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Come fly with me

I find I don’t really have much to say about Kent Couch, he of the most recent flight by balloon-suspended lawn chair. The only moral to be drawn from the story is that people are much stranger than we can suppose. The news item did put me in mind of an earlier bizarro air traveler, “Lawn Chair” Larry Walters, and his 1982 flight into fame. Walters is mentioned in the Couch story, but the Darwin Awards web site has a much more interesting rendition of Walters’ violation of air traffic regulations.

As he was led away in handcuffs, a reporter dispatched to cover the daring rescue asked him why he had done it. Larry replied nonchalantly, “A man can’t just sit around.”

The Walters denouement:

Larry’s efforts won him a $1,500 FAA fine, a prize from the Bonehead Club of Dallas, the altitude record for gas-filled clustered balloons, and a Darwin Awards Honorable Mention. He gave his aluminum lawnchair to admiring neighborhood children, abandoned his truck-driving job, and went on the lecture circuit. He enjoyed intermittent demand as a motivational speaker, but said he never made much money from his innovative flight. He never married and had no children. Larry hiked into the forest and shot himself in the heart on October 6, 1993. He died at the age of 44.

Here’s hoping for a happier ending for Mr. Couch.

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