When I was a young boy, about 13 years old, I was in an Army-Navy surplus store.
Saw a weather balloon dangling from the ceiling.
And I just got the idea to inflate these balloons.
And I figured if I had enough of them, it'd lift me.
The idea was just, you know, the float. Hi, everybody.
My name is Shauna and this is the American English Podcast.
My goal here is to teach you the English spoken in the United States.
Through common expressions, pronunciation tips, and interesting cultural snippets or stories, I hope to keep this fun, useful, and interesting.
Let's do it. Hi, everyone. Welcome back.
Today, we have a very fun topic that we're going to discuss.
It's all about Lawn Chair Larry and cluster ballooning.
I know right now you're probably thinking, what in the world are those two things?
And don't worry, I'm going to cover it all.
In the introduction to this episode, you heard a brief recording of Lawn Chair Larry.
He was on The David Letterman Show way back in 1982, right after he took flight from in his lawn chair.
If you're interested in seeing the full interview with Lawn Chair Larry, or as I should say, Larry Walters, Be sure to type in Larry Walters interview with David Letterman 1982 into YouTube. and you will find that video.
I highly recommend it. In 2009 an animated Pixar film came out called Up. where an old man attached hundreds of helium balloons to his house and set course towards South America.
A few years later, a real man from North Carolina named Jonathan Trapp built a house just like the one in the movie Up.
He attached over 300 helium balloons, and flew up to 20,000 feet.
That's where the airplanes fly. He's still alive, and he's the first man to ever take flight in a house.
Today's story is about adventure and about the individuals who seek it with an extraordinarily unique hobby. called cluster ballooning.
First of all, what's a cluster? A cluster is a group of similar things. things that are close together.
You might see a cluster of people around someone who's serving ice cream Everyone is in the same area.
Everybody wants a scoop. It's a cluster of people.
In the hobby cluster ballooning, you'll see a cluster or a bunch of helium-filled balloons attached to an object. such as a chair, a boat, or as I mentioned with Jonathan Trapp, a house.
The pilot of this aircraft, so to speak. will sit in that object as they fly, or as they're lifted off the ground with those helium balloons.
One story in particular we're focusing on today is a man named Larry who took flight in his lawn chair.
A lawn chair, as you may know, is a light foldable chair that you keep in your backyard.
If you're having a picnic, you might bring it to the park with you.
But Larry took flight in his lawn chair.
He attached his lawn chair to Larry. clusters of balloons, groups of balloons.
I hope you get a laugh from this true story. and you'll have a crazy story to tell your friends at your next dinner party.
If you would like the transcripts and MP3 that go along with this lesson, a quiz to test your listening comprehension, and the podcast reader to work on your pronunciation, be sure to sign up to Season 3. or all premium content.
You'll find the links in the episode notes.
Just about 15 minutes away from where I currently live is a place called North Hollywood.
Many moons ago, many years ago, in 1949, Larry Walters was born there.
Larry Walters wasn't a Hollywood star. He was just a normal kid with big dreams.
One of those was becoming an airline pilot.
He loved the sky and airplanes. He was also fascinated by balloons.
When he was a kid, he remembers the zillion Mickey Mouse balloons at the entrance of Disneyland.
In 1962, when Larry was just 13 years old, he went into an Army Navy surplus store. which is essentially a store that sells military equipment and gear to the public. so to people like you and me.
It's pretty fun to visit for anyone who likes the great outdoors.
You can find compasses there. That gadget that shows you north, south, east, and west? to help you navigate through the wilderness, perhaps.
You can find Swiss Army Knives, that can both cut a rope or even open a can, and a bunch of other survival gadgets.
While inside the Army-Navy surplus store, Larry saw helium tanks.
And weather balloons. Saw a weather balloon dangling from the ceiling.
Weather balloons, unlike your standard latex birthday balloon. are large balloons.
They can expand to eight feet in diameter and are often used by meteorologists to get information about, I bet you can guess, the weather.
They're huge. Anyway, his youthful imagination started ticking.
