Not surprising he is a Mythbusters fan.
http://bbedit.sv.publicus.com/apps/...708&Kategori=NEWS0107&Lopenr=707080434&Ref=AR
http://bbedit.sv.publicus.com/apps/...708&Kategori=NEWS0107&Lopenr=707080434&Ref=AR
LA GRANDE The man sitting at the Flying J Truck Stop in La Grande, enjoying a cheeseburger and fries on Saturday afternoon, looked unassuming enough.
But Kent Couch, 47, didnt reach La Grande by car, by truck or even on foot.
He got to the Eastern Oregon city by lawn chair. A flying lawn chair.
He didnt look like a guy who had just floated over rugged terrain, above craggy rocks and winding rivers in a lawn chair suspended at 11,000 feet by more than 100 rainbow-colored oversized balloons.
But then, who does?
A man who wants to float with the clouds.
The good part was getting to see the terrain, said the gas station owner from Bend. I went through the John Day River system, which was beautiful. And I was glad it was all working the way it should have.
But it wasnt all fun and games for Couch, who started out on the northeast side of Bend and made his way 193 miles, as the crow flies, in eight hours and 45 minutes.
There was that mountain range by Anthony Lakes, and I dreaded going over that because there were these little bouts of wind (pulling me around) and that has never happened before, Couch said. It was spooky, because there were no good places to land. If I had landed out there nobody would have found me for days.
Even though he didnt make it Idaho like had he hoped, the experience was, in a lot of ways, dreamy. Way up in the wild blue yonder, Couch could hear cows mooing and kids talking. He heard gun shots, which worried him. While he was at 11,000 feet, a black butterfly flew past him. The clouds he passed through, he said, were fluffy.
Its scary. Theres this sense of, What the heck am I doing? Are you crazy or what? he said. But I played with my mind, I told myself, this is a good thing.
Endless preparations
Plenty of planning went into the flight. Couch, who took his first cluster balloon flight in September, bustled around his gas station and convenience store at U.S. Highway 20 and Northeast 27th Street in Bend on Saturday at 5 a.m., making last-minute arrangements. He put on and then took off his parachute pack, readjusted the straps, and adjusted the digital camcorder on its mount by the right arm of the chair.
Couch was dressed casually, in a white-collared shirt, jeans and work boots. Pinned to Couchs shirt were his cell phone and a knife to cut the balloons free.
More than a dozen family members and friends spent the twilight hours using 49 helium canisters to blow up 105 multicolored balloons, each 4 feet in diameter. The group set up camp in the middle of the convenience stores parking lot while his wife, Susan, stretched lengths of twine along the ground against a tape measure to be sure that the balloons were evenly spaced.
The balloons each were tied with string, then six to a bunch and they were clipped to bungee cords that surrounded the lawn chair. They formed a column three stories high.
Attached to the chair were four large plastic bags of water, each holding 5 gallons. These served as part of the chairs ballast to weigh Couch down with 160 pounds of water and keep him at the right altitude. Couch could use the spigots to release water when he wanted to go higher.
He had plenty of other gadgets within reach as well: Couch carried instruments to measure his altitude and speed, a Global Positioning System device and assorted drinks and snacks.
As the time drew near for Couch to launch, he put on a green sweater and tested his chair.
With almost two dozen bystanders gathered to watch the takeoff, Couch prepared his launch. He shook friends hands, kissed his wife and pet his chihuahua, Isabella. At the last minute, Susan handed him a pair of sunglasses.
Then, at 6:06 a.m., the team began letting out water. Couch started to rise, giving a thumbs up and saying, See you in Idaho!
At first, Couch and the balloon chair headed south. He called to his friend, Kimi Feuer, on his two-way radio.
Im a little concerned about air traffic control, he said.
Federal Aviation Administration regulations state that ultralight vehicles, like Couchs chair, cant fly over congested areas. But Couch couldnt control that; only the wind could.
