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Registered aircraft · FAA record as of November 9, 2026National Ballooning Ltd 858
N3180K is a National Ballooning Ltd 858, a balloon with no engine. It has 4 seats. It is registered to co-owned owners in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The registration is valid: it was issued on July 9, 2014 and expires on July 31, 2027. No airworthiness certificate is on file, which is normal for drones and for aircraft still being built or tested.
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Flight history: where it flew in the last seven days · follow it on the live map
Aircraft
- Maker
- National Ballooning Ltd
- Model
- 858 · all 858s 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 National Ballooning Ltd 858 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
- 173
- 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
- Seats
- 4
- Year built
- Not given
- Transponder code
- A366EB (octal 50663353)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registrationFAA registration status code V (whether the registration certificate is in force). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Certificate issued
- July 9, 2014
- Expires
- July 31, 2027
- Last FAA action
- March 4, 2023
- Airworthiness
- None on file
- FAA region
- Northwest MountainFAA region code S (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
- FAA record id
- 01139051
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Scharke Philip J
- Type
- Co-ownedFAA type of owner code 4 (who holds the registration: a person, a company, a trust or a government body). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Address
- 5371 El Camino Ct
Colorado Springs, CO 80918-2152 - Co-owners
- Scharke Terryl L
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 1
Connections how N3180K links to the rest of the register
- National Ballooning Ltd 858 48 registered
- National Ballooning Ltd 55 aircraft on the register
- Built of fabric and wicker · as the model family is built; the register does not record it per aircraft
- Colorado Springs, CO 557 aircraft registered in this town
- City Of Colorado Springs Municipal · COS
- Meadow Lake Airport · FLY
- Colorado 7,486 aircraft registered
The whole map of how records connect · these connections as data: /graph/aircraft/N3180K.json.
Records check free · 3 to understand · 2 clear
The public federal record on N3180K, 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 Scharke Philip J, a co-owned, certificate issued July 9, 2014, expires July 31, 2027. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
No airworthiness certificate is on file. Usual for a newly registered aircraft, a project, or an aircraft that has not flown since a change of registration; ask for the certificate. [1]
No earlier tail number is recorded against serial 173 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
N3180K was previously assigned to 1 other aircraft: Cessna 401A (serial 401A0129, cancelled October 30, 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]
1 NTSB record under N3180K: Accident on May 31, 1985 at Milford, VA: no injuries, substantial damage. Details below. [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.
NTSB records 1
Aircraft on the NTSB record: Bell 222U · operated under 091
Full record in plain English · Docket and reports at the NTSB
- FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, master file, file of November 9, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of November 9, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of November 9, 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 9, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data