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Registered aircraft · FAA record as of November 2, 2026Balloon Works FIREFLY 9B-15
N3173K is a Balloon Works FIREFLY 9B-15, a balloon with no engine, built in 1996. It has 1 seat. It is registered to Sky Adventures INC, a corporation in Oxford, Michigan. The registration is valid: it was issued on August 8, 1996 and expires on January 31, 2028. It holds a standard airworthiness certificate for balloon, dated June 11, 1996.
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Flight history: where it flew in the last seven days · follow it on the live map
Aircraft
- Maker
- Balloon Works
- Model
- FIREFLY 9B-15 · all FIREFLY 9B-15s and related versions
- Built of
- fabric and wickerA hot-air balloon: a coated nylon envelope, stainless-steel cables, and a wicker or aluminium basket under a propane burner. This is how the Balloon Works FIREFLY 9 family is built; the FAA does not record construction for each aircraft, and the type certificate data sheet is the authority for this one.
- Serial number
- F9B-013
- Type
- BalloonFAA type of aircraft code 2 (the FAA's broad category for the airframe). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Power
- NoneFAA type of engine code 0 (what powers it, as the FAA classes engines). Every aircraft with this code · All codes · None NONE
- Seats
- 1
- Year built
- 1996
- Transponder code
- A3639D (octal 50661635)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registrationFAA registration status code V (whether the registration certificate is in force). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Certificate issued
- August 8, 1996
- Expires
- January 31, 2028
- Last FAA action
- April 14, 2023
- Airworthiness
- StandardFAA airworthiness class code 1 (the kind of airworthiness certificate it flies under and what it is approved for). Every aircraft with this code · All codes · BalloonFAA certificate purpose code B (the kind of airworthiness certificate it flies under and what it is approved for). All codes · June 11, 1996
- FAA region
- Great LakesFAA region code C (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
- FAA record id
- 00686021
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Sky Adventures INC
- Type
- CorporationFAA type of owner code 3 (who holds the registration: a person, a company, a trust or a government body). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Address
- 4191 Locust Valley Ln
Oxford, MI 48370-1401
Owners can ask the FAA to withhold their name and address from public files. When they do, those fields are blank here as well. How that works.
Documents on file 0
No bills of sale, loans or other documents are indexed against this tail number.
Earlier use of this number 2
Connections how N3173K links to the rest of the register
- Balloon Works FIREFLY 9 11 registered
- Balloon Works 565 aircraft on the register
- Built of fabric and wicker · as the model family is built; the register does not record it per aircraft
- Sky Adventures INC 9 aircraft in the fleet
- Holds an FAA aircraft dealer certificate · expired
- Oxford, MI 35 aircraft registered in this town
- Michigan 7,224 aircraft registered
- FAA orders naming the Balloon Works FIREFLY 9 1 airworthiness directives
The whole map of how records connect · these connections as data: /graph/aircraft/N3173K.json.
Records check free · 1 to understand · 4 clear
The public federal record on N3173K, read the way a buyer, lender or insurer reads it: FAA registration, prior tail numbers keyed on the serial number, reuse of the tail number, recent registry filings, and the NTSB accident record under this and every earlier registration.
Valid registration to Sky Adventures INC, a corporation, certificate issued August 8, 1996, expires January 31, 2028. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
Standard certificate for balloon, dated June 11, 1996, consistent with the 1996 manufacture year. [1]
No earlier tail number is recorded against serial F9B-013 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
N3173K was previously assigned to 2 other aircraft: Beech B200 (serial BB1304, cancelled March 19, 1993); Cessna 421 (serial 421-0136, cancelled February 26, 1969). Histories keyed to the tail number alone can mix aircraft up; this check keys on the serial number. [2]
No bills of sale, loans or releases have reached the registry in recent weeks. The index covers only recent filings; older liens are in the records file. [3]
No NTSB investigation records located under N3173K. CLEAR means the query ran and returned nothing, not that nothing ever happened. [4]
These live in the FAA aircraft records file (every document ever filed against the aircraft) and, for larger aircraft, the International Registry. Part of the full report.
AD compliance against the logbooks and flight-activity reconciliation are researched layers of the full report.
- FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, master file, file of November 2, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of November 2, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of November 2, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- NTSB aviation accident database (CAROL), records through October 28, 2026. data.ntsb.gov/carol-main-public/basic-search
This automated check reads the public federal record. Nothing here is a legal opinion, an appraisal or a statement about the aircraft's condition; a CLEAR line is a statement about the searched record, not the aircraft.
Source: FAA Civil Aviation Registry, Releasable Aircraft Database, November 2, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data