Kent Couch, a 48 years old Oregon inhabitant did it again ! He flew from Oregon to Idaho in a lawn chair suspended under 150 giant party balloons. He flew 235 miles in nine hours.

His altitude control system is super simple: a gun to shoot the balloons if he gets to high, and barrels of cherry Kool-Aid for ballast if he gets too low.

Additional on-board equipment included three GPS, radios, satellite tracker and satellite telephone. For food, Kent took boiled eggs, jerky and chocolate.

Kent’s operation went as planned, and had more success than the previous one, where he covered 193 miles but had to jump with the parachute. The chair was found back one year later.

You can read more about Kent and see photos and videos on his website: www.couchballons.com. This flight was all but improvised, and even if there are similarities in principle with Lawnchair Larry, I see Kent as a true aviator, not as an accidental flying… thing.

He’s certainly not the typical pilot, but he brings his contribution to the flying community, and I’m sure he’ll inspire other aviators. I can’t imagine commercial applications to this kind of flying, but new developments sometimes follow strange paths. And I must admit that this kind of flying seems really cool.

Oh, and just to make things clear, as mentionned on www.couchballons.com: “Cluster Ballooning is inherently risky. Kent Couch and Smart Solutions assume NO RESPONSIBILITY for the use or mis-use of information provided on this website.“