- Date
- September 21, 1991, 07:45 local (13:45 UTC)
- Place
- Englewood, CO
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N4036YRaven Ralley RX7
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report May 3, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Case key
- 18140
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
A hard landing and inadvertent deployment of the balloon heater. A factor was: inadvertent entanglement of a load cable with the heater activation device.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
During an attempted landing, the balloon touched down hard and the basket tipped over. A load cable inadvertently tangled in the heater activation device and lit the burner which set the envelope and surrounding grass on fire. The pilot extinguished both fires.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N4036Y
- Reported as
- Raven Ralley RX7
- Category
- Balloon
- Serial number
- RX7-304
- Airframe hours
- 201
- Engine
- unknown
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Fire
- On-Ground
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Frank J. Riehl
- Registered owner
- James E. Long
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · May 18, 1991 · 1 hours before
- Departed
- NONE · Englewood, CO
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 57
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Flight hours
- 1,544 total · 121 in this make and model · 1,503 as pilot in command · 7 in the last 90 days · 2 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 90° at 10 knots
- Visibility
- 20 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 70 °F, dew point 1 °F