In a lawn chair.
According to news reports, this is his third annual flight.
The BBC has it that he sat in an 'armchair', but perhaps the Brits don't have a word closer to 'lawn chair'. Either that, or their third-hand source of information is less reliable than mine. However, they do have a video of preparations, some short interviews with Couch and his wife, and the take-off.
CNN has a nice picture of the takeoff (reproduced here), as well of video from the 2007 excursion. It shows some details of the "gondola's" construction. Also, there's a decent story which is missing from BBC. However, the story is inaccurate on at least one detail: "It began after Couch, clutching a big mug of coffee, kissed his wife and kids goodbye, then patted their shivering Chihuahua, Isabella, on the head." In the BBC video, you can clearly see that he kisses the dog goodbye. Perhaps he patted his kids on the head. In all the excitement, it's easy to get confused.
"This thing has an up and a down on it, and that's all it's got."
During the 9 hour trip, it is said, he adjusted his elevation if too high by shooting a few of the brightly colored five-feet-diameter "party balloons", using a BB gun (in his 2007 flight, his 'back-up' plan was to shoot darts from a blow-gun). If he dipped too low, he untied a rope attached to a hose, draining some of the contents of the three large plastic containers of cherry flavored kool-aid. One assumes that sometime during that extended flight he also siphoned off some of the "big mug of coffee" he was drinking during the take-off. Be glad you don't live along that flight-path ... or if you do, pray that the 'rain' you felt was cherry flavored.
There is a rumor (started by an irresponsible blogger) to the effect that Mr. Couch's next trip will be to fly a sofa to Davenport, Iowa.
That's one video to look forward to seeing.
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