Written By Brianna Ansaldo
 

Have you ever had a dream that you just had to do no matter how crazy or how dangerous it might sound to anyone else? A dream so core to your being that nothing was going to stop you from realising it no matter the obstacles? Neil Armstrong sure did. As did Marie Curie. Edmond Hillary too. But recently, we found out about a human who eclipsed all those wannabes. That man was Larry Walters. Even as a very young lad, Larry imagined himself flying.  His inspiration? 

Balloons. 


His idea first took flight when he came across helium balloons on a trip to Disneyland. But it really cemented at the age of 13 when he came across weather balloons at the army disposal store. From then on, he dreamt of nothing else. Well, we can’t 100% confirm that he dreamt of nothing else, but it’s more dramatic if we say that.

Larry did attempt to become a pilot to get his fix of zooming through the air. But his bad eyesight stopped him from joining the airforce. Yet this dream of his refused to die. He was a man on a mission. Many years after his trip to Disneyland, Larry devised a foolproof (ahem) plan to strap 42 weather balloons filled with helium to a lawn chair and launch into the unknown. The lawnchair was really sturdy apparently. There was surely no cause for concern.

Larry’s idea was to float up to about 30 feet, drift lazily for a few hours out over the Mojave Desert and then pop some balloons and drift back down. Sounds like a nice way to spend an afternoon really.

Larry prepared. He packed an altimeter (because… height), a CB radio, two litres of Coca-Cola, eight plastic bottles of water (for ballast), and a BB gun. There were reports of a stashed six pack as well. The thing he was in very short supply of was maths.

Strap in, as we join Larry on his ‘peaceful float across the Mojave desert’.

 
 
 

  • Rod 00:00

    Scientists adventurous and explorers, as you know, have been blowing people's minds for centuries. They've also been a great source of inspiration to many if not all of us. And I know again you I know you have a explorers heart

    Will 00:15

    I do. I'm sensing tone here,

    Rod 00:17

    an adventurous liver. Scientists, I don't know spleen of it. And I liked them, particularly when when you don't have to get into too much detail. They just offer you quotes that are inspirational saying, guy, that's a quote by

    Will 00:33

    So regardless of what you did, you acan have a quote, you don't have to think that you say something pithy, and you can invade a whole continent, but say something pithy,

    Rod 00:40

    but the beauty of it is do invade the continent, but you don't have to read about that. As long as there's a cool quote, you can be inspired by the invader

    Will 00:47

    I came, I saw, I conquered.

    Rod 00:49

    Exactly, like the Italian Mafia. Yeah that's him - Veni Vidi Vici, the mafia guy. So like a lot of other people, I've been deeply moved by quotes of famous thinking dudes. For example, That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind Neil. Aloysius Armstrong

    Will 01:09

    Yeah got the line wrong when you landed on the moon, but but only a little bit wrong.

    Rod 01:13

    No pressure, though.

    Will 01:14

    No pressure at all. People aren't going to quote it for a little while. I do like you know, he only got it a bit wrong. I can imagine it would suck grandly if you got a lot wrong.

    Rod 01:25

    seriously at all Oregon until his dying breath was like fucking letter a. Another one. I've seen further. And if I have seen further, it's by standing on the shoulders of giants. Isaac Newton.

    Will 01:37

    Yes. Yes, its Isaac Newton for the one time in his life being humble. Yeah, and I spent a lot of his life don't think he meant that not humble.

    Rod 01:47

    And we did episode I don't know. 17. Isaac Newton.

    Will 01:52

    Yeah, he was a detective.

    Rod 01:53

    Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. Now's the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.

    Will 02:02

    So I can guess those first two, but I don't know who that one is.

    Rod 02:06

    It's a lady.

    Will 02:07

    Okay.

    Rod 02:08

    Who's scienced?

    Will 02:09

    Okay.

    Rod 02:10

    And her name is Marie Curie.

    Will 02:12

    Oh, cool. Yeah, it would have been in French then.

    Rod 02:15

    Nothing in life is hard to understand

    Will 02:17

    That is his French accent. It actually probably would have been in in Polish, because she was Polish, not French.

    Rod 02:26

    I don't know how to do that one. So she was French.

    Will 02:29

    She lived in France. She became of the French but she was...

    Rod 02:32

    It is not the mountain we conquer. But ourselves. Edmund Hillary.

    Will 02:39

    Well that's true because he was a mountain conquering guy.

    Rod 02:41

    Yeah but he conquered himself. He did both.

    Will 02:43

    I think it was like it is not the mountain that you will conquer. But I I conquered mountain.

    Rod 02:48

    I think it was a euphemism. I got to the top and I conquered myself.

    Will 02:52

    No he's saying you all you all participated in this. This is your victory of me climbing the mountain.

    Rod 02:58

    It's a masturbation joke. There's no question. That's what he meant.

    Will 03:01

    I don't think it is

    Rod 03:02

    because in the end...

    Will 03:03

    It was 1950s New Zealand. I don't think it was a masturbation joke.

    Rod 03:07

    What else do you think they did?

    Will 03:08

    Climbed a mountain

    Rod 03:10

    And

    Will 03:11

    climbed a mountain.

    Rod 03:13

    What about other

    Will 03:14

    Climbed a mountain

    Rod 03:17

    What you doing Edmund? climbing a mountain climbing mountain climbing a mountain.

    Will 03:20

    I am happy with your dirty thoughts. I'm just I'm just not down with you. I just don't believe that you're near the top of Mount Everest.

    Rod 03:29

    And you thinking I want to rub one out.

    Will 03:31

    I want to rub one out. I really don't. I think you feeling sore and tired. And

    Rod 03:35

    so you might as well. So because in the end you won't remember the times you spent in the office or mowing your lawn? Climb that god damn mountain.

    Will 03:44

    Yeah, that's true.

    Rod 03:45

    Who?

    Will 03:45

    Edmund Hillary again?

    Rod 03:46

    Yep. Jack Kerouac obviously. A famous beat author

    Will 03:51

    famous person driving in a car

    Rod 03:53

    he wrote the book book have you read on the road?

    Will 03:56

    I have read on the road I enjoyed it quite a lot.

    Rod 03:58

    I read the first half of on the road and then I forgot

    Will 04:02

    you got the just like the gist is clear two dudes driving a car tell some stories

    Rod 04:08

    in berets.

    Rod 04:12

    before we go pivotable anywhere Look, these are obviously bloody fabulous quotes. I'm already feeling inspired. I don't even need food today now. But I've recently found a human who eclipsed all these wannabes these losers these non achievers

    Will 04:25

    really in quotes or in Acts?

    Rod 04:28

    Both well, particularly in act. But the quotes had a couple of goodies. I didn't know what to do. I was thinking what quote will encapsulate it I had to do some reading which I don't like obviously. And I found one that I thought this this this really is the one so here we go. There's something in many of us wants to burst and blossom at all times.

    Will 04:47

    It's an alien. Yeah, he's got an alien inside him when he's come out, and that

    Rod 04:51

    if sometimes in a given lifetime, a body doesn't go straight up in a lawn chair. What? Okay, he or she will get more and more constructed what?

    Will 04:59

    Okay, straight up in a lawn chair.

    Rod 05:02

    Yeah.

    Will 05:03

    Continue.

    Rod 05:04

    he or she will get more and more constricted. And finally give up and live in that dull grey limbo and start buying term insurance.

    Will 05:12

    Not an inspirational quote that I've heard before. What doesn't fit on a poster or a t shirt or a sticker? But I could be inspired by it.

    Rod 05:20

    I assumed you would have known exactly who that was someone who went straight up in a lawn chair. Well, these are the immortal words of Larry lawn chair. Walters. Hit us with those death beats Brianna.

    Will 05:49

    listeners, viewers, welcome to the wholesome show the podcast that goes elbow deep into the whole of science. My God, your entendres are getting really like that's

    Rod 06:03

    I'm just warming up.

    Will 06:05

    entendre here my darling

    Will 06:06

    It is. It could mean anything.

    Will 06:09

    The wholesome show is me will grant

    Rod 06:13

    And me Roderick entendre Lambert's single entendre.

    Will 06:20

    You gotta launch a guy for me.

    Rod 06:21

    You made me happy. The way your little face fell and I could see your mouth going you've got to do it mate. made me so happy.

    Will 06:29

    It's what's called a single entendre Yes. You know there is the double entendre dual entendre and there is there is the elusive triple entendre. But you have done the just the single.

    Rod 06:40

    I think I'm close to the half entendre entendre that's more like an old

    Will 06:46

    I'm just saying something dirty.

    Rod 06:50

    What's dirty about it? That's not what I meant. It's a sports metaphor.

    Will 06:53

    elbow deep?

    Rod 06:54

    Sports metaphor.

    Will 06:55

    It is not.

    Rod 06:57

    So have you ever had a dream? William? Have you ever had a dream that just wouldn't go away?

