Ore. lawn chair balloon pilot sets sights on Montana

By JEFF BARNARD Associated Press Published: Jun 15, 2012 at 2:11 PM PDT
Ore. lawn chair balloon pilot sets sights on Montana
FILE - In this July 7, 2007 file photo, cluster balloonist Kent Couch, sitting in a lawn chair, ascends past Mount Bachelor to his cruising altitude at the start of his attempt of a flight to Idaho, near Bend, Ore. Bend gas station owner Kent Couch who floated to Idaho in 2008 in a lawn chair is planning another cluster balloon adventure, in Baghdad. Couch told KTVZ he was invited by Iraqi daredevil Fareed Lafta who wants to lift off with him Nov. 15 at a Talent for Youth Conference in the Green Zone. Couch says he's working with U.S. and Iraqi military to make sure they'll be secure on what he hopes will be a flight of more than 400 miles at an elevation of 25,000 feet, using oxygen masks. (AP Photo/The Bulletin, Pete Erickson, File)

Four years ago Kent Couch made headlines by floating from Oregon to Idaho on a lawn chair hoisted into the clouds by party balloons.

He's going to fly again, this time with a buddy — sitting on a second lawn chair — at his side.

They are planning to take off July 14 from the parking lot of Couch's gas station and convenience store in Bend, Ore., the way he did in 2008 when he floated 235 miles to an Idaho farm field.

Riding on a lawn chair attached to Couch's will be Fareed Lafta, an Iraqi adventurer and skydiver.

Couch says he and Lafta plan to travel farther than on Couch's last trip — going all the way to southwestern Montana, about 360 miles.