How many helium-filled balloons would it take to fly?
Could a person be lifted off the ground with them?
He didn't know, but the fantasy of flying through the sky with a bunch of balloons stuck with him.
At 18, Larry's love for the sky led him to enlist in the Air Force.
To enlist means to voluntarily join the armed forces. unlike the draft, which is when the government says people need to join.
So Larry wanted to enlist in the Air Force.
If he joined the Air Force, he could spend all day flying through the skies.
It was his ticket to the clouds. Before joining the US Armed Forces, you have to get a physical.
In other words, you need to meet with a doctor for a checkup, and they ensure that you're in good health.
They check your height. your weight, you need to undergo drug and alcohol testing, you need to do hearing exams and a vision exam because...
Of course, you need to have good eyesight if you're going to join the armed forces.
Nowadays, I'm not so sure with contacts, but back then You 100% needed to have good eyesight.
Larry didn't. He had poor eyesight. So the Air Force rejected him.
And you can imagine his disappointment. He decided to go to war in Vietnam anyway, as a cook.
But even while cooking, he never stopped dreaming of the sky.
In the summer of 1982, Larry was 33 years old.
He was not the airline pilot he wanted to become.
Instead, He drove trucks for a TV company.
All day and sometimes night, he was on the road thinking about life.
When one day it hit him, he really needed to fly.
If he didn't take action, he'd go crazy.
He didn't need an airplane. He didn't even need a pilot's license.
All he needed was balloons, string, or rope.
Lots of helium and a heck of a lot of courage.
So he called up his girlfriend Carol and told her.
Imagine how that conversation went. How would you respond if your significant other, your partner, told you that they wanted to take flight together? attached to a bunch of balloons.
Would you be supportive? Would you convince them not to do it?
Would you laugh? What would you say? Carol already knew that Larry was incredibly fascinated by balloons.
So she told him, quote, well, it's best you do it and get it out of your system.
In other words, do it just so you stop thinking about it.
Not only was she going to help him with emotional support, she would help him financially as well.
Carol, his girlfriend... chipped in three to $4,000 for this project.
In an interview on David Letterman after his flight, Larry said, quote, she went heavily into debt to see my dream come true.
So they got out their credit cards and went shopping.
First, they bought an incredibly sturdy aluminum chair for $109.
And Larry would sit in the lawn chair while flying.
That was his aircraft. Then they bought over 40 weather balloons, just like the ones Larry had seen in the Army-Navy surplus store when he was 13 years old.
But it's not like you can just go to the store and buy 40 weather balloons. that might raise some questions.
In order to get those balloons, he faked documents stating that they would be used in a TV commercial.
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Terms apply. What else might you need if you are flying in a lawn chair?
Going up was easy. Larry decided that in order to descend, he would shoot the balloons with a BB gun.
The fewer helium balloons he was attached to, the quicker the chair would descend.
He bought a $950 BB gun to shoot those balloons down.
Then he got a $900 parachute in case of an emergency landing, a life vest in case his Aircraft went in the wrong direction towards the Pacific Ocean.
He got an altimeter to measure his altitude. or his elevation, and a CB radio, which is also known as a two-way radio. to communicate with Ground Control.
Ground Control was essentially his girlfriend Carol and his buddy Ron.
And of course, we can't forget the helium.
The helium cost $3,000. Carol bought that.
So Larry planned out his trip. He'd take off from Carol's backyard in San Pedro, California. fly over the San Gabriel Mountains at 7,000 feet, and then he'd land in the Mojave Desert. which is also in California.
The trip was about 50 miles. July 2nd, 1982 was the day of his flight.
Larry and his buddy tied 42 of those eight-foot weather balloons to his new lawn chair.
They had tested each balloon. previously, and each one could carry about 14 to 15 pounds.
Then he attached about two dozen jugs of water for ballast.
Ballast is heavy material like sand, gravel, or water used to create stability. to stabilize his aircraft.
It could also be used as a brake system.
If for some reason he shot too many balloons and started to descend too quickly, All he needed to do was to empty out some of the ballast, some of those gallons of water, and he would be lifted up again.
