A local man (to me) likes to tie balloons to his lawn chair and float like the clouds. I guess we actually went to high school together but I didn't/don't really know him very well. I used to be pretty good friends with his brother. Anyhow, a few hours ago he launched again but this time he took an Iragi pilot with him. They are currently sitting in lawn chairs floating toward Montana where they hope to land sometime tommorrow morning. It looks to me like the prevailing winds at altitude are pretty much due north right now so they may be going to Canada instead of Montana. Maybe they are going to visit oldman960.
Anyhow, here is what they looked like leaving bend with their lawn chairs suspended beneath 350 balloons: [external image: Posted Image] [external image: Posted Image]
If anyone is interested in tracking his progress… he has set up a webpage that tracks the GPS he has with him. http://www.couchballoons.com/track
Currently they are only about 50 miles or so from home. They've covered 2.5 to 3 times that far on their ground track. They've been up for over 8 hours. When they first started they headed east, then they went way north, then they backtracked south most of the way back home before the started heading south east. Currently they are headed north east. There have been alot of thunderstorms in the area this afternoon. That has surely shook them up somewhat. I'm guessing they have been having trouble finding a good altitude to head the direction they want.
They have some "tanks" filled with gatorade with them that they can "release" if they need to go higher. In order to descend - they shoot balloons with a BB gun.
No special material. 10 or 12 of them popped while they were filling them with helium yesterday morning. If they were to strong, he'd have a hard time popping them with his bb gun so he could land. As it is, yesterday they landed due to the thunderstorms, got off but the winds were going everywhich way. Once they were off the chairs… the remaining balloons took off with the empty lawn chairs. The last I heard last night they hadn't caught up to them yet. Maybe the chairs actually made it to Montana?
I had to lie about my age, but then so did a lot of others. They wouldn't accept Arnold's letter that I was a drummer boy in an ealier campaign of some sort.
BTW, what exactly were you and that other fella, Jmmy Madison, doing when his house caught on fire.?
A "for-what-it's-worth" update on this failed flight.
The FAA has notified Clark that he is being fined for:
Operating an aircraft without a license.
Failure to register his lawn chair as an aircraft.
Failure to obtain an airworthiness certificate for his lawnchair prior to the flight.
The fines amount to right around $5,000.00
Clark says that this is the "straw that broke the camels back". He can't afford the fines. At this point he is saying his lawnchair flying days are over… at least in the USA. He is still trying to but together the Iraq flight and apparently he would be allowed to make a flight in Israel - and possibly elsewhere.
BTW, what exactly were you and that other fella, Jmmy Madison, doing when his house caught on fire.?