A zany Bendite

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fossil

fossil

Accidental Moderator
Sep 30, 2007
10,566
Bend, OR
There are two people in what are essentially lawn chairs fastened to a fairly elaborate tubular frame floating along right over the top of my property just a little while ago. The contraption is held aloft by helium ballons. The dudes on board have a bunch of water ballast in plastic tanks they can release to lose weight/gain altitude, and they have a daisy BB rifle (and blow guns & darts for backup) to deflate balloons to lose lift/descend. Solar panels, GPS, cell phone...yada yada yada.

The guy in charge is named Ken Couch. I've met him, he owns a really nice Shell station w/minimart about 4 miles from my house, which I patronize regularly (always good prices on beer :cool:). Ken has done this stunt solo a number of times. Once he drifted clear over into Idaho. This is the maiden flight for the tandem craft. He just goes up, goes wherever the wind takes him and stays up there as long as he can. Of course there's a chase crew on the ground trying to follow the thing. I'm not standing in line for a ticket to ride with him. ;lol Rick

couch2.jpg
 
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fossil said:
There are two people in what are essentially lawn chairs fastened to a fairly elaborate tubular frame floating along right over the top of my property just a little while ago. The contraption is held aloft by helium ballons. The dudes on board have a bunch of water ballast in plastic tanks they can release to lose weight/gain altitude, and they have a daisy BB rifle (and blow guns & darts for backup) to deflate balloons to lose lift/descend. Solar panels, GPS, cell phone...yada yada yada.

The guy in charge is named Ken Couch. I've met him, he owns a really nice Shell station w/minimart about 4 miles from my house, which I patronize regularly (always good prices on beer :cool:). Ken has done this stunt solo a number of times. Once he drifted clear over into Idaho. This is the maiden flight for the tandem craft. He just goes up, goes wherever the wind takes him and stays up there as long as he can. Of course there's a chase crew on the ground trying to follow the thing. I'm not standing in line for a ticket to ride with him. ;lol Rick

View attachment 70263
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Have they tested the water over there yet?:) Must be something in it!

Gary
 
Oh, I don't think we can blame it on either our water or our air out here.

cascades1.jpg
 
I hope you get aboard soon!!! and post pics when it happens:cool:
 
Well, let's hope some other crazy bendite doesn't take out a bendetta on him and start popping balloons.
 
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ironpony said:
hope there is no pop up hail storm.................
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They wanted to float overnight to Montana. They never made it out of Oregon...and it was, in fact, a thunderstorm that brought them down way before they reached their goal.
 
I was watching the news last nite and they actually had a piece on this flight, apparently it would of been some sort of record, only caught part of the report though.
 
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