    Will 07:01

    Do you mean every night I have the same dream? Or do you mean like a vision of progress? I think I want to achieve in

    Rod 07:06

    what moves your heart.

    Will 07:08

    Ah, Rod yeah um achieve global podcast glory. Tell stories to our lovely people listening on the other end of this. Give them ear hugs.

    Rod 07:21

    Are you doing it now?

    Will 07:22

    I hope I am.

    Rod 07:23

    Are you ready?

    Will 07:24

    Other than that? Yes, I do. But they're secretly you can't know them.

    Rod 07:27

    So are they you'd have to tell me exactly what they are. But are they dreams that like you don't care how crazy or dangerous they might sound? Or someone else? You've got to do them anyway.

    Will 07:33

    I'm not really sure. I mean, it'd be cool if it was.

    Rod 07:37

    Well in this episode, you're gonna have one.

    Will 07:38

    I want to be the first person to motorbike off every house.

    Rod 07:44

    In the world?

    Will 07:45

    in the world. I just That's my dream. And your motorbike jump off every house in the world. I haven't done any yet. I haven't done any yet. But it's a dream.

    Rod 07:54

    And this is actually a veiled version of I want to live forever, because I'm thinking more than a couple of years.

    Will 08:01

    Well, I just like the idea of a dream that is ludicrously impossible. And then No one blames you if you fail.

    Rod 08:08

    Oh, I blame you know,

    Will 08:10

    And I'd say okay, that was just a foolhardy dream. Well, that's kind of blaming dumb dream making a dumb dream. I don't blame I don't hate my dreams.

    Rod 08:18

    So you don't have a dream. It's so core to your being that nothing will stop you realise that no matter what the obstacles yet? You don't?

    Will 08:24

    Not quite

    Rod 08:25

    not quite. Well, Larry Walters. sure as fuck did. And this is July this year marks the 40th anniversary of him realising that dream July this year

    Will 08:36

    1982 cast your mind back. Iron Maiden was on the radio

    Rod 08:44

    Still are, how dare you. You listen to the wrong radio.

    Will 08:49

    I probably do.

    Rod 08:50

    So who the hell was Larry Walters? I mean, I don't have to tell you. This is for the people listening on the other end, of course. So he's born in 1949 in Los Angeles, California. And even as a very young fella, who always imagined himself one day becoming some kind of flying guy. He wanted to do the flying thing. Okay. So in an interview with one of the key sources I use for this episode, which is a New Yorker article by a fella called George Plimpton, Larry says, when I was about eight or nine, I was taken to Disneyland. The first thing when we walked in, there was a lady holding what seemed like a zillion Mickey Mouse balloons. And I went, Wow, I know. That's when the idea developed. Okay. I mean, you get enough of those, they're going to lift you up.

    Will 09:38

    So these are obviously your helium balloons. They're up in the air not if she's not dragging along a whole bunch of or just

    Rod 09:44

    Trying to hold them all in the air get exhausting, but good for the upper body.

    Will 09:48

    It takes a lot to be good for the upper body to it would push a lot of our shift. Yeah, so she's got a zillion Mickey Mouse balloons.

    Rod 09:55

    A zillion Mickey Mouse idea pops into Larry's nose well enough of those you can lift me up. So when I was about 13, he goes on I saw a weather balloon in the Army Navy surplus store and I realised that was the way to go. I had to get some of those big suckers. All this time I was experimenting with hydrogen gas. Yeah, as a 13 year old does.

    Will 10:16

    Yes. He hadn't heard the stories of what happens when you put a lot of hydrogen gas in a balloon.

    Rod 10:20

    It goes.

    Will 10:22

    It does.

    Rod 10:23

    It's always making his own hydrogen generators. And here is inflating little balloons. In bitty balloon. Yeah, but not multi. So what did he do with these balloons at the time, he says, I sent them up with notes in them that I'd written and attached. None of them ever came back. So he's hoping like message in a bottle. If people would have wanted, there are

    Will 10:46

    What the hell? There no people up there? No, like, I get message in a bottle, it will go to another island or something like that. But if he put it on a balloon, it goes up.

    Rod 10:56

    Are you aware? Yeah, I didn't want to ruin it for you. But you knew that. So I didn't try it

    Will 11:00

    I was just assuming that balloons just go to space. Do you remember I told you remember I told you about that. The moon mission? There's a couple of our earlier balloon episodes. One of them was where was it the 1830s where there was a hoax where people thought people had gone to the moon in a balloon, which is and people believed it because they thought they believed

    Rod 11:20

    Because it rhymes the moon in a balloon? Yes, that's great.

    Will 11:23

    Yes. But also didn't have a conception that the atmosphere stopped at some point. So or a conception of the atmosphere? No, probably not.

    Rod 11:32

    Yeah. simpler times.

    Will 11:34

    Well, I mean, that's the that's the non better time to find by its boundary, man.

    Rod 11:38

    We're not. So he sent these off and he said, Look, none of them came back at Hollywood High School. He went to Hollywood High School. No

    Will 11:45

    No fucking way. No, stop it in the sixth stop at Hollywood High School

    Rod 11:50

    Hollywood High School in the 60s.

    Will 11:51

    Sounds like Marlon Brando over there. There's tricks and the other

    Rod 11:56

    star oh my god and the one with the face.

    Will 12:01

    Hollywood High School.

    Rod 12:02

    I know what it does sound like a b grade movie right?

    Will 12:05

    I was gonna go a little bit better than big right but in some sort of you could do like a teen show or something like that.

    Rod 12:12

    A teen show?

    Will 12:13

    Yeah. Teen show.

    Rod 12:13

    I don't think you should do a teen show man. So he says I did I did a science project on in quotes hydrogen and balloons. I got a D not an Australian university version. No he didn't do well that's it it's close to her actually a file I think in the American I think trail system of grading

    Will 12:30

    So he got some hydrogen some balloons. I assume he did some stuff. Yeah, he probably put them together. It's a bit brutal. Yeah. Holy. We didn't do you know the detail? Obviously they were very science and tech.

    Rod 12:40

    I think the problem with Hollywood High School is if you're not pretty enough.

    Will 12:43

    Or is that they just mark you on looks?

    Rod 12:45

    Course. So we got to do that wasn't great. He goes on to say my mother was worried a lot. Especially when I was making rocket fuel. And it was always blowing up on me or catching fire.

    Will 12:59

    I like that you haven't made good rocket fuel. If it just catches fire. No. And, and doesn't blow up. But it is better. It is better than the other option of blowing up on you

    Rod 13:11

    control burn first.

    Will 13:13

    I know. I would take that. So yeah, I can understand mom's concern

    Rod 13:18

    Well he goes on and says look, it's a good thing. I never really got into rocketry, or I'd probably shut myself off somewhere.

    Will 13:23

    He's more genteel.

    Rod 13:25

    He's a gentleman you're right. You're right a gentleman from Hollywood. So after high school, he wants to get into flying in 1967 he joins the Air Force.

    Will 13:33

    Fair enough. That's obvious, obviously. 1967 That was when the Air Force was about to go into balloons. Yes. So finally went we were sick of jets jets and bombers and things like that. Let's factor back to balloons have a more civilised and genteel

    Rod 13:48

    Let's do it the way the French did 250 years ago.

    Will 13:51

    Exactly.

    Rod 13:51

    That's how it works.

    Will 13:52

    All balloons. There is the war Balloon Battalion. Napoleon had one.

    Rod 13:57

    Yeah, exactly. They're not is was and we're not talking 1967 was. Turns out his eyesight wasn't good enough to be a pilot. So instead, they made him a cook. And then they sent him to Vietnam. So that's cool. Water balloons in Vietnam. But he got through, he was fine. He got through Vietnam. He got discharged. He moves to San Pedro, California. And as one source puts it, he had to satisfy himself with watching jets fly over his backyard. Again,

    Will 14:29

    I'm not observing anything in that sentence. No euphemisms for self. He watched some jets go over his his backyard.

    Rod 14:35

    Honestly, things particularly the military jets if you line they're going pretty sweet.

    Will 14:39

    I always think you know, it's that scene in Wayne's World where they're lying at the end of the runway before the fence. So it's the sort of stuff public area you can drive the car around there and you could just sit there and watch the Jets go over that's it's so cool.

    Rod 14:51

    And that's when God says I've never done that. Did you ever find Bugs Bunny attractive when he was in women's clothing? Did you and Wayne says no and God goes Me neither.

    Will 14:59

    Yeah, obviously of course I did find Bugs Bunny attractive in women's clothing Have you not looked? Yeah, no, exactly. Lips eyes you know I am you know, red blooded man this

    Rod 15:14

    I love me a lady rabbit

    Will 15:15

    well a man rabbit dressed up as a lady but still

    Rod 15:17

    I was gonna get to that exactly no not dressed up identifying as

    Will 15:22

    it's not clear so I don't think that I don't think they went into it.

