back to article US man flies 193 miles in deckchair

An Oregon man has undoubtedly set some kind of record by travelling 193 miles in a flying deckchair, the Bend Bulletin reports. Kent Couch, 47, spent eight hours and 45 minutes travelling from Bend to La Grande suspended beneath 105 four-foot helium balloons, reaching a maximum altitude of 11,000 feet. He admitted: "It's scary …

COMMENTS

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  1. Smallbrainfield

    There's a very famous near - Darwin Award

    ...along similar lines to this, but the guy ended up in the flightpath for LAX. Apparently, he'd only intended to hover around his garden...

  2. Martin Gregorie

    That Darwin award...

    A summary of Larry Walters' flight is here:

    http://www.panix.com/clay/stupid/pilot.html

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Couch and flying chairs

    Oh dear Lester...

    Keep'em coming.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So who took the photograph?

    ...at 10'000 feet?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Identical story

    The hilarious Darwin Award story can be found here:

    http://darwinawards.com/stupid/stupid1998-11.html

  6. Karl Lattimer

    Lawn Chair Larry II

    http://www.darwinawards.com/stupid/stupid1998-11.html

    Now it fails to mention that larry, while atop the clouds in his helium erm powered lawn chair had actually managed to shoot his own balls off when he attempted to descend.

    He killed himself a little while later, without fathering any children, thank god!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ...url...

    http://darwinawards.com/stupid/stupid1998-11.html

  8. Tim Rand

    Just like the Austrialian movie

    "Danny Deck Chair" http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Danny_Deckchair/60033353?trkid=181036&strkid=2032892203_0_0 This is pretty funny!

  9. Joe K

    Expect lots of copycats now

    The pics look lovely, doesn't everyone want to sit on a comfortable deckchair, enjoying the most amazing view you'd see outside of a scary (and short) parachute jump?

    See you in the skies.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Being in Oregon has its advantages..

    The news broadcasts where local here...even though it happened on the other side of the state.

    There where helicopters flying about the area.... keeping watch.

    I wonder what the FAA thought of this little "stunt".

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hostnames

    I was working a while ago on a control system for a UK airport, and had the sysadmin's privilege of choosing hostnames. So the 9 machines were all named after pioneers of aviations (orville, wilbur, bleriot, whittle, earhart etc), and I found myself 2 short. So for the first I chose "cochrane" (yes, I know, I could have gone for Gagarin or Armstrong, but I'm a geek), and for the final one I chose "walters", as he must be regarded as a pioneer.

  12. George Brown

    Winpenny...

    Given the regularity of Winpenny's contributions to the site, I suspect that working too hard is some distance from the truth...

  13. Mark Harrison

    Lawn Chair Flight happened in 1982

    http://www.snopes.com/travel/airline/walters.asp

    I remember seeing Larry on Carson.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No Frills?

    Is there no limit to what no frills airlines will cut out of the flight these days? :P

  15. Peter

    Good job it wasn't in the UK

    They'd probably do him for tax evasion, and terrorism

  16. Tricia Pulley

    There's a song about this...

    My friend Bryan Rivers wrote a song about Larry Walters' flight in his lawn chair - it's called "Up in the Air." http://www.bryanrivers.com. Good song, great album (his 1st one, eponymous). Anyway, not something I would try, and I'm rather amused that someone would want to repeat the stunt!!!

  17. Steven Pepperell

    To give the guy his dues

    Its got fluckload more leg room than easyjet :P

  18. Neil Anderson

    11,000 feet is like really high

    “assorted drinks and snacks”

    What? Did he have a flight attendant too?

    ps The photo credit is Pete Erickson / The Bulletin

    Image orders here:

    http://bendbulletin.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=15445436

    Neil Anderson

    http://www.cyclelogicpress.com

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mr. Brown

    2.12 - Chris

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