No free picture of N401BZ or its model is known to the site yet; spotters' pictures may be on Planespotters · JetPhotos · Airliners.net. Operator or owner? Send your own picture.
Registered aircraft · FAA record as of October 23, 2026Head Balloons Inc AX8-88
N401BZ is a Head Balloons Inc AX8-88, a balloon with no engine, built in 2022. It has 4 seats. It is registered to Apogee Associates LLC, an LLC in Portage, Michigan. The registration is valid: it was issued on March 29, 2023 and expires on March 31, 2030. It holds a standard airworthiness certificate for balloon, dated June 1, 2022.
Where is it now checking the live feed…
Checking the volunteer receiver network for a recent position…
Aircraft broadcast their own position; volunteer receivers pool what they hear. Owners who have asked the FAA not to be displayed are not shown.
Flight history: where it flew in the last seven days · follow it on the live map
Aircraft
- Maker
- Head Balloons Inc
- Model
- AX8-88 · all AX8-88s 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 Head Balloons Inc AX8 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
- 497
- 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
- 4
- Year built
- 2022
- Transponder code
- A4B089 (octal 51130211)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registrationFAA registration status code V (whether the registration certificate is in force). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Certificate issued
- March 29, 2023
- Expires
- March 31, 2030
- Last FAA action
- March 29, 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 1, 2022
- FAA region
- Great LakesFAA region code C (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
- FAA record id
- 01366039
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Apogee Associates LLC
- Type
- LLCFAA type of owner code 7 (who holds the registration: a person, a company, a trust or a government body). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Address
- 5235 Raborn Ct
Portage, MI 49024-8132
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.
Connections how N401BZ links to the rest of the register
- Head Balloons Inc AX8 116 registered
- Head Balloons Inc 197 aircraft on the register
- Built of fabric and wicker · as the model family is built; the register does not record it per aircraft
- Apogee Associates LLC 2 aircraft registered to this organisation
- Portage, MI 53 aircraft registered in this town
- Michigan 7,217 aircraft registered
- FAA orders naming the Head Balloons Inc AX8 1 airworthiness directives
- Approved modifications for the Head Balloons Inc AX8 14 supplemental type certificates
The whole map of how records connect · these connections as data: /graph/aircraft/N401BZ.json.
Records check free · 0 to understand · 5 clear
The public federal record on N401BZ, 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 Apogee Associates LLC, an LLC, certificate issued March 29, 2023, expires March 31, 2030. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
Standard certificate for balloon, dated June 1, 2022, consistent with the 2022 manufacture year. [1]
No earlier tail number is recorded against serial 497 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
No other airframe has carried N401BZ according to the deregistered file. [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 N401BZ. 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 October 23, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of October 23, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of October 23, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- NTSB aviation accident database (CAROL), records through September 30, 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, October 23, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data
