Kent Couch, apparently, does not think very highly of all the normal means of transportation. So what he did was tied up a lawn chair with over 150 giant party balloons and made over 235 miles over Oregon and Idaho. His marathon flight took him up to 200 feet over ground for over 9 hours. Helping him on his journey were a satellite phone, altimeter, parachute and a couple of GPS devices attached to the comfy lawn chair. Containers of Kool-Aid served as his ballast. And for providing some semblance of control over his flight, Couch carried a gun to shoot down a balloon if and when necessary and a pole to bring the balloon into the firing range. And he wasn’t ill-equipped meal-wise either; Couch enjoyed a hearty meal of boiled eggs, beef jerky and chocolate while onboard. The success of his flight had something to do with the fact that this was his third attempt, in as many years, at trying to reach Idaho. Couch, 48 years now, is a former hang-glider pilot and was inspired by a TV show by Larry Walters in early 1980s, which depicted a lawn chair flight over LA. Landing at about 3.45 in the afternoon in a horse pasture at Cambridge, Idaho, here’s what Couch had to say:
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.
And if you are impressed by those wise words then you’d be well advised to know that for all the achievement, Couch has been fined $1,500 for violating air traffic rules. Some reward for human endeavor, huh!