    Rod 15:25

    Looney tunes were more ambiguous in the 1950s so he was watching the Jets um so he became a truck driver for a TV production company. He got himself a girlfriend, Carol van Deusan

    Rod 15:28

    he's not getting any closer to his his. His career of balloonist extraordinaire

    Rod 15:41

    trucks are definitely not like flying.

    Will 15:43

    It's not it's not they're not like he's inching his way closer up the mountain. No, but TV, Hillary, Edmund Hillary, I assume he climbed some smaller mountains before Everest

    Rod 15:52

    When they walk up the hill to the shots from his family home and thought I can do the biggest one in the world. He did more than that. A reporter from the Miami news this is later on after the event describes larry he is the guy you barely know down the block washing his car on a dull Sunday afternoon. He's the guy you sit next to on the bus.

    Will 16:09

    It's not a description. He's He's

    Rod 16:11

    It is.

    Will 16:12

    He's someone you don't know.

    Rod 16:13

    It's not a good descripton

    Rod 16:14

    who washes his car.

    Rod 16:16

    Joe Average. He's all the frustrated all the regimented all the conformists and apparently he was basically just about as average a blue collar hard working American as anyone.

    Will 16:28

    Okay. They all are until and not

    Rod 16:30

    until they're not. He also especially enjoyed his lawn chair. Which he bought from Sears Roebuck and when he finished washing his car, the launcher launcher. Um, he found it exceptionally comfortable. That's a direct quote. And it was good for relaxing, watching jets and passenger planes fly overhead on warm summer evening.

    Will 16:49

    So he is still doing that?

    Rod 16:50

    Yeah. Okay. At this time. Yeah. And he's, I think 30s at this point. So like I said, he had a dream where he had a dream and since he was 13, his dream was to fly sort of on his own unhindered by walls and windows and pilots and surgery on his own.

    Will 17:06

    Look, in fairness, I don't count going on. On a commercial airline. When you're sitting in a seat. I fly as to how to fly. Exactly. It's not a super special occasion. I'm a pilot, you're not you know, you're in a plane. And it's not like not like you have flown. It's so I get it, I get it.

    Rod 17:23

    Don't you do that every time you get on a plane? I'm like the pilot flies. Where's my where's my

    Will 17:30

    every time I go? I do you know, you know in Titanic, where Leo and Kate up the front of the boat. I do that up against the pilots door because you're not allowed in the pilots.

    Rod 17:38

    I'm just like, I'm the monarch. mSo how was he going to do this obviously by balloon or it turns out by balloons, balloons. So his dream was starting to take shape now. Okay. He actually had something tangible. He was going from strategy to tactics.

    Will 17:55

    Okay. He's seen a pathway that he can fly. unhindered by walls or Windows,

    Rod 18:00

    people and stuff. Engines.

    Will 18:03

    Yeah, yeah. And lawn chairs is a monster. I want to include my friend lawn chair in this plan.

    Rod 18:09

    Oh, he really did because he decided he would attach weather balloons to his lawn chair filled with helium and go for a little flight. So the basic deal was something like float up to about 30 feet. Drift quote lazily for a few hours over the Mojave Desert.

    Will 18:24

    That'd be cool. 30 feet 10 metres fabulous in the new money, whatever it is.

    Rod 18:28

    9.3

    Will 18:29

    It's enough that you can still chat to people. Yes. Like there's people below and you say, Gary, you should put pants on.

    Rod 18:35

    No no Gary, you should watch out for the endangered Mojave turtle in waters. We talked about Two episodes ago. You should

    Will 18:40

    Gary. Or you know, Linda, your pool looks lovely. Can I come over for a swim later,

    Rod 18:46

    Fritz? Your pool looks terrible. I think there's a human pool in it.

    Will 18:50

    I'm sorry, I put it there. But it'll come out later.

    Rod 18:54

    So he was gonna float up in 30 Odd feet drift for a few hours pop a few balloons drift back down. I think that sounds fine.

    Will 19:03

    It doesn't sound horrible. No, it doesn't. It sounds it sounds and you can have a little ladder and climb down if you need to. If you're worried.

    Rod 19:10

    It's a long letter. I have some ladders. None of them are 30 feet. Let's roll out. Do you have a nine metre lead rope ladder? After we finished recording, I want to see your nine maybe

    Will 19:18

    you can make one pretty easily. Could I? I wouldn't buy one because I don't need to get nine metres in the high but I could make I could make a nine metre ladder. What do you think this is

    Rod 19:27

    shoe laces and a little bit of gumption? So 19, early 1982 Lawnchair Larry gets to work. Okay. So in March of that year, he starts buying gear he buys it's gonna take a lot 42 weather balloons

    Will 19:43

    that what are we talking? Well the balloon size give me give me a scale. I'm

    Rod 19:45

    gonna get to that or not. I'm definitely gonna get to that.

    Rod 19:47

    Alright, so he's got 42 of them that you'll get to. Yeah, hold on. Listener don't worry.

    Rod 19:52

    Look at it this way. Not small as far as balloons are concerned. No, no, the reveal is much better if I tell you now, you won't enjoy yourself this way you'll enjoy yourself and you'll be shocked that he bought helium tanks to fill them. And spoiler alert without the details a fuckload of helium like 42 weather balloons it's not one canister of helium, is it not? No. an altimeter? Yes How high am I? Exactly CB radio

    Will 20:20

    but surely if you're just you know high enough that you're above a house that's all you need.

    Rod 20:24

    So we get to CB radio so citizens band that's for the youth who have never heard of them. Is that what it stands for citizens band. It's a radio that we can all use. He also got a hand compass I don't know why they said hand compass, a compass, a flashlight, batteries medical kit, because I may need to operate and remove my appendix while food above the grid of any snack bar snake but those flying snakes that wiggle they can go up. pocketknife packet of beef jerky. I bloody love jerky. I mean, I just have they'd only anyway,.

    Will 20:55

    energy dense. And if you're up there for a while. It's something nice to snack on in launch. Maybe it's what he had in lunch anyway. But you wouldn't want to carry like, couple of boxes of WeetBix or anything like that. It's too too big.

    Rod 21:07

    Like a Weber. You strapped a barbecue to doing that cook some pork. He had a road map of California.

    Will 21:14

    He didn't want to go local area.

    Rod 21:17

    California is local. He lives in California.

    Will 21:19

    I know if I appreciate that California is quite big. Yeah, I mean, I mean he's planning ahead here but I would be going my equivalent suburb or something like that just so I know where I am.

    Rod 21:29

    Well, I think he's suburb was in the roadmap of California but not well defined. A camera. Yep, two litres of Coke Cola.

    Will 21:37

    Oh, Jesus. Come on, buddy. Yes, it sucks. I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You can like Coca Cola. That's cool. You're better extreme sport. Exactly. You're about to do your Edmund Hillary moment. Yes, Edmund. Hillary did not carry two litres of Coca Cola to the top of Mount.

    Will 21:51

    No he did not. He carried oxygen. Yeah, because that's better than coke. If you want to live in

    Will 21:56

    Tenzing Norgay obviously carried the Hillary. Yeah, and the Coca Cola.

    Rod 22:02

    Eight plastic bottles of water for ballast strapped to the chair.

    Will 22:06

    or drinking if you run out of Coca Cola.

    Rod 22:07

    How long do you think he's going to be up there? Like two weeks 30 feet drift over the Mojiave.

    Will 22:08

    Does he have a toilet?

    Rod 22:09

    kind of lawn chairs are slatted and he knows how to remove his trouser.

    Will 22:22

    Oh my goodness. This is why it's in the pool. There is the pool and this is why Gladys had it in their pool. That was

    Rod 22:29

    Fritz. He only shits on men's pools. Also BB gun for shooting out balloons when he wants to come down.

    Will 22:36

    You know, you could probably just cut the string.

    Will 22:38

    Depends how they're attached. I'll show you a photo later.

    Will 22:41

    Are they bolted on with metal? Heavy now

    Rod 22:44

    There's literally one string here cut and that's all okay, audible.

    Will 22:48

    I'm seeing problems. I thought he did engineering.

    Rod 22:51

    No, he didn't do engineering. He thought about it.

    Will 22:56

    All I'm thinking is is one point of weakness. Yeah, it's not sensible.

    Rod 23:01

    And some sources, at least at the last minute suggested he added a six pack of Miller Light. Because lights not too heavy. What are you doing? So he spent something like three to $4,000 at the Army Navy surplus store to get all the gear

    Will 23:14

    that is obviously $10 million, or to raise money for fancy house in Amsterdam or something like that, maybe to today's money, exactly. Who could convert these numbers that.

    Will 23:23

    Be impossible. So then his girlfriend Carol chimes in and says, Look, this could get a bit dangerous once you get a parachute. Nice. It seems to me reading between the lines, he was not super impressed with this because he was only planning to go about 30 feet. And sort of really great until your parachute at 30 feet. That's that's true when you hit the ground. The parachute is maybe just out of the backpack.

