Up, Up and Away... Almost

Sure it’s a thinly disguised movie promotion but did you really think we’d pass up the chance to get in a chair tied to a bunch of balloons?

On May 29, the movie “Up” opens nationwide. The 3-D movie from Pixar follows Carl, a balloon salesman who ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to South America.

On Thursday morning, Pixar PR inflated more than 25 huge helium balloons and tied them to a chair on the deck of USS Midway along the Embarcadero.

When the company invited anyone wanting to be whisked away like Carl and his friends, Jason Austell, who has spent years covering San Diego traffic from a helicopter, took the bait.

Austell strapped himself into the chair armed with a video camera. At first he lifted quickly – going up perhaps 15 or 20 feet into the air. But not to South America. Not even over the bay.

The wind pushed the “aircraft” back down to the deck.

After another try, the PR pushers (uh, balloon technicians), decided the stunt was a bust.

But hey – you can’t blame a guy for trying.

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