Lawn-chair adventurer soars across state line

CAMBRIDGE, Idaho -- Using his trusty BB gun to help him return to Earth, a 48-year-old gas station owner flew a lawn chair rigged with helium-filled balloons more than 200 miles across the Oregon desert Saturday, landing in a field in Idaho.

Kent Couch created a sensation in this tiny farming community, where he touched down safely in a pasture after lifting off from Bend, Ore., and was soon greeted by dozens of people who gave him water, local plumber Mark Hetz said.

"My wife works at the City Market," Hetz said. "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 100 to 200 feet off the ground.

"He takes his BB gun and shoots some balloons to lower himself to the ground. ... People were racing down the road with cameras."

Couch covered about 235 miles in about nine hours after lifting off at dawn from his Bend gas station in a green lawn chair rigged with an array of more than 150 giant party balloons.

The voyage began after Couch, clutching a big mug of coffee, kissed his wife and kids goodbye and then patted their shivering Chihuahua, Isabella, on the head.

After spilling off some cherry Kool-Aid that served as ballast, Couch got a push from the ground crew so he could clear light poles and soared over a coffee cart and across Highway 20 into a bright-blue sky.

"If I had the time and money and people, I'd do this every weekend," Couch said before getting into the chair. "Things just look different from up there. You've 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's wife, Susan, called him crazy: "It's never been a dull moment since I married him."

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, Couch had to parachute out after popping too many balloons. Last year, he flew 193 miles to the sagebrush of northeastern Oregon, short of his goal.

"I'm not stopping till I get out of state," he said.

To that end, he ordered more balloons. Dozens of volunteers wearing T-shirts that said "Dream Big" filled latex balloons 5 feet in diameter, attached them to strings and tied clusters of six balloons each to a tiny carabiner clip.

"I think it's wonderful he's got guts enough to do it," said retired commercial pilot Bob Banta.

Each balloon gives 4 pounds of lift. The chair was about 400 pounds, and Couch and his parachute 200 more.

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

For that job, he carried a Red Ryder BB gun and a blow gun equipped with steel darts. He also had a pole with a hook for pulling in balloons, a parachute in case anything went wrong, a handheld GPS device with altimeter, a satellite phone and two GPS tracking devices.

Couch estimated the rig cost about $6,000, mostly for helium. Costs were defrayed by corporate sponsors.

Associated Press writer Jeff Barnard contributed to this story from Bend, Ore.