Just when I thought I had heard about every crazy thing in the world, here comes Kent Couch from Bend, Oregon, who flew 193 miles in a lawn chair. Now that is something I have always had a hankering to do.
To accomplish his feat Couch attached 105 large helium-filled balloons to his lawn chair, and it's off into the wild blue yonder. He took with him some snacks (of course), a parachute (I would hope so), instruments to measure altitude and speed, a GPS device and four 5-gallon plastic bags of water for ballast.
The "lawn chairist" was planning to get as far east as Idaho but was forced to land shy of his goal after nearly nine hours in the air. "When you are a little kid, and you are holding a helium balloon, it has to cross your mind," Couch told a local newspaper. Maybe I have a different mind, but the idea never crossed mine.
The 41-year-old gas station owner got his idea from Larry Walters who in 1982 piloted his lawn chair three miles over Los Angeles. Walters surprised , if that is a stong enough verb, an airline pilot, who radioed the control tower that he had just passed a man in a lawn chair. Had I been the pilot I think that better judgement would have dictated me to look out the other window and let some other fool report the IFO. Walters was fined $1,500 for violating air traffic rules.
Couch told KTVZ-TV that the flight was "beautiful -- beautiful" and described it as mostly serene and peaceful. Then comes the forced landing when he had gotten down to 8 pounds of water ballast, and I suppose the snacks ran out. After he sort of crash landed, he jumped out, got some rope burns, and the wind grabbed the chair with the remaining balloons, and his video recorder and swept them away. Couch says that he's hoping to get them back before his next trip.
His wife Susan isn't sure if there will be a next time. She thinks that Couch has probably scratched that itch, and she's thinking of saying no.
A lawn chair can't be the most comfortable thing for that kind of ride. How about if one doubled or tripled the number of balloons and attached them to a La-Z-Boy? Something to mull over.
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2 comments:
Mr. Clark,
I kid you not, I was reading this story on CNN’s website yesterday and thought, "I wish i had Mr. Clark's email address he would love this story for his blog." Oh well, I guess great minds think alike, or you are just as bored at work as myself...HA
Travis,
Great minds do think alike. When I saw the story yesterday, I could not resist posting it. I don't know if everyone keeps up with the news like I do, but everybody needs to know about Kent Couch and his flying lawn chair. Kind of makes Orville's and Wilbur's flight just a little ordinary.
And I do get bored at work.
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