(1982, California) Larry Walters of Los Angeles is one of the few to contend for the Darwin Awards and live to tell the tale. "I have fulfilled my 20-year dream," said Walters, a former truck driver for a company that makes TV commercials. "I'm staying on the ground. I've proved the thing works."
Larry's boyhood dream was to fly. But fates conspired to keep him from his dream. He joined the Air Force, but his poor eyesight disqualified him from the job of pilot. After he was discharged from the military, he sat in his backyard watching jets fly overhead.
He hatched his weather balloon scheme while sitting outside in his "extremely comfortable" Sears lawnchair. He purchased 45 weather balloons from an Army-Navy surplus store, tied them to his tethered lawnchair dubbed the Inspiration I, and filled the 4' diameter balloons with helium. Then he strapped himself into his lawnchair with some sandwiches, Miller Lite, and a pellet gun. He figured he would pop a few of the many balloons when it was time to descend.
Larry's plan was to sever the anchor and lazily float up to a height of about 30 feet above his back yard, where he would enjoy a few hours of flight before coming back down. But things didn't work out quite as Larry planned.
When his friends cut the cord anchoring the lawnchair to his Jeep, he did not float lazily up to 30 feet. Instead, he streaked into the LA sky as if shot from a cannon, pulled by the lift of 42 helium balloons holding 33 cubic feet of helium each. He didn't level off at 100 feet, nor did he level off at 1000 feet. After climbing and climbing, he leveled off at 16,000 feet.
At that height he felt he couldn't risk shooting any of the balloons, lest he unbalance the load and really find himself in trouble. So he stayed there, drifting cold and frightened with his beer and sandwiches, for more than 14 hours. He crossed the primary approach corridor of LAX, where Trans World Airlines and Delta Airlines pilots radioed in reports of the strange sight.
Eventually he gathered the nerve to shoot a few balloons, and slowly descended. The hanging tethers tangled and caught in a power line, blacking out a Long Beach neighborhood for 20 minutes. Larry climbed to safety, where he was arrested by waiting members of the LAPD. 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 Federal Aviation Administration was not amused. Safety Inspector Neal Savoy said, "We know he broke some part of the Federal Aviation Act, and as soon as we decide which part it is, a charge will be filed."
Read more awards for your amusment and hopefully education so you know that the great idea you have been thinking of is not so great after all.... it could very well save your life 
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read more blogs!
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lancer525
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May 18 @ 8:01AM
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Didn't Jaime and Adam (the Mythbusters) prove this was not plausible? I seem to remember seeing one where Adam was in a lawn chair, and it took something like 2000 balloons to get him to just lift off the ground.
My personal favorite Darwin award is the Canadian security guard who climbed the Microwave tower to stay warm, not knowing they were going to be doing a full-power test overnight. They found him cooked, and all 6 of the beer cans he took to the top of the tower were all melted.
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Levitan
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May 18 @ 8:06AM
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Didn't Jaime and Adam (the Mythbusters) prove this was not plausible?
maybe, they do test anything and everything dont they 
Have not seen it, but love the show as well as the Darwin Awards site.. the things people do at times are amazing.
Have we lost all common sense people? Or are we in general just a daft bunch??
I NEED TO KNOW!!!!!! 
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tbirdgirl12345
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May 18 @ 9:17AM
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OH MAN that was priceless. thanks for sharing. LOL
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EternalFlame
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May 18 @ 10:52AM
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My favorite was a story about some guys in some factory or something....
This guy noticed something on the ground under a pipe...looked at the pipe and saw a hole in there, so he stuck his finger in the hole, and it was promptly severed. After much screaming and blood loss, a supervisor came over and the guy with no finger told him what happened....the supervisor wanted to check it out, put his finger in the hole, and it was promptly severed. A warning sign was put up to prevent anyone else from sticking their finger up there, and the two were taken to the hospital.
When the insurance adjustor came to assess how the injuries happened, they showed him the pipe...the idiot stuck his finger in the hole...guess what happened? 
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mindfulwhim
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May 18 @ 11:04AM
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At least his beer was cold.
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sparechange64
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May 18 @ 11:45AM
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not to sound sheltered, but why is it called "darwin award" ????
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EternalFlame
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May 18 @ 12:08PM
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From the site:
" Honoring those who improve the species...by
accidentally removing themselves from it!"
These people are chlorinating the gene pool...survival of the fittest and all that 
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Knightingale362
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May 18 @ 1:55PM
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Having travelled from the UK to California, my friend Bernard and myself were having a very interesting conversation about quite how the widgets in a can of Guinness operated. The "Widget" for those who don't know, is a kind of capsule which releases CO2 when the ring of the can is popped, thereby creating a fresh and frothy dose of the black stuff that's as close to a good Dublin pint as a can... can be!
Anyway, after liberally oiling the wheels of our technical debate by steadily opening and quaffing the test samples by the swimming pool of the Holiday Inn, Laguna Beach, we hit deadlock. I maintained that the widget and the cans would have to be produced and manufactured under pressure during the canning process, as it was my theory that the popping of the ring prior to subsequent guzzling....created a differential in air pressure which would allow the widget to open it's little valve and inject fizz into my favourite beverage. Bernie, on the other hand, insisted that scientifically, this was bollocks and he didn't care anyway because he was just enjoying the lounging bikinis and he continued environmentally, sensitively,.... disposing of the test batch by pouring them down his throat.
To cut a long story short, I suggested that we could prove my theory was correct if...if.... we could somehow open the can by popping the ring under some increase in atmospheric or hydraulic pressure. Then, with more than a little of the lovely nectar lubricating my creativity, inspiration struck me!
I suggested that there was probably more than enough pressure at the bottom of the swimming pool to enable us to open the can.....see whether or not the widget burst....then once and for all, the debate would be settled!
Arming ourselves with a can of Guinness, we both dived to the bottom of the pool, held our breath and popped the tin! Sadly, very sadly the subsequent black cloud released from the tin obscured our vision and we weren't able to conclude whether this was aided by an exploded widget or whether it was simply the gas already in the can. We might have stood a chance of conclusively settling the argument with further dives were it not for the fact that our experiment was cut short at it's birth by complaining swimmers and hotel staff and it was suggested that we may wish to find an alternative laboratory!
Anyway, if there's anyone out there that knows the answer to this conundrum, please let me know....or if not....if you have a deeper swimming pool....me and Bernie would be delighted continue our world changing experiments in your backyard!
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Sunbabie
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May 18 @ 3:29PM
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Wonderful story, thank you for sharing it. While reading it I was reminded of something that happened when I was a child. I will share it in a blog later
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