14 DAY TRIAL // It's strange how strong the will to fly is in some of us who would do mostly anything to make our dreams come true. Just like this fellow American who, last Saturday, thought it was a good idea to tie 150 giant party balloons to a simple lawn chair and take to the skies. He was successful in his endeavor and, after more than nine hours spent in the blues skies over Oregon, 48 year old Kent Couch landed in the state of Idaho after covering some 376 kilometers.
"My wife works at the City Market. She called and said, 'The balloon guy in the lawn chair just flew by the market, and if you look out the door you can see him'. We go outside to look, and lo and behold, there he is. He's flying by probably 30 to 60 meters off the ground. He takes his BB gun and shoots some balloons to lower himself to the ground. When he hit the ground he released all the little tiny balloons. People were racing down the road with cameras. They were all talking and laughing," said Mark Hetz, who works as a plumber in the surrounding area.
The town of Cambridge, where Couch landed, has a population just over 300, so you can imagine that not much happens in such a town, said Sandi Barton, aged 58. Obviously, Mr. Couch stirred up quite a sensation with his little stunt on Saturday. Sandi says that right after he landed, Couch gave some of the party balloons to the children gathered to see him and disappeared right after that.
Aside from his lawn chair and giant party balloons, Couch appears to have used cherry-flavored Kool-Aid as ballast and a BB gun to help him pop some of the balloons to get back on the ground safely.
"If I had the time and money and people, I'd do this every weekend. Things just look different from up there. You're moving so slowly. The best thing is the peace, the serenity. Originally, I wanted to do it because of boyhood dreams. I don't know about girls, but I think most guys look up in the sky and wish they could ride on a cloud," Couch said.
It seems that Couch is not at his first such attempt - this is actually the third time he's tried this and he says he was inspired by Larry Walters who, back in 1982, gained TV fame after flying over Los Angeles in a rather similar rig. The authorities, however, were not that impressed and fined him 1,500 dollars for breaking the air traffic rules.
In a previous attempt, destined to get him over the state line into Idaho, Couch had to parachute from his contraption after covering only 300 kilometers, somehow short of his original goal. He says that on that occasion he popped too many balloons at a time.
Each of the balloons used in the project is able to lift 1.8 kilograms. The chair alone weighed 181 kilograms, while Couch and his parachute added another 90. "I'd go to 9,000 meters if I didn't shoot a balloon down periodically," Couch said.
According to the estimates, the whole experience cost him about 6,000 dollars, most of which being accounted for the helium gas, and was financed by several sponsors.