The Lawnchair Pilot

Background Story I first heard about Larry Walters' historic balloon flight in the late 1990s. After a little bit of research to confirm the story, I published bits and pieces of what I had learned. Not long afterwards, I began to receive many emails from all over the world. But simply put, most of my readers did not believe it! So to set the record straight, I went right to the sources who were there when it happened, including Larry's family and friends. For several years, I interviewed Larry's girlfriend Carol, his mother Hazel, sisters Kathy and Vera, Larry's best friend Steve Gottlieb, former colleagues along with many others. I also spoke with REACT , the CB radio monitoring organization, and was given permission by them to publish the audio file of the actual flight from 1982. For nearly 20 years, I believe I have compiled the most accurate information concerning Larry's flight, however, there are many details that I have purposely left out which will be told in my book. This page was put together to give my readers accurate information about Larry's background and his infamous flight. Most other articles that you read online never interviewed Larry's family and friends as I have. What you are about to read and listen to is a compilatoin of many years of research and interviews. This is probably the most complete and accurate information about Larry Walters' incredible flight on the Internet. A lot of time and effort went into the research and the building of this page and I hope you will enjoy it. (note: I am currently updating this page and should have it completed soon)





The Book (coming soon) I am currently working on a book that will tell the entire true story about Larry Walters and his infamous flight over Southern California in July, 1982. If you would like to be notified when the book is published, please send me an email.

History Of The Flight When Larry Walters was 13 years old, he went to a local Army-Navy surplus store and saw the weather balloons hanging from the ceiling. It was then he knew that some day he would be carried aloft by similar types of balloons. This obsession would be with him for the next 20 years. On July 2nd, 1982, Larry tied 42 helium-filled balloons to a Sears lawn chair in the backyard of his girlfriend's house in San Pedro, California. With the help of his ground crew, Larry then secured himself into the lawn chair which was anchored to the bumper of a friend's car by two nylon tethers. He took with him many supplies, including a BB gun to shoot out the balloons when he was ready to descend. His goal was to sail across the desert and hopefully make it to the Rocky Mountains in a few days. But things didn't quite work out for Larry. After his crew purposely cut the first tether, the second one also snapped which shot Larry into the LA sky at over 1,000 feet per minute. So fast was his ascent that he lost his glasses. He then climbed to over 16,000 feet. For several hours he drifted in the cold air near the LA and Long Beach airports. A TWA pilot first spotted Larry and radioed the tower that he was passing a guy in a lawn chair at 16,000! Larry started shooting out a few balloons to start his descent but had accidentally dropped the gun. He eventually landed in a Long Beach neighborhood. Although he was entangled in some power lines, he was uninjured.

Lawnchair Found Anyone who knows the this story has read that Larry gave away his lawn chair to a "neighborhood kid" shortly after he landed. For the past 20 years, Larry and his family assumed this kid didn't know what he had and the chair was probably destroyed by now. For years, Larry regretted giving away that chair, especially after the Smithsonian Institute requested to preserve it in their museum. However, Larry would never see his chair again. Then a miracle occurred on March 12th. I received an email from Jerry (last name protected) who lives in southern California. He saw my web site and had told me that he was the "neighborhood kid" that Larry gave his chair to! My mouth dropped when I read this. It was as if I had found the Ark of the Covenant! Immediately I called Carol and Hazel to let them the know Larry's chair had finally been found and was in the same condition as when he last used it. Needless to say, both of them were somewhat emotional when I told them the good news. Jerry told me he had kept it in his garage for the past 20 years and has never revealed it to the public. But on March 21st, he was going to unveil it his friends and coworkers at a restaurant in Long Beach. The media was invited but did not attend. He asked if I would present Larry's story to the 30-member audience and I did. At the end, Jerry pulled the cover off the chair for everyone to see and touch. Here are some photos that I took of the lawn chair in Jerry's backyard after he took it out of his garage. It still has 13 of the 35 water jugs still on it, along with the tethering cables.

Interviews I spent several years interviewing Larry's family through emails and phone calls. But between March 19th and the 21st, I was able to finally meet them in person at their homes near Los Angeles. On Tuesday evening, March 19th, I met Larry's former girlfriend Carol. She still lives in the same house in San Pedro where Larry launched from. The first thing I noticed was how small her backyard was. I could not believe they were able to set up all their equipment from this tiny space. Carol and her mother ate Taco Bell while I went through the many photos of Larry's flight -- most of which has never been seen by the public. I was fortunate enough to be given permission to scan them on my laptop to keep for my records. If they give me their permission, I will publish a few of them on this web site. However, I will keep the rest of them private and will only show them during my public presentations (which you can read about on this page). Backyard of Carol's house On Wednesday evening, March 20th, I met Larry's mother, Hazel, and his two sisters, Kathy and Vera, at Hazel's home in Simi Valley. They offered me some pizza and a Coke as we sat down to talk about Larry. As I began to leave, Hazel gave me a T-shirt that her and Larry had made with a screen print of Larry's flight on the front. I'll wear it proudly. On Thursday evening, march 21st, I met with Jerry. He is the one who Larry gave the lawn chair to 20 years ago. We unveiled the chair to an audience of about 30 people at a restaurant in Long Beach. He plans on taking the chair to Larry's mother soon.

The Landing Site On Thursday, March 21st, Jerry took me over to the landing site located at 432 45th Street in Long Beach. Jerry and I found the site based on photos taken when Larry landed in the backyard of the house. We had to knock on quite a few doors before finally locating the landing site. Here is how it looks today. Backyard of the landing site Frontyard of the crash site

Guest Appearances The Tonight Show, David Letterman, Dinah Shore, Timex magazine ad, various game shows, various radio shows.