the lawn chair balloonist
From the Seattle Times:
And of course, the inevitable mention of Darwin Awards special prize nominee Larry Walters, who just wanted to have a beer or two while watching the sunset.
BEND, Ore. — Last weekend, Bend gas station owner Kent Couch settled down in his lawn chair with some drinks and snacks — and a parachute.
Attached to the lawn chair were 105 balloons of various colors, each 4 feet around. Bundled together, the balloons rise three stories high.
Couch carried a global positioning system device, a two-way radio, a digital camcorder and a cell phone. He also had instruments to measure his altitude and speed and about four plastic bags holding five gallons of water each to act as a ballast — he could turn a spigot, release water and rise.
Destination: Idaho.
Nearly nine hours later, Couch was short of Idaho. But he was 193 miles from home, in a farmer's field near Union, having crossed much of Oregon at 11,000 feet and higher.
Couch, 47, is the latest American to emulate Larry Walters — who in 1982 rose three miles above Los Angeles in a lawn chair lifted by balloons.This is awe-inspiring. Congratulations Mr. Very-aptly-named Couch. (I did not know that the great Larry Walters committed suicide - kind of sad - perhaps, like many, he could not handle fame.)
Walters surprised an airline pilot, who radioed the control tower that he had just passed a guy in a lawn chair with a gun. The weapon was to shoot balloons and descend. Walters paid a $1,500 penalty for violating air traffic rules. Eleven years later, he committed suicide at age 44.
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