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Bend lawn chair balloon flyer recovers equipment

By Sheila G. Miller / The Bulletin

Published: May 22. 2008 4:00AM PST

Throughout his nearly nine-hour balloon flight in a lawn chair, Kent Couch recorded the scenery between Bend and Eastern Oregon from 11,000 feet. He swiveled a digital video camera back and forth, looking into the camera and speaking to it, then turning it to show the panoramic views.

Then, he landed in a farmer’s field in North Powder, losing his grip on the chair and all of his equipment.

But all was not lost.

Nearly a year after Couch, 48, took off July 7 from his Bend gas station on U.S. Highway 20, he received a call at his home May 2. It was a rancher who lived 20 miles from North Powder who had found his lawn chair, shredded balloons and a canvas bag filled with his flight equipment.

“The first call that wasn’t a telemarketer was her,” Couch said.

Couch’s wife, Susan, said the phone call was mostly luck. Last year, the Couches remodeled their house and removed the phone line during the remodel. When the remodel was finished, Susan Couch said, she had to talk her husband into putting the phone line back in.

“I told him because it’s in the phone book, and what if people need to get a hold of us?” Susan Couch said. “If it hadn’t been hooked back up, they may not have ever found us.”

So off the Couches went last weekend, back to Eastern Oregon, this time to meet Bonnie and Gerald Colton, ranchers who live in the lower Powder River Valley, near Haines.

The chair, Bonnie Colton said, had fallen between 14 and 20 miles from where he touched down in another farmer’s fields. Colton was out moving their yearling heifers and walking their fence line when she spotted the items. At first she thought someone was dumping garbage on her property. Then she got closer, saw ropes in her fence connecting to a chair and shredded balloons, and realized what it was.

“It was eerie,” she said. “I thought, ‘Hmm, that’s interesting.’ Where’s the body?”

Colton, 62, walked 100 yards around the area, searching for signs of life. Then she called the Baker County Sheriff’s Office to see if there had been reports of a missing balloonist.

A deputy remembered Couch, looked up his name on The Bulletin’s Web site, and then found his phone number.

“You wouldn’t see it unless a balloon happened to catch your eye,” Bonnie said. “It didn’t catch mine until the other day.”

There’s only been one snag so far. Couch hasn’t been able to determine whether the video camera he was carrying with him still works, and if the recording will play.

It’s out of batteries, and assuming he wouldn’t get the equipment back, he threw away the charger. Now, he has ordered another one that might arrive today or Friday.

Couch feels confident the camera will work.

“I had it in a canvas bag, and it seems like it didn’t get into the elements,” Couch said. “It will be fun to see it for myself.”

Watching the flight will get Couch ready for his next adventure. He hopes to launch another balloon flight in July, even though he said Susan is a little nervous after a Brazilian priest disappeared last month while on a cluster-balloon flight.

“Each time he does it, it’s still scary because there’s so much that’s out of his control,” she said. “I get nervous.”

Colton has some advice for Couch: use all white balloons next time.

“They didn’t deteriorate so bad,” she said.

Couch may take her advice. For now, though, he is simply thrilled to have his equipment back.

“I’m really thankful for them,” he said of the Coltons. “They’re really neat people.”

And Colton said he’s welcome to land in her field this time, as long as he watches out for fence posts and picks up after himself.

Sheila G.
Miller
can be reached at 617-7831 or at smiller@bendbulletin.com.

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