcast remember to tell all your friends about us and we'll see you next tuesday for another episode of things i ve n last night t t