    Will 23:44

    But he's got back up there in case he has your ladder that you've donated to him exactly, or a coke emergency or, you know, he's want to put parachute in as a bit more of a backup.

    Will 23:45

    Might as well. So he did because he didn't want to upset Carol.

    Will 23:50

    Can you just buy parachutes?

    Rod 23:56

    He did. He did. So his mother also at the time I get to that his mother thought he maybe should see a shrink right now. Because either he has PTSD.

    Will 24:10

    I think Larry, Larry, this is not good.

    Rod 24:13

    She thinks either he has PTSD or literally may have been possessed by Satan.

    Will 24:17

    It's very 80s Though, of a mother to be thinking you might be possessed by Satan

    Rod 24:23

    got to deal with the war was because he had some

    Will 24:26

    Satan. Just like down here. I mean, just just if Satan has possessed your son, do you think the hallmarks might be buying a lot of weather balloons? Yes. And concocting a plan to float Gentilly about the neighbourhood because I'm sure Satan. When Satan comes back like he's Beelzebub, and he's like, I'm going to reward I don't think alone here, floating gradually across California is your way to do it.

    Rod 24:51

    No one would suspect it. Satan is subtle. Have you not seen the devil's advocate believe

    Will 24:57

    me sneak believe me. I would love to know See I'm thinking of full on like, like demon looking guy like he's yeah he's he's got caught out all the time. Yeah, floating it alone tear above the California suburbs like that isn't the only complaint

    Rod 25:13

    I could see a penis very disappointed someone could do something about that. Sir anyway, he wants to keep the peace with his girlfriend and his mother so he goes off to flight school and he does a parachute jump because you know, you got to learn

    Will 25:31

    from 30 feet or higher,

    Rod 25:32

    I think was higher. Okay. But it's the same principle. Same principle jump open parachute. Yeah. And count to 20 open parachute. One elephant, two elephants Mosh.

    Will 25:47

    I don't think you get to do elephant. 30 feet? No, you probably.

    Rod 25:52

    So So he goes off and does this and then after the one jump, he buys a parachute he buys his own shoot for $900 us 1982

    Will 26:01

    I don't want to buy a cheap parachute. It is one of those things where I haven't actually bought a parachute ever. But there is no point where you look at the range. There's there's like the $900 one and there's the ritzy $1,200 135 I am not buying the 45 slightly per you I'm sorry. No $45 You got to those $2 shops and you go and parachute like I'm sorry, I did not have

    Rod 26:25

    Sir wondering do you have any pair of shoes? We do this there up the back near the cleaning products. So he buys a 900 ollar parachute which I think in today's dollars is probably about 40 billion

    Will 26:35

    again a fancy house on Amsterdam canal.

    Rod 26:37

    Exactly. ]

    Rod 26:39

    So the chair itself because I haven't described the chair. It was an ordinary launch it. It had waffle iron webbing in the seat. Tubular aluminium armrests. Yes. And as Larry put it, a darn sturdy little chair. Cost me $109

    Will 26:54

    Are we talking? Is this one of the chair or recliner type chair? Yeah. Or, or is

    Rod 26:58

    it looks like that. You're sitting up straight.

    Will 27:03

    This is not lying back and having your nap

    Rod 27:06

    we would call it garden furniture not launch I got that. He said it cost him $109 which is not inconsiderable.

    Will 27:15

    Everything was more expensive back then.

    Rod 27:17

    It was because Reagan and like I said it was from Sears Roebuck and he said afterwards his mother was so impressed with how sturdy they were. She went and bought two because they're on sale from Satan. So he was focused, Larry was focused, he had all the gear. And most importantly, no one was trying to stop him. That's my interpretation. But so I was trying to pick a launch site.

    Will 27:39

    his house?

    Rod 27:41

    So the New Yorker guy interviews a bunch of people, Carol, Larry, and Carol's mother. Okay, Mrs. Van Deusen.

    Will 27:50

    They're all participants in the story.

    Rod 27:51

    They really. So Carol's mother says two weeks before Larry came to me and he said he was going to take off from my backyard. This is her quote, I said no way. Illegal. I don't want to be stuck with a big fine. So the idea was he was going to take off from the desert. He couldn't get all his equipment there. So he she says this pulls a sneaker on me. Now when I first read that I met him taking off his shoe and beating her with it. But that's not what you meant.

    Will 28:19

    I didn't imagine that

    Rod 28:20

    pulls a sneaker on me pulls a sneaker. Which What are you gonna do now? Which

    Will 28:25

    I thought pulls the sneaker was actually a euphemism for that. Not very nice thing to do with the condom.

    Rod 28:31

    Oh, stealthing?

    Will 28:32

    Yeah, that's it. That's it.

    Rod 28:34

    not conquering the mountain. He turns up at a house and says tomorrow I'm going to take off from your backyard. So Carol is of course, totally freaked out. She says she wants to go with him.

    Will 28:45

    Thank you, mom. Thank you, .

    Rod 28:46

    No Carol this is the daughter this is the girlfriend, girlfriend. Okay. She says no, I want to go with him. Because she figured he'd be less dumb if she was there.

    Will 28:54

    She wants to be part of the mission. That sounds cool.

    Rod 28:56

    She's worried he'll dumb. The Journalist says to the New Yorker journalism. So what are we going to do sit on her lap? And she says no, no. Two chairs? Yes. Side by side thought hot, two chairs, not hard to launches.

    Will 29:08

    Has anyone done any calculations at this point? Has anyone sat down and done some maths?

    Rod 29:14

    look, we're gonna get to that there was some calculations

    Will 29:17

    because you can work all these things out. Can you carry? Girlfriend? Can you carry your mother? And you look up his mother and his girl and

    Rod 29:24

    look up on 1982. Internet. How much does a girlfriend weigh? Their standard units of measurement. Were there back then Imperial in the US. But it meant more equipment than we had. And she goes on. I know one thing that if I'd gone up with him, he would have come down sooner. Well, yes. So launch day is set July to 1982. The day before he turns up at Mrs. Van Deusen house.

    Will 29:50

    You don't do like Fourth of July. you're that close anyway. You might as well.

    Rod 29:53

    He doesn't want to ruin America. But it might have been a nice day to be distracted from America.

    Will 29:57

    You got the Gettysburg Address. You got some important Next day do

    Rod 30:01

    lobsters in Maine and what are a good day follow?

    Will 30:04

    Everyone's got the day off. It might be a workday july two.

    Rod 30:08

    It might be but not not for less. Not for Larry. So the day before July 1, he heads to Mrs. Van Deusen house with his 42 balloons. He's

    Will 30:17

    that you're not telling me the size off. Are we getting there? And his many helium tanks.

    Rod 30:21

    55 cylinders of helium, giving you a hint about how big the balloons 55 cylinders. A cylinder is not something you can fit your pocket.

    Will 30:30

    So we're talking big, tall scuba tank thing.

    Rod 30:33

    They're nine and a half metres tall. Give or take, give or take.

    Will 30:37

    Give the listener a picture.

    Rod 30:38

    They're large enough that it'd be a struggle to lift one in one hand. Okay, not so large that you would need a crane.

    Will 30:46

    There you go. Thank you.

    Rod 30:47

    So I'm gonna I'm gonna go between not tiny and not humongous.

    Will 30:52

    He's just not visual thinker. Like they know I

    Rod 30:54

    No I am but I'm not a shear. I'm not a visual sharer. So he also he has enough nylon cable to arrange these balloons in six tiers. Yes. Which would extend ultimately 280 feet nearly 55 metres of tears of balloons.

    Will 31:12

    You know the thing that he's he's doing that is different from

    Rod 31:16

    any sane human?

    Will 31:17

    No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like from a regular hot air balloon nest or helium balloon. This is everything. No, it's just that I'm dealing with a chair. You have a basket. And I have lots you have one like other than that.

    Rod 31:31

    Oh, and I'm going to descend by blowing up shit. are not going to just take some air out. I'm going to take air out but I'm going to do it more dramatically. Yeah. Okay. So at twilight on launch, Eve,

    Will 31:43

    This is leaning into the amateur. That's what he's doing

    Rod 31:45

    Aw, fuck it is.

    Will 31:46

    Like he's saying in no way. Will I make any of this professional? Nothing because there are professional hot air balloons in 1982. They've done all of this. Absolutely. But he's like, I'll invent the dumb way to do it.

    Rod 31:57

    He's literally none of them.

    Will 31:58

    That's, that's so so it's like saying I'm gonna be Edmund Hillary. Sure. First person to climb to the top of Mount Everest. I'll be the first person to climb the dumb way.

    Rod 32:08

    Yeah, I'm gonna do it naked on my hands. That's with no food. That's not a feat. One of my eyes. I get someone to slap me the whole time. Not a feat. And not only I'm not gonna have oxygen. I'm gonna get a machine that sucks the air out of my lungs.

