Up, up and away in lawn chair hoisted by 150 helium balloons — Oregon man heads to Idaho

Riding
a lawn chair supported by 150 helium-filled party balloons, Kent Couch
is trying to fly from central Oregon to Idaho.

BEND, Ore. – Riding a green lawn chair supported by a rainbow array
of more than 150 helium-filled party balloons, Kent Couch took off
Saturday in a third bid to fly from central Oregon all the way to Idaho.

Couch kissed his wife and kids goodbye, and patted their shivering
Chihuahua, Isabella, before his ground crew gave him a push so he could
clear surrounding light poles and a coffee cart.

Then, clutching a big mug of coffee, Couch rose out of the parking
lot of his gas station into the bright blue morning sky, cheered by a
crowd of spectators.

“If I had the time and money and people, I’d do this every weekend,”
Couch said before getting into the chair. “Things just look different
from up there. You’ve moving so slowly. The best thing is the peace,
the serenity.

“You can hear a dog bark at 15,000 feet.”

“He’s crazy,” said his wife, Susan. “It’s never been a dull moment since I married him.”

Couch hoped to ride the prevailing wind to the area of McCall, Idaho, about 230 miles east. He travels at about 20 mph.

Each balloon gives four pounds of lift. The chair was about 400 pounds, and Couch and his parachute 200 more.

“I’d go to 30,000 feet if I didn’t shoot a balloon down periodically,” Couch said.

For that job he carried a Red Ryder BB gun and a blow gun equipped
with steel darts. He also had a pole with a hook for pulling in
balloons, Global Positioning System tracking devices, an altimeter and
a satellite phone.

It was his third flight. In 2006, he had to parachute out after
popping too many balloons. And last year he flew 193 miles to the
sagebrush of northeastern Oregon, short of his goal.

“I’m not stopping till I get out of state,” he said.

Couch had to dump some of the 45 gallons of cherry Kool-Aid he
carried as ballast before he was able to disappear into the distance.
“We wanted some color, and it kind of reminded me of kid days,” he said
of the ballast.

Associated Press