Being blown off course and then arrested for parachuting from a lawn chair-borne balloon ship has left a city man more elated than deflated.

Dan Boria on Sunday launched underneath a canopy of more than 100 helium-filled balloons from a park in northwest Calgary, hoping to a parachute into the midst of the chuckwagon races at Stampede Park.

“The winds were pretty fierce up there, no doubt...the winds were so strong, it pushed me back,” said Boria, 26, who sounded excited.

“I jumped out of the chair and landed about a mile away the grounds.

“I can’t specify the altitude I went to...I was looking down at a 747, it was a surreal experience.”

Boria said he’d just been released from police custody after being charged with mischief causing danger to life.

The stunt went airborne to promote a cleaning company, with the balloon-lawn chair contraption flying its banner.

“We were doing advertising,” he said.

“It was awesome, it was the most fun thing I’ve ever done,” said Boria, adding it wasn’t a total gas at the outset.

“The first couple of thousand feet were pretty scary — I didn’t know if it would hold up.”

Boria said he’d purchased the balloons online and filled them with helium.

His cockpit was a $20 plastic lawn chair he bought at Canadian Tire, while the helium and balloons together ran a cool $13,300, said Boria.

Business associate Derek Mohajer said the plan was to fly on Saturday but extreme weather forced a delay.

“This has been planned for quite some time, I’m glad he didn’t die,” said Mojaher.

“I’ve skydived with Dan.”

Boria said he’d parachuted about 30 previous times.

Justin Jamison said he and a friend came across the remains of Boria’s craft Sunday evening in a ditch just northeast of High River, and feared the worst.

“It was just a chair and some balloons and we thought someone fell out of the sky,” said Jamison.

“We were wondering ‘should we be looking for someone?’”

By then, only 15 of the balloons were still inflated — enough for some local kids to attempt a re-launch, he said.

“We had a heyday out of it,” said Jamison.

City police were not amused with Boria’s antics.

Insp. Kyle Grant called it “irresponsible,” adding the high-flyer injured an ankle upon landing in a field at Highfield Blvd. and Ogden Rd. S.E.

“That chair has to come down and there’s the possibility it could land on a person, a vehicle, a house and cause damage...this is where that plan wasn’t thought out very well,” said Grant.

With Transport Canada looking into the incident that reached “cloud level,” more charges are possible, he said.

“It would have been cheaper for him to rent a billboard,” said Grant.

Boria said he knew there’d be legal ramifications from his flight.

“I didn’t know they were this severe,” he said.

His team, he said, had planned for safety “and it’s the way it happened.”

Boria appeared before a justice of the peace Monday morning and was released on a no-deposit bail of $1,500.

A condition of his release is that he has to stay at least 300 metres from the Stampede grounds.

His case is back in court on July 13.

- with files from Kevin Martin

bill.kaufmann@sunmedia.ca

on Twitter: @SUNBillKaufmann