Larry Walters
Kent Couch is a gas station owner from Bend, Oregon. He flew 240 miles in his lawn chair on Saturday, 7 July 2007. He landed in a field about 3½ miles NNW of North Powder, Oregon near Idaho. He travelled an average of 22 miles per hour. He tied 105 large helium balloons to his lawn chair. Couch used plastic bags filled with 75 liters water as weight to balance the balloons. Couch had a BB gun to shoot the balloons and start going down on that first flight. He tried again and learned how to let helium out of the balloons and go down more carefully. On 5 July 2008, Couch finally reached his goal. He travelled to another state and landed his lawnchair in western Idaho. The trip was 240 miles and took 9 hours and 12 minutes.