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Flying Lawn Chair

By Jamie Burch

He's not quite Jules Verne, but an Oregon man flew from the Beaver State to Idaho in a lawn chair. Flying Lawn Chair

Published: Mon, July 07, 2008 - 12:44 pm

Kent Couch called it a boyhood dream. Others may just call him nuts.

On Saturday, Couch flew from Oregon to Idaho in a lawn chair. That's right, a lawn chair.

Couch tied 150, four-and-a-half foot balloons to his lawn chair and filled them with helium. What do ya know, it worked, The balloons lifted Couch to a cruising altitude of 15,000 feet.

Nine hours later, it was time to land. Couch took out a B.B. gun and shot out the balloons one by one.

"You know it's a dream to be able to get this far," Couch said. "I don't know really know why I wanted to come to Idaho. I just wanted to get out of the state and go somewhere."

Couch isn't done yet. He's thinking about taking a lawn chair trip over the English Channel or maybe across Australia. But that's only if his wife lets him.

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rosepetal Says:

Tue, Jul 08, 2008 at 6:27 am

MeAmerican, you know you love me.

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MeAmerican Says:

Tue, Jul 08, 2008 at 6:25 am

More tasteless lack of humor on your part. Keep trying, you might be funny 1 day.

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rosepetal Says:

Tue, Jul 08, 2008 at 6:21 am

MeAmerican, you know i am right, its the boeing frankentanker, its heading to get a foosackley’s finger.

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MeAmerican Says:

Tue, Jul 08, 2008 at 6:03 am

Only on your forehead petal!lol

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rosepetal Says:

Tue, Jul 08, 2008 at 5:53 am

lol carl, bet every thing has a sticker, made in china.

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carl Says:

Tue, Jul 08, 2008 at 5:37 am

Oh, He had a parachute. He wasn’t completely foolish just most of the way there. I’Ve got to admit Boeing got the part about being fuel efficient right, but they don’t treat their test pilots too well. That was OLD GOAT up there and he said all they gave him for defense was a sling shot and a coffee can of rocks. We gotta send Northrup/Grumman a picture of that with that name on the bottom “ BOEING’S FRANKENTANKER “, Available soon at all of Boeing’s outlet stores. MUST SUPPLY OWN PILOT and SOME FOREIGN ASSEMLY REQUIERED!

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rosepetal Says:

Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 7:38 pm

yep its boeings frankentanker, wow wonder what a bird would do to that. where is the nose of that tanker.

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DEW26M Says:

Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 7:25 pm

I just put 2 & 2 together. It was THIS GUY, that dented the front of that plane, HAHAHAA. You know I consider myself a brave person, but to do something this nuts,NO WAY. I also noted the lack of parachute too. I wonder if he had to have permits? Could that be a possible FAA violation? On any note, he’s got more cojones than I do.

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carl Says:

Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 6:28 pm

Well they were really trying out Boeing’s latest tanker design to see if it were air worthy. Course the planes would have to slow down Quite a bit for them to drop the hose and give five gallons of gas to them. They’re still working on the Desent and volume of fuel they can carry problems, might have to add some more ballons.

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