Two men flying matching lawn chairs suspended by helium-filled party balloons over Central Oregon last weekend when...

[3mpire 0]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2018708922_apuslawnchairballoonists.html

Two men flying matching lawn chairs suspended by helium-filled party balloons over Central Oregon last weekend said Tuesday they were floating along peacefully at 14,000 feet when thunderstorms grabbed control of their homemade craft like a giant hand.

"It was so nice, so beautiful, so peaceful," for the first three hours of the flight, said Iraqi adventurer Fareed Lafta, who joined lawn chair ballooning veteran Kent Couch in an attempt to fly from Couch's gas station in Bend, Ore., to Montana as a warm-up for a future flight over Iraq. "I remember I can hear the cow when they moo, the dogs. Everything was so peaceful and so nice.

"Then we were in this thunderstorm."

Couch said it was like some giant hand grabbed hold of their craft.

"It felt like a wind just raced up and grabbed the balloons and just squeezed them," said Couch. "Ten of them popped at one time. It sounded like a string of firecrackers being let off. I would say that's probably where we felt threatened."

Normally, shooting out one or two balloons would cause them to drop, but they were still ascending - fast. When they started to fall, they dropped ballast, but kept falling.

"This makes no sense," said Lafta, a veteran pilot and skydiver.

Couch said Lafta asked if they should jump with the parachutes they strapped on before climbing into their lawn chairs.

"I said, `I don't want to jump,'" Couch said. "`I'm not ready to jump yet.'

"By the time we got in our landing mode, I wished we would have jumped."

They were buffeted for an hour and a half.

With half their 800 pounds of ballast and nearly half their 350 balloons gone, Couch said they would never make it to Montana, a trip of some 400 miles. Flight by helium-filled party balloons is a constant process of releasing ballast and shooting out balloons, Couch said.

"It was really, really dangerous for us," he said. "The best solution is to get down."

The owner of a gas station and convenience store, Couch started flying lawn chairs in 2006, after seeing a TV show about the 1982 lawn chair flight over Los Angeles by truck driver Larry Walters.

After successfully flying to Idaho in 2008, Couch got an email from Lafta, inviting him to put together a tandem lawn chair for a flight over Iraq to inspire orphans of terrorist attacks. Lafta said he had long wanted to fulfill a childhood dream inspired by the 1980s Care Bears cartoons, about bears with special powers who lived in the clouds.

The flight was scrubbed after failing to secure government permission.

Despite the setback Saturday, both men plan to go ahead with the flight in Iraq, attempting to break an altitude record this October from a site to be determined.

"Why not?" said Lafta. "We have a lot of fun. And more experience that makes us safer in future."

On takeoff they were not concerned about the weather. Forecasts called for lightning storms, but that was hundreds of miles to the east. Winds initially took them northeast, then pushed them back southwest, before they started going east. At one point they were stuck about 20 minutes over the Facebook computer server center in Prineville, Ore., unable to move.

With an eye out for an open spot to land, they started shooting balloons with the Red Ryder BB rifles they each carried in plastic pipe scabbards by their lawn chairs.

"We'd shoot a few and start to descend, but it would lift us back up," Couch said. "I finally got exasperated and really started shooting balloons.

"We felt just like `The Rifleman,'" a 1950s TV Western. "We were cocking and shooting, cocking and shooting, pretty darn fast."

As they approached the ground, the wind was pushing them along at about 30 mph, and they could see their chase crew below. They dropped a rope, trying for a clearing in some trees, but the heat from the flat ground forced them up. They dropped more ballast to clear some trees, Couch said.

They shot out more balloons and came into a newly mowed hay field, about 40 miles east of their starting point. Banging along the ground, they released two clusters of red balloons to prevent the craft from floating off, then jumped. They couldn't hang on, and the craft floated away anyway, coming to earth on a ranch five miles away. It now rests in Couch's driveway, headed for a museum.

"I made a commitment to Fareed and the orphans of Iraq," to fly again, Couch said. "Otherwise I'm on the ground for good. I think it's out of my system.

"My wife, Susan, says, `I've heard that before.' She's making me sign a contract."

[jinlee 0]

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they started shooting balloons with the Red Ryder BB rifles they each carried

Have to be careful with those things otherwise "You'll shoot your eye out".

[theonlyski 8]

Guess they should've gotten a proper flight weather brief.

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
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[adamUK 3]

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Have to be careful with those things otherwise "You'll shoot your eye out".

Brilliant.

[JohnRich 4]

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Guess they should've gotten a proper flight weather brief.

Are flight weather briefings always perfect?

[milehigheric 0]

This sounds like a bad ass plan - I was unaware people even considered flying lawn chairs under helium balloons. If there was a way to ensure no legal repercussions I would have a crack for sure...Maybe not landing them tho, hop and pop would be the go.

[3mpire 0]

I knew that people have done this--a skydiver in minnesota did this at a state fair once for a fundraiser.

but i never knew people did true cross country flights. not like a pull and clear at 13k cross country but like a general aviation cross country leaving the state type deal!

central oregon to montana is hundreds of miles

[Clouddancer22 0]

I think I would like to try it someday as well, but not such a long cross-country flight. Definite bucket list item!

D-11672

[TampaPete 48]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Walters

I think this is the original flight.

[Clouddancer22 0]

Thanks! I notice the original guy used 45 weather balloons - doesn't give the size or diameter. The most recent tandem pair used "helium filled party balloons." Wonder how many they needed?

D-11672

[3mpire 0]

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/balloon-girl-minimyth.htm

According to this 500 party balloons lifts 7lbs.

[Clouddancer22 0]

Thanks so much for the link! That is what I thought, the party balloons would not be able to lift two men in lawnchairs. IMO they also used weather balloons, which come in a variety of sizes. As a child I was always fascinated by the thought of flying by attaching balloons. I also looked into weather balloons, but they were very expensive for a kid, lol! Still a dream, I just might do a SMALLER more controlled version someday . . .

D-11672

[kuai43 7]

It's called cluster ballooning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_ballooning

http://www.clusterballoon.org/

Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal

Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

[Southern_Man 0]

Yes, Jonathan Trappe has even been issued an N-number for his cluster balloon craft.

http://www.clusterballoon.com/Appearances.asp

"What if there were no hypothetical questions?"