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From: turano@silver.DEC (Tom Turano  DTN 231- [Office 4735, Lab 6978])
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Subject: Re: True story or whopper
Message-ID: <3248@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 10-Aug-84 08:35:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.3248
Posted: Fri Aug 10 08:35:07 1984
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*

The story about the guy and the lawnchair with the helium balloons is true.
Apparently he connected several balloons to his lawn chair, and took with
him as safety equipment a pair of sun glasses, a CB radio for communication
and a BB gun for altitude control. On the day of the flight, a stiff wind
came up and caused the premature release by his ground crew of the chair
with him in it.

On his way up he passed several commercial airliners whose conversations
with the ground must have been really interesting. I don't remember his
final altitude but it was high enough so that he began to freeze. At this
point he began shooting out the balloons with the BB gun and managed to
place his chair into a group of high tension wires. 

He suffered minor injuries and was charged with violations of several
federal, state and local statutes. I do not know if he has yet gone
to trial, but I know what his defense ought to be.

Tom Turano
Laboratory Data Products
DIGITAL