    Will 32:20

    Not a feat. Not a feat. It wouldn't do the same thing

    Rod 32:24

    but dark drama. That would be a feat you know, it

    Will 32:27

    looks excellent. That would be well know that there was like the first person to climb to top mount Everest without oxygen. Yeah, that's that's

    Will 32:34

    The dude who died?

    Will 32:35

    Oh yeah fine

    Rod 32:36

    The dude who lived oh I remember them. So yeah, he's got nearly he's got a lot of nylon cables to arrange these balloons. So we're talking a colossal structure here.

    Will 32:48

    How big are we talking?

    Rod 32:49

    What's it looking like ruin the story. But that's a photo of what it ended up looking?

    Will 32:53

    Oh, no, they're long way apart. Okay,

    Rod 32:55

    He's a dot. Here's a tiny dot.

    Will 32:58

    I sorry for him already.

    Rod 33:00

    I have no idea what the

    Will 33:01

    listener we've got it we've got it's a dot in a chair with a tear of balloons, like maybe five metres above him. And then a tear of balloons, another five metres and then like a big gap and then 20 to 30 metres above that. Some more balloons and some modelling. And I can already feel the thrust of those balloons is a lot more than the weight of that guy.

    Rod 33:21

    I know what you're talking about.

    Will 33:23

    I'm panicking for you already. Dude,

    Rod 33:24

    it actually went very well. And I actually failed. That photo was taken and airbrushed with 1982 PowerPoint.

    Will 33:31

    No, I love you know, it's the natural instinct. You like first time, I've got to build a bridge. And there's gonna be traffic going across here. So I'm going to over engineer what I need all the concrete and it will be it won't be a bridge, it will just be concrete all the way through. And I can understand that instinct. And that's fine because I get the bridge might cause some problems, environmental problems or whatever. But in this scenario, there is definite downsides for going too far.

    Rod 33:57

    Let's be clear. He worked it out. Did he? Yep, it worked it out. Didn't work it out well,

    Will 34:03

    that's not working it out.

    Rod 34:05

    So launch Eve Twilight launch Eve he and Carol and I think buddy or two started inflating balloons. At about midnight, a couple of deputy sheriffs pop their heads up over the wall and go What the fuck are you doing? I'm paraphrasing. He said are we getting ready to shoot a commercial because remember he drives a truck for a TV company says like infomercial. They said no worries. The sun came up the next morning and apparently a lot of police cars driving past would slow down have a look. Because this thing was 150 feet high. The morning goes on Larry is getting ready to rock he's ready to rock it's gone. It's on it's on. Then someone says to him. Wait a minute. What if the wind gets weird blows you in an unexpected direction and you get blown out to sea

    Will 34:46

    very fast, very fast

    Rod 34:48

    SO there's a delay as his buddy runs off and buys him a lifejacket. Assume you're going to crash to the ocean. So the bug is off takes about 45 minutes comes back with a lifejacket

    Will 34:59

    this is bad, this is bad.

    Rod 35:00

    Add as midmorning, the time has come, it's on. The balloons are strapped to the launcher. The launcher is anchored to a rope and there's a tether attached to a car. Most sources say Larry's Jeep OneSource says some ancient Chevrolet Bonnyville but attached to a car

    Will 35:16

    I won't if it's Ivanka Chevrolet, I don't care about the Jeep, I'll listen more like exactly like a normal person, like I will quit at this point, if it's a Chevrolet,

    Rod 35:23

    Chevrolet, fuck you. Tips table leaves, so anchor and tether. So Larry climbs into the chair once about words and then goes to about six feet off the ground to see how it feels. He's ready to rock. So the plan was, he would cut the anchor, release the anchor, float lazily up to about 30 feet above the backyard. Some sources say maybe 100.

    Will 35:44

    So again, again, again, did he do the calculations? Or does he just say yeah, I feel like about 30 feet is what will happen

    Rod 35:52

    totally, totally instinct.

    Will 35:55

    You know, you can work these things out.

    Rod 35:58

    I don't think you should be blaming me for this.

    Will 36:00

    I'm just I'm blaming Larry here. I'm just thinking Larry, Larry, last mate does do some numbers,

    Rod 36:06

    champ. So he's going to float. This is a quite lazily float to a height of about 30 feet above the backyard. And some sources say maybe 100. So it's a bit ambiguous what he was thinking, yeah, get his bearings, then cut the tether. So you've done the anchor, you cut the tether. You spend a couple of hours wafting over the Mojave and drift to Earth after you've shot a few balloons out with BB just just gradually come down. Absolutely no. So Larry's there. He cuts the anchoring cord. Okay.

    Will 36:35

    And here we go. No,

    Rod 36:38

    I will tell you what happened after a wee word from somebody else.

    Will 36:40

    Ah.

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    Rod 37:48

    How you doing? Have you taken your blood pressure?

    Will 37:51

    Oh, look, I applaud so much the vision of doing this and following through because a lot of people a lot of a lot of, let's say, a suburban idiots of the world.

    Rod 38:01

    That's what we should call ourselves.

    Will 38:02

    Well, look, let's Larry Larry is definitely a suburban idiot. And I count myself as a suburban idiot. And sure, I don't want to claim for you. But yes, suburban idiots of the world. We have visions and dreams we do. And we do you know what's nice when people actually follow through on their their stupid suburban visits.

    Rod 38:20

    That's one of Larry's quotes. Follow through. So we left Larry lawn chair Larry, he just got the anchoring cord. So he had been planning meticulously, but it seems he didn't pay very close attention to how much lift he'd need to float.

    Will 38:35

    That is one of the crucial things.

    Rod 38:36

    So you're asking about that is one of the only things like you're not one of like,

    Will 38:41

    he's got beef jerky.

    Rod 38:42

    Yep. So he gave you some beers. Maybe

    Will 38:45

    he literally spent 45 minutes going to a shop and getting beef jerky and and beer. He could have spent that 45 minutes working out really man the amount of lift that

    Rod 38:55

    on his Casio wristwatch calculator.

    Will 38:58

    I don't care. Yes on that.

    Rod 39:01

    Like I said he had 42 balloons. So each one gets to up to it's not unknown. Maths is not unknown. It's not I feel like Pascal had been around for quite some time

    Will 39:09

    gravity, very much known lift of a helium balloon very much like these things you can find and you can I'm so worried for you at this moment, Larry. And I just wish you'd done maths.

    Rod 39:21

    Well, no, that's fine. He had 42 balloons. Each was he could lift roughly once full. Five and a half kilos.

    Will 39:30

    Okay, so there you go.

    Rod 39:31

    So it's gonna live capacity of just south of 250 kilos.

    Will 39:34

    How much does he weigh?

    Rod 39:35

    less than 250 kilos.

    Will 39:37

    Yeah. Okay.

    Rod 39:39

    So he cuts the anchor cord and the launcher which now has been called by Larry inspiration. So this whole rig has got a name, it's the inspiration. It did not level off at 30 feet.

    Rod 39:49

    No?

    Rod 39:50

    it did not level off at 100 feet. The tether rope snapped. And this is a quote streaked into the LA skies. Shot from a cannon. And other sources use words like catapult and slingshot. So it's pretty quick.

    Will 40:11

    Is he wearing? Is he strapped into the chair?

    Rod 40:13

    No.

    Will 40:14

    Or he is just sitting there holding on?

    Rod 40:16

    No. Well, I'll bring this up early. He didn't have a safety belt because as he put it to someone who asked the chair was tilted back at about 10 degrees, so I'm going to Australian eyes this. She'll be right mate.

    Will 40:28

    Look, sure, sure. You didn't want to also calculate maybe if the chair might swing because previously the chair was sitting on the ground around

    Rod 40:40

    Swing won't be an issue. So the chair pitch forward so violently

    Will 40:44

    oh my god

    Rod 40:45

    that his glasses flew off. Oh, well, okay. And some of his equipment was here.

    Will 40:49

    Big glasses guy?

    Rod 40:50

    I think he needed them to see. Like, is it Are they reading not not his sunnies. okay. Not his Ray Ban aviators. Eh if Ray Ban, you're listening. Give us a call. But he had a CB radio with him. So he starts talking to Carol and the New Yorker journal. listen to the tapes of the conversation,

    Will 41:08

    and an altimeter. Surely no matter what you do, like, I'm fucking glad I got the altimeter because I know how high I am. And that's cool. I might as well report on the cool bit of he's

    Rod 41:16

    He didn't know that. So he's listening. He's talking to Carol on the CB. This is a quote from The New Yorker. Carol's voice rises in anguish. Larry, come down. You've got to come down. If you can't see, come down. Larry reports back that he has a backup pair of glasses. His voice is calm. reassuring. I'm a okay. I'm going through a dense fog layer on cloud or cloud. Carol. Oh, God, keep talking. Larry. We've got aeroplanes. They can't see you. You're heading for the ocean. You're gonna have to come down.

