---Mssrs. Condon, Shostak, Weaver, Klass, Korff, Shermer, Prof. C. Moore, and Gen. Ramey from the University of Authorities in Their Own Minds to Refute the Unacceptable.
[For the Committee to Deny the Anomalous and Uninvestigate UFOs]
Oregon man takes lawn chair up to 13,000 feet Oregon man takes lawn chair up to 13,000 feet
Balloons suspend Kent Couch in a lawnchair as he floats in the skies near Bend, Ore., Saturday, July 7, 2007. (AP Photo/ The Bulletin, Pete Erickson) Save a link to this article and return to it at www.savethis.comSave a link to this article and return to it at www.savethis.com Email a link to this articleEmail a link to this article Printer-friendly version of this articlePrinter-friendly version of this article View a list of the most popular articles on our siteView a list of the most popular articles on our site YouNewsTV YouNewsTV™
Story Published: Jul 9, 2007 at 4:01 PM PDT
Story Updated: Jul 12, 2007 at 11:11 AM PDT By Associated Press Watch the story BEND, Ore. (AP) - 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.
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.
Why would Couch try such a flight?
"When you're a little kid and you're holding a helium balloon, it has to cross your mind," he told the Bend Bulletin.
"When you're laying in the grass on a summer day, and you see the clouds, you wish you could jump on them," he told the Bulletin. "This is as close as you can come to jumping on them. It's just like that."
God, I sure would like to try that kind of thing some day if I could avoid getting run over by a passenger jet! Pretty damn wild... I would take a parachute, though.
Yep! You got it! Case solved. Next!?
ReplyDelete---Mssrs. Condon, Shostak, Weaver, Klass, Korff, Shermer, Prof. C. Moore, and Gen. Ramey from the University of Authorities in Their Own Minds to Refute the Unacceptable.
[For the Committee to Deny the Anomalous and Uninvestigate UFOs]
Oregon man takes lawn chair up to 13,000 feet
ReplyDeleteOregon man takes lawn chair up to 13,000 feet
Balloons suspend Kent Couch in a lawnchair as he floats in the skies near Bend, Ore., Saturday, July 7, 2007. (AP Photo/ The Bulletin, Pete Erickson)
Save a link to this article and return to it at www.savethis.comSave a link to this article and return to it at www.savethis.com
Email a link to this articleEmail a link to this article
Printer-friendly version of this articlePrinter-friendly version of this article
View a list of the most popular articles on our siteView a list of the most popular articles on our site
YouNewsTV YouNewsTV™
Story Published: Jul 9, 2007 at 4:01 PM PDT
Story Updated: Jul 12, 2007 at 11:11 AM PDT
By Associated Press
Watch the story
BEND, Ore. (AP) - 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.
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.
Why would Couch try such a flight?
"When you're a little kid and you're holding a helium balloon, it has to cross your mind," he told the Bend Bulletin.
"When you're laying in the grass on a summer day, and you see the clouds, you wish you could jump on them," he told the Bulletin. "This is as close as you can come to jumping on them. It's just like that."
God, I sure would like to try that kind of thing some day if I could avoid getting run over by a passenger jet! Pretty damn wild...
I would take a parachute, though.