Had Hoped To Set A New Distance Record With The Flight, But Came Up Short

For his 60th birthday, Joe Barbera of La Center, WA, wanted to do something different. He landed on the idea of attempting to set the distance and duration records for a lawn chair balloon, and 15 days before his birthday, began building the rig.

His goals were to travel 268 miles and stay airborne longer than 13 and a half hours to set both records, according to television station KGW in Portland, OR. But he ran into a few problems along the way.

He had scheduled his liftoff at around 0730 Saturday local time, but several of the 100 helium balloons he had hoped would provide his lift popped. He had to shed a lot of weight, including his supplemental oxygen, cameras and shoes, just to get airborne.

Not having the oxygen became problematic when he reached 20,000 feet in altitude.

He had hoped to make it over the Cascade Mountains, but was unable to do so. When the lawn chair rig started losing altitude, his ground crew was just hoping for a safe landing.

Barbera's wife Kim was informed just about noon that the adventure ended  25 miles from the launch point about 40 feet up in a tree near Lewis River in Washington State. He was rescued from the tree and reunited with his wife.

(Joe Barbera picured in image captured from video posted on Facebook)

FMI: www.facebook.com/lawnchairpilots