Cross Country In A Lawn Chair-A Success
Flying Lawn Chair Adventurer Kent Couch makes the big time and flies his lawn chair to Oregon.
Third time is the charm…or so they say and Kent Couch has proved it to be so. After two unsuccessful tries, Kent Couch makes his boyhood dream come true.
Armed with his trusty BB gun to help him return to Earth, 48 year old Baby Boomer, and gas station owner Kent Couch realized his boyhood dream Saturday, of flying a lawn chair rigged with helium filled party balloons more than 200 miles. Across the Oregon high desert. To finally land in a farm field in Idaho. A good time was had by all and no animals or humans were harmed in this extravaganza.
In the tiny farming community of Cambridge, Idaho, Kent Couch was seen peacefully flying by in his colorful array of balloons. He touched down safely in an empty pasture and was soon greeted by dozens of people. One would have thought, it was Charles Lindbergh. In fact, Kent couch does favor him…
Coming in for a landing only probably 100 to 200 feet off the ground. Kent couch used his trusty BB gun to plummet back to earth,
“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.”
Couch had covered about 235 miles in about nine hours after lifting off with the dawn from his gas station riding in a green lawn chair rigged with a rainbow array of more than 150 giant party balloons.
Kent Couch’s wife, Susan, declared him crazy, but stated she wanted to go with him next time and that it’s never been a dull moment since I married him. I think they are a match made in heaven or at least 3000 feet. If Kent Couch will be going solo or not…well ,that is something we will have to see next year.
This was Couch’s third balloon flight. He realized it would be possible after watching a TV show about the 1982 lawn chair flight over Los Angeles of truck driver Larry Walters, who gained folk hero fame, but was fined $1,500 for violating air traffic rules.
In 2006, Kent Couch 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. But this year he make it!
Up, Up and away, in my beautiful, my beautiful balloons…Remember that song Baby Boomers, by The Fifth Dimension?
Congratulations Kent Couch, this is for you!
Congratulations Kent Couch!
Each balloon gave four pounds of lift. The chair was about 400 pounds, and Couch and his parachute 200 more. When ever Kent couch went up over 30,000 feet he would shoot a balloon and come down to a more breathable level.
For another report on Kent Couch, there is more information on my blog.
What’s next Kent Couch?
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
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