A 48-year-old gas station owner flew a lawn chair rigged with helium-filled balloons more than 200 miles across the Oregon desert on July 5, landing safely in a field in Idaho. Ken Couch, from Cambridge, Idaho, covered 235 miles in nine hours after taking off in a green lawn chair rigged with a cluster of more than 150 giant party balloons. This was Couch's third balloon flight, he first realized it was possible after watching a TV show about the 1982 lawn chair flight over Los Angeles, done by Larry Walters who was fined $1,500 for violating air traffic rules. During Couch’s first attempt in 2006 he had to parachute out after too many balloons popped and last year he flew 193 miles, just short of his goal of crossing state lines, “I'm not stopping till I get out of state,” he said. Each balloon can carry 4 lbs, the chair alone was 400 lbs along with Couch and his parachute adding 200 more. “I'd go to 30,000 feet if I didn't shoot a balloon down periodically,” Couch said. To shoot the balloons down he carries a Red Ryder BB gun and a blow gun equipped with steel darts. He also had a handheld Global Positioning System with altimeter, a satellite phone and two GPS tracking devices.
