Canuck chump cuffed over helium balloon flying chair stunt

Re: They should throw the book at him

Controlled airspace is there for a reason; the chances of a collision may be small but the consequences would be terrible.

Last I heard, his contraption was still aloft. Somewhere.

Re: They should throw the book at him

As if to further this point, an F-16 broadsided a Cessna over South Carolina today. While the fighter pilot safely ejected, there is no word on the occupants of the civilian aircraft and it's assumed that all aboard perished.

While further investigation is necessary, one of the two planes was where it shouldn't have been and it resulted in the death of one or more people as well as destruction of two aircraft. Risking your own life and limb is a decision you have to live (or die) with, but when you are making quips about seeing commercial aircraft below you, there is more at stake than your own skin. An example should be made of this man, especially given his callous disregard for the safety of anyone else in the airspace and his disturbing lack of remorse.

Logistics

> We couldn't find anyone who could get me to that altitude. No pilots were willing to lose their license to fly me into controlled airspace.

I'm a little surprised that no pilots told him there is a procedure to ask for authorisation for these sort of things. While strapping oneself to a bunch of party balloons is not very likely to get signed off by any CAA employee not looking for a career change, demo jumps from aeroplanes, helicopters, and even hot air balloons and other aerostats, are not exactly unusual and not difficult or (in my experience) expensive to get authorisation for.

The standard method in these cases is to use a 22 or pellet gun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Walters

Surely a pin on a stick is all you need for a reasonably controlled descent?

Nope. It might start reasonably well, but as you approach the ground, the air pressure increases, leading to the balloons shrinking, with a corresponding[1] loss in buoyancy. This means that the speed of descent increases, meaning that the rate of change in air pressure increases, ...

So a pin on a stick would get you a descent, but the words "reasonably" and "controlled" aren't really appropriate...

Vic.

[1] As the density of air increases, you will obtain more upthrust from a given size of object (Archimedes' principle), but this will not balance the loss of volume; the difference between the internal and external pressures in an elastic balloon increases as the balloon size decreases (Laplace's Law). Thus you would increasingly lose upthrust from each balloon as you descend through the atmosphere.

Re: Up!

Come on, the dog wasn't SQUIRREL!.

The point about controlled air space is just that: it's controlled. You don't go in it without permission from ATC.

Even though powered planes give way to gliders, and everybody gives way to balloons, I rather suspect that balloons anywhere but Class G except in emergency doesn't make ATC happy. Planning to abandon your aircraft in controlled space? This guy needs the book throwing at him, ideally for ballast.

> So if you were to seek permission to do this legally,

If you are referring to the balloons+chair stunt, it's extremely unlikely that anyone would grant permission for that.

With that said, tethered and untethered weather and research balloons do not carry either, but they are announced through a mechanism called NOTAM (Notices to Airmen, cf. Notices to Mariners) which in theory one is supposed to have read before setting off on a flight.

Weather balloons usually spend relatively little time at commercial air traffic altitudes however, so they're more of a concern for fast jet pilots and returning astronauts/cosmonauts.

So if you were to seek permission to do this legally, would you have to carry a radar transponder and air band radio with you?

Not necessarily.

This sort of flight would not normally be permitted in controlled airspace, so to do it legally, one would need special permission from the nation's aviation authority. Such permission is occasionally granted, but this is based on the facts of the matter; carrying a transponder and radio would most assuredly count in favour of the flight. That said, there are so many reasons not to approve the flight, that I don't expect such considerations would amount to anything.

This was supposed to be a PR stunt for his company. That's unlikely to persuade an authority to interrupt controlled airspace.

Vic.

Re: Go Calgary!

"Little"? With a population of 1.2 million, it's the fourth largest city in Canada.

And if you're looking for embarrassing Calgarians in the international media, both lawn-chair-guy and Mr-creation-science have to take a back seat to the Member of Parliament for Calgary Southwest.

Re: Darwin award?

Technically, Catholic Priests promise to not get Married (the vow of celibacy). Having children without getting married indicates a failure of Chasitity, which would be a sin, which would require penance, same as if you have children without a church wedding.

Re: Darwin award?

They have the joy of Catholicism.

You can sin as much as you want, break all the rules, just seek forgiveness before you die and everything is golden.

Thus the meme that praying for a bike is less effective than stealing a bike and praying for forgiveness.