by Kate Johns

Created on: July 12, 2008   Last Updated: July 15, 2008

The latest sensation to sweep the nation is the newest fad that is keeping everyone on their toes. Just crane your neck up to the skies and you may see people flying around in their lawns chairs. The lawn chair that has become the symbol of suburbanite haven for relaxation on hot summer days has taken off in a whole new way.

You can't make this stuff up!

You really aren't sitting in a lawn chair. You are however strapped by a harness to about one hundred huge helium filled colorful balloons. It is actually called cluster ballooning and six experienced pilots around the world have the expert experience of flying these incredible devices. You are literally flying through the air without an airplane around you, or even a basket to stand in like you have when you experience hot air ballooning.

John Winomiya, the only North American adventurist that currently knows how to fly a hot air balloon cluster has been flying single person hot air balloons called Cloudhoppers for seven years. He has made over 40 helium cluster balloon flights since then and will be doing many more. He loves the experience of flying above the earth free form. Winomiya says, "It is the experience of a lifetime."

Do you need a pilot's license to fly one of these?

Even though you may want to try tying a bunch of balloons to a lawn chair just for something new and thrill seeking to do this weekend, Winomiya cautions against this action. "I was an FAA-licensed hot air balloon pilot and had over four hundred hours of pilot time in conventional hot air balloons and Cloudhoppers, He cautioned. And he also warns people from flying without the experience, "While these skills are not rocket science, they are not something you are going to figure out your first flight while drifting toward the high tension wires and imminent crispycritterhood."

Was that a strange new bird?

It's quite a spectacle to see about one hundred hot air balloons flying way up in the sky, with a person attached to them. You may catch site of a Cloudhopper flying past your backyard, and do a double take or even a triple take to watch the person flying by. Winomiya has flown past a lot of things in his seven years of flight experience including a flock of geese flying right past him heading south for the winter. He has flown over homes and sometimes gets close enough to wave to people and sometimes they even wave back.

Will this ever be a well-known sport?

Right now with only about six pilots in the world, this is just becoming a more recognized sport. A movie was created back in 2003 in Australia called Danny Deckchair, highlighted this wacky way of flying. But Danny Deckchair as he was called actually did fly a real lawn chair in the movie because he was bored with his dull life, and wanted to take a little adventure. In 1982, Larry Walters flew a lawn chair attached to helium balloons and took a ride into the stratosphere reaching a height of 16,000 feet. Surprisingly, he survived and lived to tell the tale. Possibly someday this extreme sport will become as popular as the X-Games but it isn't a widely known sport currently.

Winomiya admits that Cloudhopping around in a harness attached to a hundred huge helium filled balloons isn't your average every day feet on the ground kind of sport. But possibly one day it will be the only way to fly and be as popular as flying in airplanes. The sky overhead could literally be filled with Cloudhoppers driving to work, flying to see relatives in another state. Just think of all that gas money you could save.

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