Man Plans to Fly Balloon Lawn Chair Over Iraq
One man appears to have been really inspired by Pixar’s “Up”. Kent Couch, a gas station owner from Bend, Oregon, plans to pilot a lawn chair fitted with over 300 balloons across Iraq. Accompanying him on this adventure is Iraqi extreme sports enthusiast Fareed Lafta, whose aerospace aspirations go as far as being the first Iraqi in space. Their tandem lift-off is from Baghdad’s Green Zone and is scheduled for November 15. The journey involves the men floating across 400 to 600 miles of Iraq at 25,000 feet, which requires them to be wearing oxygen masks. Their trek will earn them a world record. The balloon adventure is not just for their own personal enjoyment however; it is a benefit to raise money for Iraqi children. As surprising as this feat is, this will not be Couch’s first foray into balloon-lawn chair travel. In 2008, he made a successful journey of 235 miles from Oregon to Idaho. His previous attempt in 2007 did not see such positive results as he never made it out of Oregon, and somehow lost contact with his balloon chair. The chair was discovered a year later about 14 miles from where Couch had landed.
“While Couch definitely brings the balloon travel experience to the group, Latfa brings the appropriate “no fear” attitude necessary to sign up to travel by floating chair”
Needless to say, Couch will be initially traveling to Iraq in a plane, but he did already ship all the necessary equipment for his flight to his partner Latfa, in Dubai. Their exchange over this was a little funny, because Latfa had no idea what a lawn chair was. “I said, ‘Do you have any lawn chairs?’ He says, ‘What?’ I emailed a picture of one, and he said, ‘I’ve never seen one of those. Better send a couple.’ So I sent over a couple” Couch explains. While Couch definitely brings the balloon travel experience to the group, Latfa brings the appropriate “no fear” attitude necessary to sign up to travel by floating chair. In 2009, he was part of the first ever parachute jump from Mt. Everest. “It was amazing, truly amazing, to be soaring above Mt. Everest. For a few minutes, I was emperor of world. I reached nirvana, absolute happiness” he said. It seems that everything is all set for these air shenanigans to take off; Couch does have one concern: the winds. If winds are strong or change course, it could blow the two travelers into Iran territory, somewhere neither one wants to risk spending time in.
