Mancini's Commentaries

Up, up and away

I think my wife would brain me if I tried this. Kent Couch of Bend, Ore., Saturday took off in a lawn chair carried by balloons filled with helium. It was his third flight, this time crossing the desert and landing about 235 miles away in a pasture in Cambridge, Idaho. ``If I had the time and money and people, I'd do this every weekend,' Couch said. Couch displays the type of ingenuity I admire, a simple solution to solve a complex problem. He used 150 large balloons, calculating that each balloon has four pounds lift to carry the 400-pound chair and the 200 pounds for himself and a parachute, in case something goes wrong. He used a Red Ryder BB gun to shoot balloons to control altitude. It was his third flight. Cost was $6,000, some covered by corporate sponsors.