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My question is: are hot air balloons required to report to ATC or are they allowed to fly on their own without reporting to ATC? I know that all commercial aircraft, no matter the size, must cooperate with Air Traffic Control (ATC) and report all their moves and request permission form ATC. However, I reasoned that hot air balloons would not have to do this because:

  1. They don't require a runway and takeoff and landing of hot air balloons usually happen not in the airport but in remote areas that won't interfere with any other incoming traffic.
  2. Hot air balloons don't have radar, so ATC is basically useless in tracking the flight should anything happen.

But I'm not sure if I'm correct. Do anyone know if hot air balloons have to report to ATC ? Or are they free to do anything they want? Or, by any chance, do they have their own traffic controller independent of ATC? Although this question may sound like a question I had posted earlier, it is not. I'm asking specifically for ATC-related regulations here, not general regulation differences between hot air balloons and jet aircraft.

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    $\begingroup$ all commercial aircraft, no matter the size, must cooperate ATC and report all their moves — not exactly... you're thinking of airline aircraft, and you're broadly correct about them but still not necessarily entirely correct. "Commercial aircraft" covers a lot more than just airliners though. Cropduster aircraft almost never talk to ATC. Photo-survey aircraft often talk to ATC when their missions require them to be in busy areas, but often don't if their missions don't require. Etc, etc. $\endgroup$
    – randomhead
    Commented Jul 14 at 6:50
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    $\begingroup$ Your premise that ATC controls all traffic is wrong, ATC controls traffic in... controlled airspace. $\endgroup$
    – mins
    Commented Jul 14 at 17:32
  • $\begingroup$ @randomhead That's not even fully true about airliners. See aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/26848/… $\endgroup$
    – Adam
    Commented Jul 14 at 21:41

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First a word on terminology: ATC does not "regulate" aircraft. The FAA as a whole "regulates" aircraft (and aircraft operations) by publishing and enforcing regulations; FAA regulations are found in Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

Moving on...

The airspace above the United States, as in most countries, is divided up into "classes" which indicate which services are available from ATC. In order for ATC to provide the various services in the various classes of airspace, certain requirements are imposed on pilots operating in those areas. Nothing exempts hot-air balloons from following those requirements, which can include things like "communicate with ATC so they know who you are and what you're doing" and "have a working transponder so ATC can see you on their scope."

The vast majority of airspace across the USA is designated Class E. In this class of airspace, aircraft operating under Visual Flight Rules1 are not (generally speaking) required to contact ATC at all.

If a hot-air balloon pilot wants to enter non-Class E airspace they need to meet the requirements to enter that airspace, and they need to comply with any ATC instructions... to the extent that they are able to, given a balloon's maneuverability limitations. So the bottom line is that balloons are not exempted from any of the "ATC-reporting" requirements that other aircraft have follow.

On a related note, the right-of-way rules for when aircraft are not being sequenced by ATC state that balloons, being the least maneuverable, have the right-of-way "over any other category of aircraft."

1Meaning the pilots aviate by reference to the horizon, rather than instruments on their dashboard, and navigate by reference to the ground (or use dead reckoning), rather than following electronic guidance from a radio station. Pilots operating VFR are not permitted to enter clouds.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the answer. This is exactly what I'm looking for. Although I originally didn't know airspace are divided into classes, and that most airspace in the USA are class E. Your answer helps a lot. $\endgroup$
    – Aircraft Enthusiast 007
    Commented Jul 14 at 22:35
  • $\begingroup$ The transponder isn't what allows the radar to "see" the aircraft. It just provides that handy little label about which dot is which. $\endgroup$
    – Perkins
    Commented Jul 17 at 15:30

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