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Thread ID: 125742	2012-07-16 04:42:00	Up Up And Away!	SurferJoe46 (51)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1288844	2012-07-16 04:42:00	Up, but not far away: Lawn chair balloonists get 30 miles before weather ends flight to Mont . By Associated Press, Published: July 14 | Updated: Sunday, July 15, 2:57 AM (Jeff Barnard/ Associated Press ) - Iraqi adventurer Fareed Lafta, and Bend, Ore . , gas station owner Kent Couch lifted off Saturday, July 14, 2012, from Couch’s gas station in Bend, Ore . , as they attempted to fly some 360 miles to Montana . The flight is a warm-up for a future flight planned in Iraq . BEND, Ore . — Hours into their lawn-chair balloon flight, two men made a hard landing after they were hit by hail and snow as thunderstorms swept into central Oregon . But their back-yard aircraft floated away . Kent Couch and Fareed Lafta were about seven hours into their flight Saturday when they descended, coming down near the community of Post, about 30 miles east of their starting point . But after they scrambled out of the contraption, it floated away, flight organizer Mark Knowles said . Two men who were trying to fly from Central Oregon to Montana in tandem lawn chairs suspended from party balloons are back on land after having to abort the flight due to thunderstorms . They landed about 30 miles east of their starting point . “They came down hard,” Knowles said by cellphone . “The craft went back up . It’s sitting up in the sky right above us . ” A flight website tracker showed it continuing east across Oregon . Couch, a gas station owner, and Lazfta, an Iraqi adventurer, were trying to fly from Oregon to Montana in tandem lawn chairs suspended from party balloons . Knowles said the balloonists were pelted by hail and snow and buffeted by turbulence before reaching the ground but they were not injured . “Everybody is walking around,” he said . Knowles said he did not know yet how they would recover the craft, or whether they might try again . “I think they need a little time to relax,” he said . “The landing was very intense . ” Earlier Saturday, about 90 volunteers and several hundred onlookers counted down and cheered as the pair lifted off from Couch’s Shell gas station in Bend . Volunteers had filled 350 5-foot diameter red, white, blue and black balloons with helium and tied them to Couch’s homemade tandem lawn chair rig . The balloons were arranged in bunches to represent the colors of the U . S . and Iraqi flags . An American flag flew from the bottom of the framework supporting the chairs . The duo safely cleared a two-story motel, a coffee stand and a light post, then floated about 30 miles north . Winds pushed them south before sending them east, the direction they wanted to go . But thunderstorms in the region forced them to abort the flight, descending from an altitude of about 10,000 feet, Knowles said . Before the flight, Couch said landing was the scariest part of his several lawn chair balloon flights . He descends by shooting out balloons with his BB rifle . His rig got away from him once, but finally came down . “It takes six months after you land for your brain to get over the fear and just the emotions,” he said . The two men had hoped to fly through the night across the mountains of Idaho and touch down Sunday morning in southwestern Montana . Because they expected to float at an altitude of 15,000-18,000 feet, where temperatures drop to near zero, they packed sleeping bags . Their rig included 800 pounds of ballast — red Kool-Aid in 40-gallon barrels . Other than a GPS, navigation gear, satellite phone, oxygen, two-way radios, eight cameras, and parachutes, they were carrying two Red Ryder BB rifles and a pair of blowguns to shoot out enough balloons to land when the time is right . Electronic gear was powered by a solar panel . A flare gun was tied to the framework for emergencies . They also carried the ashes of a family friend to spread over the high desert . Lance Schliep, an appliance repairman, helped Couch with the latest design, made entirely from items bought at hardware stores and junk from Couch’s garage . “It’s about as redneck as you can get,” Couch said . Personal Post Lafta, a mountain climber and sky diver, said he shared Couch’s childhood dream of floating like a cloud . He sent Couch an email two winters ago after reading about Couch’s earlier flights . The flight was a warm-up for plans to fly a tandem lawn chair balloon rig in Baghdad sometime in the future . “My target is to inspire young people, especially in the Mideast,” Lafta said . “I want to tell them, ‘I didn’t give up . Keep standing . Smile . This is the way to defeat terrorists . ’” Couch said receiving Lafta’s email during the winter, at a time he was bored, inspired him to go aloft again . “I never really thought I would do it again,” Couch said . “I thought I had had enough excitement . “I started thinking, it sounds fun . ” They planned to fly over Iraq last year, but ran into problems getting permission from the government . Couch has said he was inspired by a TV show about the 1982 lawn chair flight over Los Angeles by truck driver Larry Walters, who gained urban myth immortality . Walters was spotted at 9000 feet altitude in the approachway for aircraft at LAX, and was reported to the FAA and LAX tower . Marine aircraft went aloft to see what was going on but didn't intercept the lawnchair pilot at that time . Several passengers in jets reported to flight personnel in the same flight that there was 'someone floating in a lawnchair outside their windows' . A federal law was then quickly passed to maker it illegal to be in the LAX approachway by any balloon carrying pilots or passengers from that date on . Interviewed after his return, Walters stated that it went OK, but next time he'd put his BB gun on a lanyard so he wouldn't drop it . The FAA said there wouldn't be a 'next time' . Up to current date now, Couch’s first time up was in 2006, when he flew a distance of 99 miles before the balloons started popping . In 2007, he flew 193 miles before running low on helium and landing in the sagebrush of Eastern Oregon . In 2008, things went more smoothly . After lifting off at dawn July 5 with the help of volunteers, he floated at 35 mph across the high desert, reaching his goal of crossing the Idaho border . That’s when he pulled out his trusty BB rifle and shot out enough balloons to land in a pasture outside the farming community of Cambridge, Idaho . Couch was at it again in 2010, racing another lawn chair balloonist in a flight that went about 70 miles .	SurferJoe46 (51)
1288845	2012-07-16 09:35:00	It was a few years ago around LAX that someone tried a similar thing.	mikebartnz (21)
1288846	2012-07-16 09:51:00	Due to the peculiar geographical anomalies of the odd (Northern) Hemisphere take off should be easy since you are actually going down, but landings mean the weary aeronauts are obliged to go up, a much harder trick, thus landings are more challenging than take-offs. Of course, if you had 240 volts it would be easier all round.	R2x1 (4628)
1288847	2012-07-16 10:05:00	And Joe, we also get the news down here in little NZ.	plod (107)
1288848	2012-07-16 13:25:00	And Joe, we also get the news down here in little NZ. Yeah ---- but it actually happened here!	SurferJoe46 (51)
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