Pretty easy, right? So the morning of his flight, he dubbed his chair and cluster of balloons Inspiration 1.
After all, he felt pretty inspired. Weeks earlier, E.T. came out in theaters.
And we all remember that scene where Elliot and E.T. fly on a bike in front of the moon, right?
Also, days earlier, NASA went to space in a space shuttle called Columbia.
Now Larry's dream was about to come true.
In English we could also say Larry's dreams were coming to fruition.
Larry's main concern was that he would get hit by an airplane.
Because after reaching an altitude of 500 feet, you're in federal airspace.
Airspace that's controlled by the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration.
He told Carroll that it would be absolutely essential to notify the FAA. and nearby airports about 30 minutes before launching.
He wasn't sure how they'd react to this news of him flying with balloons. but he wanted to inform them anyway.
What makes this story both funny and epic is that nothing went according to plan.
Once the balloons were inflated and Larry was in his chair with his BB gun, his two-way radio, parachute, life vest sandwich and a two liter bottle of coke a gust of wind blew and snapped the wire that connected him to the ground. that connected him to Earth.
According to Larry, the snap was so loud, it sounded like a gunshot.
And instantly, he shot up into the sky at approximately 1,000 feet per minute. much faster than he'd anticipated.
The surprise snapping of the wire left Carol panicky.
Listen to the conversation that took place over their CB radio shortly after Larry shot up towards the sky.
By the way, this was taken from MarkBerry.com, who is possibly the most informed reporter of this event.
Here we go. I've got my other glasses. I can see perfectly.
Don't worry. Everything's a-okay. Notify all the proper authorities, etc.
So did you understand? Right. So this was right after Larry shot up into the sky and he says, evidently, I've lost my glasses.
Okay, evidently I lost my glasses. And Carol, thinking that Larry can't see, says, Larry, come down.
You gotta come down if you can't see. Come down.
You've got to come down if you can't see.
Come down. And then he says, I've got my other glasses.
I can see perfectly. Don't worry. Everything is A-OK.
When we say a-okay, it's a very funny way to say that everything is fine.
Don't worry about it. Everything is a-okay.
It kind of sounds like something that my grandpa might say.
Or I'd say if I'm trying to be funny. A little while later, just to add a little bit of extra humor to this situation, Larry reaches 4,500 feet.
And Carol sends this message. Oh, man. So she found his glasses.
Good news, right? So what happens to Larry?
Well, His goal was to stay around 7,000 feet.
At around 8,000 feet in the sky... Oxygen starts to get scarce. there's less of it.
At around 8,000 meters up, around 26,000 feet, There's an area called the death zone.
You cannot survive outside in the death zone.
Larry was ascending too fast. and it was getting cold up there.
His arms and his legs, his fingers, they were going numb.
He was starting to lose feeling in them.
So Larry makes it up to about 16,000 feet when two commercial airlines, Delta and and TWA spot him flying ahead.
Imagine what those pilots were thinking.
With the freezing cold temperatures and airplanes in sight, Larry decides that it's now time to make his descent.
He can either jump with his parachute or shoot the balloons with his BB gun.
He chooses the latter. In other words, the last option.
He decides to shoot the balloons with his BB gun.
So he starts shooting. He shoots about seven of the 42 balloons.
When to his horror, the gun slides out of his lap and falls through the blue sky below.
What is he going to do? Now, it could have been a disaster, but fortunately, the number of balloons he'd shot before losing his gun was just the right number of balloons for him to make a slow—and steady— descent towards the ground.
By that time, Carroll had reported his flight to the authorities, and so had the airport.
The pilots had notified the tower, and they were all in communication.
So the authorities started tracking him.
And just so you can get this visual, Larry had set up four clusters of balloons, one higher than the next. he was easy to see.
He headed straight towards Long Beach, which is on the coast of California. in pure fear that he would land in some telephone wires and sizzle.
Zzzz. he did crash into a power line. Some sources say it resulted in an immediate blackout for the neighborhood.
