•Airworthiness Certificate. The original (not a photocopy) must be carried in the balloon and must be displayed so it is legible to passengers. Airworthiness Certificates have no expiration date; they are valid as long as the balloon has a current annual/ 100-hour inspection and is airworthy.
•Registration Certificate. The registration must have the current owner's correct name and address. A copy of the registration may be carried. A temporary registration (pink copy of the application) is valid for 90 days for flights within the US. For flights outside of the US, you must have the hard copy of the registration issued by the FAA; if you're still operating on the temporary registration, you must ask the FAA for a telegram of registration as the pink copy is not valid outside the US.
•Operating Limitations and Weights. This information is usually contained in the Flight Manual, or Pilot Operating Handbook (POH). Most manufacturers require that the POH be carried in the balloon during flight. A copy is acceptable. Operating limitations and weights may be displayed on a placard, or placards, in the balloon basket, for some balloon makes.
The owner or operator of an aircraft is responsible for maintaining the aircraft in an airworthy condition, and must be able to provide corroborative documentation if requested by the FAA. Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) have specific requirements for different types of documentation—
•Total time in service. Normally this is kept in an aircraft logbook, although any reliable format is acceptable. The only information required is total time in service of the aircraft or each of its major components. It is not necessary to record date of flight, length of flight, launch or landing site locations, passengers carried, temperatures reached, altitudes flown, etc. Most aircraft have a meter that records total time each time the aircraft is operated; since balloons have no such meter, we must write it down somewhere.
Although a manufacturer may require that "all time during which the balloon is inflated and buoyant/upright" be logged, the FARs define "time in service" as only "the time from the moment an aircraft leaves the surface of the earth until it touches at the next point of landing". (Note: neither of these definitions should be confused with pilot time. For purposes of a pilot's logged time, flight time is defined as "the moment the aircraft first moves under its own power for the purpose of flight until the moment it comes to rest at the next point of landing." For balloon pilots, pilot time is from pilot light ignition to deflation.)
•Status of life-limited parts. There are few life-limited parts in balloons. Some manufacturers require that hoses be replaced and aluminum tanks be re- certified after a specified period of time. Documentation of required replacement or re-certification can be in the aircraft logbook or Certificated Repair Station work order.
•Current inspection status of the aircraft. Most balloons require only an annual inspection. Balloons used in commercial operations or for paid instruction, if flown more than 100 hours between annual inspections, require 100-hour inspections. Typically, required inspections are noted in the aircraft logbook by the repair facility performing the inspection, in addition to being documented with a work order. The work order or logbook entry must be retained by the owner/operator until the next inspection.
•Airworthiness Directive (AD) status. If any ADs apply to your balloon, completion should be recorded in your maintenance records. It is also customary to note AD compliance in the aircraft logbook. A notation such as "ADs were checked" is not acceptable. Each AD performed should be noted with AD number, method and date of compliance. If no ADs apply to the balloon, such a notation should be made.
Switching components on balloons is common practice. Eligible components (baskets, tanks, heaters, envelopes) for each make and manufacturer of balloon is contained in the Type Certificate Data, which should be available at your repair facility. Components may be transferred to or from a balloon by a certificated repair person or by a certificated pilot with at least Private Pilot privileges. Component changes must be recorded; this can be done in the aircraft logbook, or elsewhere. Anyone who owns several balloons, and does a lot of switching, should have a separate log for each basket, tank, heater and envelope.
When you sell your balloon, Federal Aviation Regulations require that you provide the purchaser with reliable records of the total time in service of the balloon, the current status of life-limited parts, inspection status, and AD compliance.
If you have any special requests or comments, please call me at (510) 261- 4222.