    Will 41:52

    I'm sure. Given I've never been on that side of the relationship. I'm sure this is the intense girlfriend experience from the girlfriend side like oh my god, my boyfriend is so fucking dumb.

    Rod 42:05

    You don't understand straight out.

    Will 42:07

    I do this. So boys out there. Just take heart take heart. There is a long gulf before you are the stupidest boy. That's true. There. There is a long golf

    Rod 42:17

    but don't stop trying.

    Will 42:18

    No. No. Do something cool.

    Rod 42:20

    Larry reaches 2500 feet so more than 750 metres. So far.

    Will 42:26

    Do you if you fall out of a chair at 750 metres? Is that an easy?

    Rod 42:31

    Yeah, what you do is you spread your arms and your legs so you maximise surface a cat grab the bottom of your shirt. Yep. And pull it out. Yep. Because that's wind resistance. Yeah, Larry's got a parachute but at least he can use the parachute. So it's more than 750 metres. Carol says Larry, everybody down here says to cut them and get down now cut your balloons come down now.

    Will 42:52

    You can't cut him. He's got to shoot him.

    Rod 42:54

    Come down, please.

    Will 42:55

    Just one string as as you said me before. I've got that in my head. It will be quick. It's too quick. Yeah, that is too quick. Cutting them is far too quick. You gotta shoot him. Yeah. Shoot him. Larry.

    Rod 43:04

    Shoot him. Larry thinks he should not lawnchair Larry. Shoot him, Larry. So the journalist says, because he's talking to Larry. How did he feel about Carol's pleading? He says, Look, I wasn't gonna hassle with her. As in, you know, get a ructious because no way in. Heck, you know, after all this, my life, the money we'd sunk into the thing. And just come down. No way in. Heck, I was just going to come down. I was just going to have a good time up there.

    Will 43:29

    Hey, that's fair enough.

    Rod 43:30

    The higher I went, the more I could see. And it was awesome. Sitting in this little chair and I could see you know, wow, man. All unreal. I could see the orange funnels of the Queen Mary.

    Will 43:41

    What? I don't know. Is it a cruise ship or something?

    Rod 43:43

    Yeah, I could see the big sea plane of Howard Hughes the Spruce Goose

    Will 43:47

    Fuck yeah.

    Rod 43:49

    Two commercial

    Will 43:49

    Actually still there. Still there

    Rod 43:51

    It was then apparently he could see the sprues while he was hallucinating, but I gather is real. Then the higher up I could see oil tankers at the Naval Station like little dots. At one point, I caught sight of a little private plane below me. I could hear the buzz of its propeller. I had this camera. But I didn't want to take pictures. This is personal. I just wanted the memory that was vivid enough. So he took no photos.

    Will 44:17

    He was up there. So we know he is up there. Oh, he took no photos.

    Rod 44:21

    Believe me. There'll be some verification.

    Will 44:24

    That's odd.

    Rod 44:26

    I think he was just off his face on it

    Will 44:28

    Maybe it's medicine. Maybe it's coming from this era when everyone is taking photos all the time is to have someone number he's got a camera, have a camera and choose not to take the photos.

    Rod 44:39

    I think you're right. We don't think about it. Like I think about pre camera phone and now. I have fuck all photos and at the time remember thinking of your memory. I didn't need photographs. And now I'm thinking you idiot. Take some photos. You don't have a memory. No. I remember I didn't take photos. Larry goes on. When I got to 15,000 feet about four and a half ks

    Will 45:06

    at some point starts to get cold as well.

    Rod 45:07

    Yeah, we'll get to that. Yeah, the air was getting thin. Enough of the ride. I thought I'd better go into descent.

    Will 45:16

    Yeah, that's cool. Smart Choice, Larry.

    Rod 45:18

    Exactly. Larry's an adventurer not not a clown. Yes. an adventurous clown.

    Will 45:25

    Yes. A bit of an idiot.

    Rod 45:27

    Yeah, a lot. I figured I needed to pop seven of the balloons. So I took out the air pistol pointed up and I went, quote, pow pow pow, pow pow pow pow. Was that 700 And the balloons made these lovely little bangs like a muffled pop. They fell down and dangled blow my chair.

    Will 45:47

    Okay, because I was worried for there for a second that it hadn't go. No, no, no, no, no, I was literally worried that he hadn't tested the power of the BB gun against the skin of the weather balloon

    Rod 45:57

    so this is a good point you bring up because he had not. And so that could have all gone tits up it really he really got it straight off.

    Will 46:04

    It could a BB gun is not exactly a powerful gun.

    Rod 46:06

    No they're not. No.

    Will 46:09

    Why seven all at once. Why not? You know level out, you know do one at a time.

    Rod 46:14

    Are you calling Larry an idiot. No lawn chair. Not idiot, Larry. I put the gun in my lap to check the altimeter. Then this gust of wind came blew me sideways. The chair tilted forward and the gun fell out of my lap. To this day, he says I can see it falling. getting smaller and smaller

    Will 46:35

    see you don't need a camera. When when it's trauma involved.

    Rod 46:41

    Oh, all the trauma There goes my descent mechanism

    Will 46:46

    Do you know I can visualise that for him right now.

    Rod 46:48

    I can't do does it make your balls a little bit like sore

    Will 46:52

    I get the sweaty palms like instantly.

    Rod 46:54

    I get the balls in the throat they go straight up. This is a man thing. Sorry ladies listening but it's what happened to men at heights.

    Will 47:00

    I'm sure there's an ovaries thing as well. It's just it's just the vividness of that memory. You know how much his brain chiselled that moment. That's it. Oh, well

    Rod 47:10

    I am really bonked. So he says also, I hope there was no one standing down there because he's worried it would hit someone but apparently, apparently it didn't. So he said he says he goes on. Oh, you've done it now. Why didn't you tide on? He's saying to himself, I had backups for everything. I had backup BBs in case I ran out. Backup co2 cylinders for the gun for the BB gun. never dawned on me I'd lose the gun itself. So by this point, a couple of commercial pilots have spotted him. Because he's high enough to be spotted by commercial pilots. They alerted air traffic controllers. And what about I love this quote what appeared to be an unprotected man floating through the sky in a chair. And you can imagine calling that in?

    Will 47:54

    He wanted to be unprotected.

    Rod 47:56

    But can you imagine callin it in? Neech This is Delta flight 9734 We can see a dude in a chair. I think it's a lawn chair floating on balloons like dude land now. Oh, my God, rug factory.

    Will 48:07

    Oh my god.

    Rod 48:08

    So Larry goes on the temperature at two miles up you brought this up is about five to 10 degrees. That's Fahrenheit, which is what? Minus 800.

    Will 48:15

    I don't have a good conversion in my head. But that's cold.

    Rod 48:18

    I think zero fahrenheit and zero Celsius are the same

    Will 48:20

    no, minus 40 and minus 40 are the same.

    Rod 48:23

    That's what I meant.

    Will 48:24

    So zero Fahrenheit is a fair bit colder than zero Celsius, five to 10 degrees. Yeah, so five to 10 is very cold. It's not warm. Like you know, I think you're talking minus 10 or something like that most.

    Rod 48:36

    So he goes on, my toes got numb. But then helium started to leak and I gradually started to descend. I knew I was going to have to land since I didn't have the pistol to regulate my altitude. So it gets to 13,000 feet. This is dropping. Okay, so he's dropping. Now he's not an idiot. He calls him a mayday on his CB radio. So he's trying to reach this mob called the radio emergency Association communication team react in an area of California, he wants to he wants them to warn the local air traffic control that he is there in flight paths and things.

    Will 49:08

    Even in this he's just going to land somewhere. Yes. It's just somewhere

    Rod 49:12

    At one velocity or another.

    Will 49:14

    With no control.

    Rod 49:16

    Yeah. Well, you don't know that. So he's caught also got picked up by the Orange County CB radio club. So he's trying to talk to these official people, but the CB radios like Dude, we man up I got a call for you. And the quote from this guy is the guy broke into our channel with a mayday. He said he'd shot up like an elevator to 16,000 feet and was getting numb. He sounded worried, but he wasn't panicked. So some snippets from the conversation because this is all recorded by react to the actual radio emergency people. What information do you wish me to tell them the air traffic control people have this time as to your location and your difficulty? And Larry's words basically, tell him I'm here in their way and blah, blah, blah. The operator then says, What airport did you take up?

    Will 50:00

    Hm of course,

    Rod 50:01

    crickets from Larry nothing.

    Will 50:03

    Well, it's not a helpful question like it doesn't matter.

    Rod 50:05

    We can understand why that us because that might help them plot where he is and stuff.

    Will 50:09

    Sure sure sure. Yeah, but it doesn't matter like like someone is trapped at the top of a mountain. It doesn't matter what town they left from where was your last night in hotel? Someone's bitten by a shark doesn't matter. You know, what? Swimming?

