In the “Best headline of the Day” award category today, we have “Man flies 193 miles in Lawn Chair” — compliments of the Associated Press.

“Last weekend, Kent Couch settled down in his lawn chair with some snacks — and a parachute. Attached to his lawn chair were 105 large helium balloons.

Destination: Idaho.

With instruments to measure his altitude and speed, a global positioning system device in his pocket, and about four plastic bags holding five gallons of water each to act as ballast — he could turn a spigot, release water and rise — Couch headed into the Oregon sky.

Nearly nine hours later, the 47-year-old gas station owner came back to earth in a farmer’s field near Union, short of Idaho but about 193 miles from home.

“When you’re a little kid and you’re holding a helium balloon, it has to cross your mind,” Couch told the Bend Bulletin.

“When you’re laying in the grass on a summer day, and you see the clouds, you wish you could jump on them,” he said. “This is as close as you can come to jumping on them. It’s just like that.”

Couch is the latest American to emulate Larry Walters — who in 1982 rose three miles above Los Angeles in a lawn chair lifted by balloons. Walters had surprised an airline pilot, who radioed the control tower that he had just passed a guy in a lawn chair. Walters paid a $1,500 penalty for violating air traffic rules.

It was Couch’s second flight.”

You can read the rest of the story here.

Before we talk about airplanes and airlines this week — a very heartfelt thank you to all of you who have sent me notes concerning the loss of my mother. They were most appreciated. I’ve even heard from folks I haven’t heard from in years — and that is always a good thing. Makes one think about why it is we lose touch with so many folks during the course of our lifetime.

Mom’s obituary can be found at legacy.com, for those of you who are interested. Just plug in “Hegeman” and she’ll be there.

Again, thanks so much for the words of support.

And — thanks especially to one friend who sent me an email entitled “Congratulations!” As he put it, my mother is finally out of her pain and suffering, and my dad and I can now go back to living more of a normal life. I understood his sentiments perfectly. Yes, everyone is “in a better place.”

Amongst the second quarter earnings reports that will start flooding the office next week — I will also be working on a memorial service for July 28 that, hopefully, will not be a depressing event. Rather — it will be a celebration of “crazy Elaine” as my mother was known in some quarters. 

Thanks again everyone.

Now it’s time to get back to airplanes.

I will be sending an email to all subscribers later today, but an advance heads-up for you folks who have nothing better to do on a July 4th than read blogs.

There will be no PlaneBusiness Banter published this week, due to my mother’s decision to depart this life on this rainy holiday morning.

I’ll probably be pretty scarce in here as well for the next few days.

Behave yourself in the meantime.

This morning my mother, aka PlaneMom, passed away. She was 84 years old, and she and my father marked their 65th wedding anniversary just two weeks ago, on June 20.

As many of you are aware, this has been a very long downhill struggle. But my mother never gave up the fight. I don’t know if I could have or would have done the same.

While it is hard to let her go, I am relieved that she is now in a much better place than she was.

The image here is what we are going to use on the announcements concerning her memorial service. It is a hand colored rendition of a photograph I took of her last year. This was one of the last times that she was able to come home. It was Easter. And I gave her the hat and told her I wanted to take her picture. The thought of looking “festive” and having her picture taken seemed to brighten up her day.

Mom was an artist. A pretty good one. And when her arthritis got so bad she could no longer hold a paint brush, she became a photographer.

And she was a pretty good photographer too.

No surprise then that she was always the one pushing me to do creative things. When I was five years old, she would let me make “creations” in the kitchen. Flour, food coloring, bread, jello, whatever would go into these concoctions, which she would dutifully let remain in the refrigerator for at least a week — before she threw them out. This, of course, after she had cleaned up the mess in the kitchen I would invariably create as part of my “cooking” process.

She loved hot air ballooning (compliments of my brother), Sedona, and the Jersey shore, where she grew up, and where I was born.

And she always had a flair for the dramatic. Hence, I’m not surprised she died this morning, July 4th.

I’ll miss you Mom.

Sorry, that tagline at the bottom of the previous image is not coming through too clearly. But that is what it says!

There was another bit of news that came out yesterday from Continental that is no doubt also helping push shares of that airline higher.

Talks between the pilots union and management at Continental Airlines regarding a new pilot contract began yesterday. The pilots union had requested that talks begin early. Their current contract expires the end of 2008. The two sides announced yesterday that a schedule had been set up and okayed by both sides for negotiations going forward.

Just the kind of stuff Wall Street loves to hear.

Ticker: (NYSE: CAL)

Just looking over the DOT operational performance numbers for May, and, well, there’s not much in there to like.

We’ll have our usual breakdown of the numbers in this week’s PlaneBusiness Banter, but I’d say my first impression is this one. It was one really bad month for U.S. Airways.

Ticker: (NYSE:LCC)

Frontier Airlines announced its first three Lynx routes today. The Lynx operation will begin this December — as Frontier attempts to improve its fortunes by adding regional service to its mainline operation.

The first three cities to get the new service are Wichita, Sioux City, and Rapid City, South Dakota. Yes, Sioux City. Otherwise known by its airline code, “SUX.”

The new service will be flown with those very nifty Bombardier Q-400s.

Ticker: (Nasdaq:FRNT)