Other sources say the city was able to turn off the power prior to his landing.
The details aren't sure, but he survived.
And immediately, his story became national news.
But not before he was arrested. So the Long Beach Police Department arrested him. but they couldn't figure out how to punish him.
At one point in time, his punishment was up in the air.
In other words, it wasn't decided. It was unsettled or unfinalized.
The FAA told him, Quote, if you had a pilot's license, we would take it away.
But Larry didn't have a pilot's license to take.
Instead, they fined him $1,500 for violating controlled airspace, flying without a license, and operating, quote, an un-airworthy machine.
Larry became famous. He appeared on The Tonight Show, The Late Night Show with David Letterman.
He also became a motivational speaker. But the point is, it's an odd story, and it's part of a bigger narrative.
Unlike hot air balloons that have one large balloon, cluster ballooning is an activity that involves a bunch of balloons.
Perhaps the very first case of cluster ballooning in the U.S. dates back to 1937 in Minnesota. with experiments conducted by Jean Picard, who was a professor of aerospace engineering.
With 98 balloons, he was able to fly to a height of 3 kilometers inside a basket.
That same year, the daredevil photographer Al Mingalone, while working for Paramount, tried to capture aerial footage of a golf course.
But they didn't have drones back then. It was 1937, after all.
So he hung, suspended from 32 weather balloons. and a cord broke.
He flew up to 700 feet. Fortunately, someone on the ground was able to shoot some balloons so that he could come back down.
This is all kind of funny. from above using a cheap drone, and back then people were trying to do it by lifting themselves off the ground with balloons.
Then, of course, we have the story of Larry Walters.
After Larry, many people attempted to try out cluster ballooning, and it didn't always work out so well.
You need to time when and where you're going to stop.
Sometimes you end up landing in unintended places.
Like the Brazilian priest Adalir Antônio de Carli? who went missing and was eventually found in the ocean a few months after his ascent. or Yoshikazu Suzuki from Japan, who was never seen again.
So is it safe? Yeah, some people do it in a safer way.
Today, one of the most famous individuals in the US who... enjoys cluster ballooning as a hobby is Jonathan Trapp, a man who I mentioned in the beginning.
He's not only flown a house like we've seen in the movie Up, he's crossed the English Channel. with cluster balloons, that body of water that separates France from England.
He's crossed over the Alps. In one flight, he traveled 466 miles.
But here's the thing, he's got a pilot's license.
So he went to flight school. Each vehicle or aircraft he flies has to pass tests and certifications.
He also works with biodegradable balloons and string so that if he needs to cut one away, it won't cause environmental damage.
He's doing things right. Cholesterol ballooning is sort of an out there activity.
By out there, I mean it's sort of crazy.
It's out there. Helium is expensive, you might die, you might get fined if you don't do it right.
Yet many people still do it despite those risks.
When people ask Jonathan Trapp why he does it, he says, to lead an interesting life.
After Larry's flight, the police department asked him why he did it, and he responded, a man just can't sit around.
We of course know that he was also fulfilling his goal in life.
It gave him inner peace. Shortly after his flight, Larry was dubbed Larry Lawnchair or Lawnchair Larry.
And his lawn chair is now displayed at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
What do you think? Are you tempted to fly away with some balloons?
Once again, if you would like the transcripts, MP3, listening comprehension quiz, and the podcast reader to help you work on your pronunciation, be sure to sign up to season three or all premium content.
You'll find the link to that in the episode notes.
Thank you. It's my goal here to not only help you improve your listening comprehension but to show you how to speak like someone from the States.
Thank you. Thank you. Make sure to sign up to premium content on American English podcast dot com.
Thanks and hope to see you soon. One last thing, and this is not related to the story, but it needs to be mentioned.
Larry Walters took his life at the age of 44, 11 years after his flight.
If you or someone you know is thinking of suicide, you can get help throughout the US by calling the suicide helpline.
1-800-273-TALK Once again, 1-800-273-TALK
There's always someone there to listen.
