uk
enThe Lawn Chair Pilot
Larry Walters wants to be a
pilot. He wants to fly an airplane. But Larry is not a rich man. He
doesn't have an airplane. He has only a lawn chair.
Larry ties 45 big balloons to his lawn chair and then sits in the chair. The lawn chair goes up.
For a few minutes, everything is fine. The view from the lawn chair is beautiful. Larry can see houses and trees below him. He is happy. He is flying!
The lawn chair goes up very high. Larry is afraid. "I don't want to go very high," Larry thinks. "I want to go down a little." With a small gun, Larry shoots 10 balloons. Then something terrible happens. Larry drops the gun, and it falls to the ground. Larry can't shoot more balloons. The chair goes up and up.
Larry is three miles above the ground. Airplanes are flying over him and under him, Larry has a small radio. "Help! Help!" he says into the radio. "I'm flying in a lawn chair, and I want to come down!" People hear Larry, but they can't help him.
Larry flies in the lawn chair for 45 minutes. Then the balloons begin to lose air. Slowly, the lawn chair comes down, and Larry is back on the ground. He is not hurt.
Larry says, "For 45 minutes, I was a pilot — the pilot of a lawn chair."