    Rod 50:21

    Have you had lunch?

    Will 50:22

    Exactly. Keep it to relevant.

    Rod 50:24

    Yeah. So this operator keeps asking Where did you take off from finally Larry says My point of departure was 1633 West Seventh Street. San Pedro is mother in law's house or his girlfriend. The operator says Say again, what's the name of the airport? Could you please repeat? And he says look, the difficulty is this is an unauthorised balloon launch. I know I'm interfering with general airspace.

    Will 50:48

    I'm sorry.

    Rod 50:49

    I'm sure my ground crew has alerted the proper authorities ground crew is three drunk guys. Could you just call them the ATC people the air traffic people and tell them I'm okay. And my ground crew tell them I'm okay. So then a ground control official breaks in on another frequency and wants to know the colour of the balloons

    Will 51:07

    Oh that matters. I know. Because there's another guy with yellow balloons over there. FUCK are you the balloon blue balloon guy.

    Rod 51:13

    So he breaks in? The response is that the balloons are beige in colour. I'm in bright blue sky. They should be highly visible. They're about seven feet in diameter. I probably have 35 left over the official Did you say you have a cluster of 35 balloons? Apparently according to this source, his voice squeaks over the static

    Will 51:34

    let's look let's assume the radio guy it's gonna take a while to process all of this like he's right here that right he's He's normally thinking he's hearing from a plane guy. Yeah. And it's gonna take a while to get into his brain properly.

    Rod 51:46

    So he's like lorises again. There are 35 weather balloons. Not one single balloon sir. It's 35 weather balloons. So now Larry's descending. That's a snippet says lots and lots of stuff. At about 2000 feet inspiration his craft starts to drop to his his chair. His chair and balloons starts to go too fast. So lawn chair Larry slashes all the bottles all the water filled bottles about Okay,

    Will 52:12

    Ok slow your descent. He doesn't want to do things gradually.

    Rod 52:16

    No, that's not how we run bottle. eight bottles seven balloons boom. About 35 gallons which is about 140 litres. Just all Peace out.

    Will 52:26

    That's 140 kilos straightaway gone. No, dude. Yeah, no. Oh,

    Rod 52:31

    he's a man of action. This is a man who sees a situation and act he does. Quite from Larry. I looked down to the ground getting closer and closer. About 300 feet. And Lord, you know, the waters are gone. Right? I could see the rooftops coming up. And then the power lines. So one of Larry's ground crew at this point freaks THE FUCK OUT and calls 911 I think it's a bit like do that earlier.

    Will 53:00

    What are you calling them for? We've got a thing. Give me a minute. Something's going to happen soon.

    Rod 53:05

    So this stuff has happened yet what

    Will 53:07

    No, not happened. It's happening. It's happening. It will it will like well, we'll know what service we need in the end. Whether it's ambulance fire or police. Could you bring all of them? Just just it will be one of them won't be one of them. Not sure which yet

    Rod 53:21

    for now, can you bring all of them and if there are any we haven't even heard of a bring some of them to. So the police tell the power company to kill the electricity in the area which blacks out a fair part of a number of suburbs and local businesses for 20 minutes or more. And it looks like Larry's landing is going to be very bad

    Will 53:40

    abrupt. He's coming on really fast,

    Rod 53:42

    abrupt. It's not the fall that kills you. It's the stopping. But then luckily for him, his craft gets tangled in the now down powered high voltage lines. So yeah, cool. And he lands need some details. And this guy apparently was and this is quoting Larry, again. He's reading his morning paper on a chaise lounge near his swimming pool. And he's just looking. He's looking at the guy's face and the guy looks up and he hears a noise as I scraped across his roof. The guy looks up and he sees this pair of boots in a chair floating right over him under the power lines. Larry says he sat there mesmerised just looking at me. After about 15 seconds. He got out of his chair and he says, Hey, do you need help? Look, man of action

    Will 54:28

    Look I very much appreciate. It takes a moment to process these things.

    Rod 54:34

    And really imagine look up you're reading your paper you're like whoa,

    Will 54:38

    yeah, that's I know dumb guy. But that's the thing. Am I going to maybe do need help

    Rod 54:44

    first? Is this real? Yes. Second. So Larry says about the landing I can't say I was afraid or anything. The part that was scary was the last 300 feet with the rooftops telephone. Coming up fast. So

    Will 54:57

    Sure the the part that is scary of any things The ground coming to you fine. You're fine until literally the last second. Yeah,

    Rod 55:05

    that's how it works. I was praying I would not end up in one of those power lines and be fried that yeah, that's your problem.

    Will 55:11

    How far from is his launch site?

    Rod 55:14

    10 miles. Okay. Straight where he landed was abuzz with activity. So he was held down using a standard stepladder that people have come down. And police of course and everyone else's there. They take him into a police car, and he says, I sat in a police car. This guy keeps looking at me, I assume police officer and he finally says, Can I see your driver's licence?

    Will 55:34

    Of course that is the first thing you asked. Were you were you we always on the back of your licence. You can have like a drunk driver, truck, small vehicle, motorbike launcher with balloons

    Rod 55:46

    random balloon artefact, so he gives it to him and he says, the guy punches information into his computer. And they get back to me. He says there's nothing here. You haven't done anything. You can go. But you'll be hearing from the FAA.

    Will 55:58

    So they're just checking checking for past misdemeanours

    Rod 56:01

    parking violations

    Will 56:02

    Not what he actually did? Get fucked police.

    Rod 56:05

    But the police said look, you'll be hearing from the FAA the Federal Aviation Authority. So he's free to go. So at this point, the New Yorker Journal says to Carol talking about the story, what happened to the chair?

    Will 56:17

    That's what I was wondering about. I want my chair back. I'm so Carol was like, after he's done.

    Rod 56:23

    None of the Journal says what to count what happended to the chair. The chair journos worried it went under the chair and Carol according to the journal tucked in a rush of woods. He gave it away to some kid on the street where it landed about 10 miles from me. I gave it away some kids fucking ago, Jimmy take the thing. Larry said Carol gave me shit about this the whole way home. She was angry about this. And Karen, the lawn chair when she said that chair should be in the Smithsonian. Or the local equivalent Smithsonian Carol was not fucking around.

    Will 56:52

    I understand Carol has as a significant life partner going I believe in your achievements. But don't always talk them up too much like there's it's Smithsonian Smithsonian level

    Rod 57:04

    It's not Smithsonian, the balloons apparently the firemen who were there because of course, all services were there. They tied some balloons into their truck and went off like it was a birthday party and Larry autographed a few bits of them because they did people hanging out a little bit about their firies. So the aftermath. It was interesting researching this because the numbers about the height and duration of his flight vary wildly depending on the source.

    Will 57:27

    But also because they're probably depending a little bit on Larry's own recording. It's a thing.

    Rod 57:31

    It's crazy, like some some kind of drop in after 14 and a half hours. And others go two and a half hours in. Yeah. But what's very clear is it happened and it went well beyond his expectations, to say the least.

    Will 57:43

    Did he have a fun time?

    Rod 57:45

    I think he did. He set a new altitude record for flying with gasfield balloons clustered go cluster balloons. So it was not officially recognised because his altimeter was the wrong kind of device.

    Will 57:56

    The wrong kind of device?

    Rod 57:57

    the wrong one.

    Will 57:58

    The elitism of the Guinness Book of Records you didn't have

    Rod 58:01

    I don't know if it was Guinness, but it was some fuckers who control I was blaming them.

    Will 58:04

    I'm just blaming them. I just thought get fucked.

    Rod 58:07

    the FAA would pissed off because they were really pissed off

    Will 58:12

    air is ours. We are the air people we control air

    Rod 58:16

    and they were like, I don't know what he's done, but it's wrong

    Will 58:19

    civilians. Exactly. Exactly. On this one. It's wrong, but it's why they're also pissed at drones. Air is ours. And if anything more than four metres above the ground, is ours

    Rod 58:28

    Is our, get your hands off it you get fucked. So they said look, we can't take your pilot licence because you don't have one that's the standard go to so apparently they announced that they would charge him as soon as they figured out what

    Will 58:41

    the charge will be yeah what the charge Yeah. So fight you know that really screams off and this is the thing it must have triggered you that we will find the crime against because this seems wrong. It seems wrong that someone should just and yes he's risking his own life and maybe there's there's a little risk to other people but not a lot. It's it just it seems crimey me when he's not hurting anyone? No, fuck me. And I am not a libertarian but .

    Rod 59:09

    no, no And you're a fan of the FAA you've often said that to me, often

    Will 59:14

    You know that people should be able to do their own dumb

    Rod 59:16

    they finally worked something out 17 to December. So the very end of the same year that we're going to find him $4,000 for violating for regulations

    Rod 59:25

    which ones?

