To: WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 00:57:54 -0400
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Lawn Chair Larry
From: ronkean at juno.com
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

On Wed, 25 Jun 2003 17:16:59 -0700 (PDT) Rich Lynch <rw_lynch at yahoo.com>
writes:
>

> Is that the guy whose plan for getting back down to
> the ground consisted of bringing a pellet gun with him
> to shoot the balloons, one by one?
>

Yes, the pellet gun is mentioned in the web report I cited, and the gun
appears in a photo of the event.

> Have to admit, it all sounded like an urban legend to
> me when I first heard it...
>

By word of mouth, it does sound far fetched enough to be an urban legend,
but I think it's a true story.  The web report is quite convincing, with
photos, quotes from news reports, the FAA, etc., and the Darwin Awards
have a reputation for being based on factual events.  This story is
famous enough that it can probably be corroborated easily using google
searches, given the wealth of detail in the story at the Darwin Awards
website.

One detail on the website is not consistent with reality.  42 balloons,
each four feet in diameter and each holding 33 cubic feet of helium would
yield no more than about 40 kg. of lift, not sufficient to lift a man and
a lawn chair, falling short by a factor of about two.  But the balloons
are rubber, and if their nominal size is four feet diameter, they can
probably be blown up to a somewhat larger size, albeit with a greater
risk of bursting.  And the balloons in the pictures do appear to be
larger than 4 feet in diameter, enough larger to possibly produce the
required lift, assuming there were 42 balloons in all.  I did not try to
count the balloons in the picture.

I calculated that the amount of helium required would cost about $1200 if
bought here today from Roberts Oxygen in Rockville, with a similar amount
of money required as a deposit on the tanks.  It would require about two
dozen standard four foot tall tanks, but there is a larger tank size
available which holds about twice as much as the standard tanks, and the
cost with those tanks might be somewhat less.  Either way, it might
require two trips in a small pickup truck to transport the tanks.

Years ago, I bought one surplus rubber weather balloon by mail order.  It
may well have been the same nominal size as the ones in the story.  It
broke when I blew it up with air to test it, perhaps because the rubber
had deteriorated by being stored too long.

Ron Kean

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