GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Like many Americans, Kent Couch plans to settle into a lawn chair this weekend. Unlike everyone else, his feet will dangle high above the lawn.
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Couch is set to launch himself skyward Saturday aboard his lawn chair, which will be attached to 150 giant latex party balloons filled with helium. His goal is to fly more than 300 miles from his gas station in central Oregon to somewhere in Idaho, preferably Boise.
It will be his third attempt to fly by the seat of his pants to Idaho.
"The first time, nobody wanted to be involved at all,” Couch said. "They were thinking I was a lunatic, I mean a balloon-atic ... . But this time it's different. "
He now has a corporate sponsor, volunteers and the blessing of his wife, Susan.
Couch, 48, was inspired to go up, up and away by the 1982 lawn-chair flight over Los Angeles by truck driver Larry Walters, whose adventure brought him a measure of fame, but also a $1,500 fine for violating air traffic rules.
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