If you want to know how to win th BONEHEAD OF THE YEAR Award, take a page from truck driver Larry Walter's book.
One day in July, 1982, Larry (33 at the time) attached 42 helium-filled weather balloons to a Sear's lawn chair and went for a little skyway cruise.
He launched himself from his girlfriend's back yard in San Pedro, Ca., with the intention of leisurely floating out over the desert to enjoy the view below. He took along such necessities as a bottle of pop, a camera, his CB radio, a few water jugs for ballast, and a pellet gun - to puncture balloons when he wanted to come down.
Things didn't go exactly as planned.
When he directed his 'ground crew' buddy to release one of the ropes tethering the apparatus to the bumper of his car, the other rope snapped, and instead of drifting slowly upward, Larry and his chair shot into the air like a rocket. He lost his sun glasses and soon found himself at 16,000 ft,. freezing cold and lacking oxygen.
Instead of moving toward the desert, the chair began heading seaward.
Several airline pilots in the vicinity of LA airport got on the blower to air control to report sighting of this strange craft, and it was picked up on radar.
But Larry never lost his cool. After a couple of hours aloft, he made his descent, tangling his rigging in power lines on his way down and winding up suspended five ft. off the deck - but safe.
The little escapade was something he wanted to do since he was a kid, and it made him an instant national celebrity.
