Monday 7 July 2008

Man takes flight with DIY baloon chair!


Kent Couch rose into the sky from his home in Oregon, clutching a mug of coffee,

He travelled around 20mph and nine hours later ended his journey in Idaho after shooting some of the balloons with a ball-bearing gun.

Each balloon attached to his chair gave him four pounds of lift - the chair weighed about 400 pounds while Couch and his parachute were a further 200.

It was the 48-year-old petrol station owner's third attempt of reaching the neighbouring state.

Mr Couch, who navigated with a GPS satellite-guided tracking device, said: "If I had the time and money and people, I'd do this every weekend."

"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.

"I'd go to 30,000 feet if I didn't shoot a balloon down periodically," he said.

Mr Couch has had several attempts at reaching his target.

In 2006, he had to parachute out after popping too many balloons. And last year he flew 193 miles to the northeast of Oregon.

Couch was inspired by a TV show about the 1982 garden chair flight over Los Angeles by truck driver Larry Walters, who gained folk hero fame but was fined £750 for violating air traffic rules.

His wife, Susan: "He's crazy. It's never been a dull moment since I married him."

source & video

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