But as he climbed higher, Couchs direction reversed and he began heading northeast, maintaining a steady speed of about 25 mph and an altitude between 11,000 and 13,000 feet. As he became a speck on the horizon, and the colors of his balloons less decipherable, Feuer rallied the remaining onlookers. It was time to start the caravan.
A new experience
Couch was inspired to try a cluster balloon flight after watching an episode of MythBusters on the Discovery Channel. The episode sought to prove that a man in California named Larry Walters had in fact been able to fly by helium-filled balloons in 1982. Although the episode kept the Lawn Chair Larry imitator tethered to the ground with a rope, Couch said he thought it proved it could be done.
However, the show also cautioned that no one should try the stunt at home. But Couch was still curious.
When youre laying in the grass on a summer day, and you see the clouds, you wish you could jump on them, he said. This is as close as you can come to jumping on them. Its just like that.
So he did it.
It looked like it would work, Couch said. Kimi (Feuer) put it all together and orchestrated it, and kept me motivated.
The first time that Couch attempted a cluster balloon flight was Sept. 18.
The weather was cold. He dressed warmly but struggled with low temperatures and storm clouds.
And there were other problems. First, he put all his balloons in less of a spread-out pattern, and none were within arms distance, so he couldnt reach up and cut them loose to drop altitude. Instead, he carried a BB gun and shot them.
Couch reached about 15,000 feet on his first flight, popping balloons and sending him into a rapid descent. To fight the quick fall, he threw nearly everything he had off his chair, including food and drink and the BB gun.
The trip ended after six hours.
This time, he was more prepared.
Couch, his reclining chair, the bags of water and supplies combined to weigh about 310 pounds, and each balloon weighed about 5 pounds. With 500 pounds of lift and 310 pounds of drag, he had approximately 200 pounds of ballast keeping him anchored at the appropriate altitude.
His team also figured out a new configuration for the balloons so it was easier for him to reach up and release a bit of helium instead of simply cutting off a balloon, which could cause a sharp descent.
You can go for as long as you have lift and ballast, Feuer said. Once youre out of ballast, you have to come down.
The plan for a descent and a landing, instead of parachuting away from the chair as he did in September, was of considerable concern to the family this time around.
Last year, when Couch parachuted from his chair, he couldnt designate a landing location. The chaser cars had to drive onto unmarked dirt roads and all around unpaved areas searching for him.
Finding him so soon, I just remember how harrowing it was last time, said Karen Auel, Kimi Feuers wife. I mean, he was right off of a road in a beautiful field, he was right there. (Last time), we were already so exhausted, from going overland where there were no roads.
Saturdays flight wasnt cheap. Feuer estimated the cost of the 193-mile journey at about $5,000, with the helium making the biggest dent at $2,400 for 49 tanks.
But Feuer said the money didnt really matter.
Its more a work of love, Feuer said, noting that Couch first mentioned the idea in passing years ago. Its the technical challenge of doing it.
When he wanted to do this, I said, Yeah, Ill help. After last year, after we succeeded and recovered, he said, Lets do it again.
On the road
Three vehicles comprised the chaser caravan Saturday, with Couchs younger sister Janine leading the way in a red truck. Susan, the chihuahua Isabella and Feuer traveled with Janine and stayed in contact with Couch for much of the journey using a combination of two-way radios and cell phones.
Couch regularly provided Feuer with his GPS coordinates, which Feuer plotted on a map, allowing him to choose the best possible street route to be within sight of Couch or have radio contact with him.
If we get out of range, we will follow the points of where we expect he will be, Feuer said during the chase. We have contingency plans if we lose him.
A second car held family members, including four of Couchs five kids, while an RV tailed behind, carrying more family members and two more dogs. In all, the group numbered nine.
The caravan made its first stop in Prineville, where Couch called into the local radio station for a quick interview as he flew overhead and continued heading northeast.
At that point, Couchs trip was going smoothly. But it wasnt the air travel that his family was concerned about.
He should be fine until he tries to land, said his son, Kelly. It depends on whether he can land near a road, if he can descend at the right speed.
