Larry’s Flying Lawn Chair California man has flight seat - but no plane! Larry Walters loves flying - but hates airports. ‘Why can’t I fly direct from my house?’ he asks his friends. ‘Because you don’t have a plane,’ they say. Nor does Larry’s small suburban garden have a runway. But Larry has a plan.
Larry’s Plan
One day Larry goes to a local camping shop. He buys 45 weather balloons and eight tanks of helium. When he gets home he ties the balloons to a large garden chair. Then he ties the garden-chair to his truck. With everything secure, he inflates the balloons with the helium. Larry goes back into the house. He makes a packed lunch. Then he phones two friends. ‘Come over to my house,’ he says. ‘I want you to help me launch my test flight.’
‘'I’ll float up to around to around twenty metres,’ Larry tells his friends. ‘Then I can take some photos.’ ‘How will you come down?’ Larry holds up a small air rifle. ‘I’ll use this to pop the balloons,’ he says. ‘That’ll bring the chair down into the garden.’ ‘Have you ever flown a balloon before?’ ‘No,’ Larry admits. Nor has he had any pilot’s training. ‘But I’ve driven a truck.’ Larry is only taking hand luggage on this flight. He has his lunch, a parachute, a CB radio & a camera. The CB radio is to alert other aircraft. ‘Okay,’ Larry tells his friends. ‘Cut the rope!’ To everyone’s surprise the chair flies up into the sky. It climbs 20 metres. Then 200 metres. Still it keeps rising. Larry’s friends watch in amazement as he disappears into the clouds.
Pilot's Training?
Flying Chair
Preparing for takeoff
Larry’s friends arrive. They all go out into the garden. It’s a sunny and the sky is clear. ‘Perfect conditions for a test flight,’ Larry tells his friends. The friends look at Larry’s ‘air-chair’. ‘Are you sure this will work?’ one friend asks. ‘Why not?' says Larry. ‘What could go wrong?’
Soon the chair is three miles above the Californian coast. Reports begin coming in to air traffic control. ‘There’s a flying chair up here! And the guy sitting in it has a gun!’ Meanwhile Larry is having a wonderful time. But it’s now very cold in the high altitude. It’s time to come down. Larry begins shooting the balloons. Slowly the chair descends. But Larry can’t control the descent. As it comes
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