    Rod 59:25

    one operating a civil aircraft for which there is not currently in effect an airworthiness certificate.

    Will 59:33

    The Wright brothers would have failed that

    Rod 59:35

    Oh that comes up creating a collision danger to other aircraft and look,

    Will 59:40

    the Wright Brothers wouldn't have failed that

    Rod 59:41

    no, sorry. They would have created a collision danger to people who were taught

    Will 59:46

    that there weren't any others that's fine.

    Rod 59:48

    Entering an airport traffic area without establishing and maintaining two way communications with the control tower.

    Will 59:54

    Okay, fair enough.

    Rod 59:55

    And failing to take care to prevent hazards to the life and property of others. That's a bit too Eric, Larry says fuck that I'm challenging the fine and he added because it was cool. You're prescient if the FAA was around when the Wright brothers were testing their aircraft that goddamn yes, they would never have been able to make their first flight at Kitty Hawk.

    Will 1:00:12

    It would have been weird to have an FAA before the Wright Brothers though we control the air there's nothing in it birds but we still do still do. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter.

    Rod 1:00:22

    You shitty evil duck did it wrong. He also didn't have any cash to pay anyway because he spent all the money on the flight and he actually borrowed some money. So they stopped negotiating so the FAA said we'll drop charge one because his launch here didn't need an airworthiness certificate. Because if I can launch here,

    Will 1:00:40

    I don't know what to say about that. Well, it's true. It was in the air though.

    Rod 1:00:43

    Do you go to Bunnings and say, I'd like to buy this outside couch doesn't have an airworthiness certificate.

    Will 1:00:49

    There was a few things more than the outside couch

    Rod 1:00:51

    some balloons? Yeah. Okay, it was in the air. But they said look, it's not that so we're going to drop the fine from four to 3000 Okay, why don't you Larry goes look I'll admit to failing to maintain the two way contact with the airport court. That's fine. And I'll pay a grand if you drop the other charges. All right. We'll come forward and one FAA they finally say look, we agree to accept a $1,500 payment because

    Will 1:01:15

    I love the frickin bargaining. Bargaining crime. What crime did you commit? Well, let's negotiate a little bit

    Rod 1:01:21

    some kind of but not really a bit of a bit of crime. crime.

    Will 1:01:23

    Yeah, it's just fucking medium oh we'll take medium Alright, so long as you know that it was medium crime.

    Rod 1:01:29

    Well, they went to this point, the flight was potentially unsafe, they say but he had not intended to endanger anyone. Yeah, so the flight of course made him famous, but he made fuck more money. What? So he made a few 100 bucks from TV geeks and a couple of him went on Letterman and Johnny Carson. So there was some chat and you can find video of that.

    Rod 1:01:47

    Did they pay him? I think some but not a lot

    Will 1:01:50

    You know, I doubt it. I doubt it. They shows like come on. This will be fun.

    Rod 1:01:54

    Give me money. It's like um, let him get fucked. Yeah. But there you can find the video. There's YouTube videos of lawn chair Larry being interviewed. He made a bit of money as a motivational speaker piss all piss all. Timex paid him 1000 bucks in 92 to appear in advertisements that featured this is the quote, adventurous individuals wearing Timex watches. And that was the biggest chunk of change. He made a grand a grand and Timex

    Will 1:02:18

    in 1982. Obviously, money had changed by then it was 99 to is getting close to real money.

    Rod 1:02:23

    Oh yeah. $1,000 in 92 is about $1,000. Now 1100

    Will 1:02:27

    Yeah, give her the 1982. It's Vaseline Give, give

    Rod 1:02:29

    or take. So after 10 years, he reckons he still hadn't even recruited the foreground he spent. But he didn't rule out the possibility of another fight. He said look, we're looking to go to the Bahamas and some other options

    Will 1:02:40

    Cool go over water at sharks. Yeah, all I've ever heard about the Bahamas is the border in sharks, the water and sharks and the Bermuda Triangle. You will fall off your chair and get eaten by a shark or a magnetic vortex that will take you into another dimension.

    Rod 1:02:54

    Look, unlike his lawn chair, things didn't keep going up for Larry after it all went down. So Larry and Carol broke up. Money was very tight. He was really into camping and hiking. Like he freaking loved it so became a volunteer forest ranger in an area called the San Gabriel Mountains. He also became super religious like Mega religious.

    Will 1:03:13

    Yes, that's what I assumed.

    Rod 1:03:15

    Unfortunately, he also in 1993, he was at his favourite camping ground and he decided it's not worth it. So he killed himself. But apparently, according to one of his buddies range of another volunteer Ranger, he was actually in a very peaceful and happy place like he, it sounded like he was like, Look, you know, it's cool. I'm gonna go now. But he did inspire people. So he never made another flight. But there was this guy called Kevin Walsh in 1984. He went up using 57 weather balloons strapped to his body, no launcher

    Will 1:03:46

    to his body. Yep. To his body

    Rod 1:03:48

    To his body.

    Will 1:03:51

    And this one is on my deck.

    Rod 1:03:53

    So I'm like, can I find another limb sir

    Will 1:03:55

    What are you doing to your body?

    Rod 1:03:59

    but just not a chair, one around your neck. He didn't want to chair the chairs. Obviously the problem. But Kevin was wearing a parachute. This quote, he shot into the sky even faster than Larry did. Jesus. He hit the 1000 foot mark in 12 seconds.

    Will 1:04:16

    Jesus Christ.

    Rod 1:04:20

    12 seconds to get what? 300 metres. He got to 6000 feet so what 2000 metres in two minutes. He peaked at 9000 feet after four minutes. So fucking fast. Yeah. But then a balloon popped. So he kind of wafted down to 6000 feet again. He kind of settled in there. Look around.

    Will 1:04:40

    Which way up is he facing?

    Rod 1:04:42

    up.

    Will 1:04:43

    He's looking up and tied to his body. Like tied to your body.

    Rod 1:04:50

    I assume there's some kind of harnessesing contraption

    Will 1:04:53

    okay, he's He's like, he's like sitting up straight and they're tied to. I liked he's got her all around all around the groinal area

    Rod 1:05:01

    he shoots up the balloon pops is wafting around but he deliberately wrapped his tether lines in foil so that show up on radar.

    Will 1:05:08

    Fuck yeah, yeah, I know. Like a bee bee to engineer like

    Rod 1:05:13

    it worked out because Boston there's an airport in Boston called Logan and they said it showed up on their radar and the blip was the size of three stacked jetliners. So he looked like three planes.

    Will 1:05:23

    Okay. Three stacked planes which is weird. We've

    Rod 1:05:28

    got another situation with three flights of play, our planes are flying on top of each other. So after 45 minutes he cuts the balloons he parachutes down and he said launch Halo was his inspiration. I had to commend him for his ingenuity that's when my dream hooked up with reality. And Walsh this guy was also cited

    Rod 1:05:45

    Where was he, was in America?

    Rod 1:05:46

    Yep. And he was cited for for violations by the FAA and it was fine four grand it's nice that amount just like he's here. Finally, the epilogue. The reason I found this story was because of a small piece from the Smithsonian because it around 12,000 into the kid who got the lawn chair. His name is Jerry flick, donated it to them. Fuck. And it's on display out of that centre at Stephen F Woods hazy centre, the one that's out near Dallas Airport will have the space shuttle. The Concorde.

    Will 1:06:20

    We did a wholesome trip there one day, but I don't I didn't read it. And we didn't broadcast it.

    Rod 1:06:24

    It's a bummer though. Because the chair is there.

    Will 1:06:27

    Goddammit, Larry. All right. The Smithsonian Good on you, Larry. You met you made it. Do you have a desire to do this?

    Rod 1:06:34

    Not even a bit. Not at all. parachuting. Yep, strapping myself to a piece of furniture from the hardware store. With balloons.

    Will 1:06:42

    I admire the actual follow through on the dumb idea. Hats off to them.

    Rod 1:06:46

    That is one of his quotes and I admitted it but I shouldn't say is like a lot of people have dreams but no one follows through. That was literally one of his quotes.

    Will 1:06:53

    There you go.

    Rod 1:06:55

    No it's a great tale. But yes, sources, Smithsonian Archives talking about the weirdest things in their thing. There's one about from medium the strange, sad odyssey of lawn chair Larry. The big one I called on was the the man in the flying lawn chair from the New Yorker. And there are a bunch of others which you can see in our show notes. But it's like the weirdest thing about them was there are so many conflicting numbers. No one denies the story are actually one source from Snopes. Tonight denied ish the story but not quite. There was a lot of stories about it. None of them are true, but some of them are and here's the story and I'm like what you didn't

    Will 1:07:32

    No you can't. You can't contradict Snopes, whatever they do is the truth.

    Rod 1:07:37

    I was just saying I was confused by them. I would never contradict Snopes. We love the Snopes. Love Snopes.

Brianna Ansaldo
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