Just before noon, as the caravan stopped for gasoline in Dale, the group spotted Couch again. Near Dale, which is north of John Day, Couch had slowed to 11 mph and was floating at around 9,000 feet.
Were always doing this kind of stuff, his stepdaughter, Ariel Waters, said before jumping in the RV to get back on Couchs trail. She said her family has always been involved in adventures, even when they arent planned.
Out of sight
Couchs parents, who live in La Grande, didnt want to know when he was attempting his launch. But if the winds hadnt been so strong toward the end of his journey Saturday, they might have gotten an unexpected visitor in their backyard.
They were stressed about it, Susan said. If we surprised them that would be quite funny, and an incredible coincidence.
As it was, the winds didnt allow for a backyard welcome. Instead, Couch was tossed about a bit before finally landing south of La Grande near North Powder.
Couch stopped short of his goal of reaching Idaho because he was down to 1 gallon of water and just 8 pounds of ballast. Concerned about the rugged terrain that exists outside of La Grande, including Hells Canyon, Couch thought then that it was the right time to come back to Earth.
I followed a lot of roads, and I was at 12,000 feet most of the time, Couch said. I was looking down on Anthony Lakes, and I was headed right for Union. I figured Id get a good landing. But then I dropped my line right by the highway, and (a big wind came) and I went back up again to 6,000 feet.
Couch thought he had found a nice place to land, right by Highway 203 near Union, southeast of La Grande. He dropped a rope to weigh him down, but the wind picked up and dragged it along as he climbed back up to 5,000 feet. Couch tried popping balloons to bring him closer to the ground, but he was moving at 20 mph. When he tried to grab the rope, he burned his hands as it flew out of his grasp.
He finally found the right spot to land, but the caravan had headed toward Union, and Couch had gusted back toward North Powder near Interstate 84 eastbound.
The main thing I was worried about was the landing, Susan said later. I was a little apprehensive when we got to Union (and he wasnt there).
I told Janine to drive faster, I wanted to know that he was OK.
With the chair moving so quickly, Couch knew he had little time to prepare for his landing. When the chair hit the ground he jumped out.
With Janine riding hard on the gas pedal, the red truck flew through a private farm compound and headed down a dirt road bordered by wheat fields. There, in the distance, walking down the road, was Couch, with only his sweater tied around his waist. His gear, chair and remaining balloons had been swept back up in the wind and away.
Id rather be down a few bucks and walk out of there, he said.
Couch had barely managed to land the chair, but he avoided using his parachute.
I was going really fast, he said, and the chair had hit the wheat field for just a moment before it swooped back out of control and into the air, gone forever.
As Couch received congratulations and hugs from his supporters, some less friendly faces came riding into view on all-terrain vehicles. Two men from the farm had arrived, and they wanted an explanation.
Couch told them that he had landed his balloon chair in the field, and offered to show the farmers the spot to prove he hadnt damaged the crops. That wasnt necessary, one of the men said, as long as the group was leaving the property. Soon.
So youre on the way out? he asked.
Whether Couch will ever attempt to fly by cluster-balloon chair again is out of his control.
Its up to my wife, he said. Im not saying I wont do it again, but I told her Id let her decide if I did it again.
While Susan said shes considering using her wifely privilege to stop any further cluster balloon flights, she was willing to do Saturdays trip for him, she said, because I know hed be thinking about it more and more, it would always be on his mind. This way, at least hes fulfilled his dream.
Looking ahead?
There are areas Couch would still like to improve upon, though his wifes permission not withstanding. He lost his chair again. And he was hoping that hed have the chaser cars waiting for him so that they could control the chair when he exited it.
Thats the whole point of this, to prove what can be done, Feuer said. Theres no books on this.
But all in all, Couch didnt have many complaints, aside from his burned hands.
There was a good steady wind, the weather was nice, in the 40s and the 50s, he said. When youre a little kid and youre holding a helium balloon, it has to cross your mind.
