Balloon
Flight Crew Lighter-Than-Air; Flight Crew Commercial
Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft; Ground Event / Encounter Object; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition
Human Factors; Aircraft
About 20 minutes into the flight I was surprised to find one of my fuel tanks was empty. At this point I had just crossed the river and was over an Island (this is an old river cut off that floods when there is high water on the river and was about 80% flooded). Shortly afterward my second tank began to register below the 35% mark on the gauge while I still had almost 4 miles left to reach the levee. I nursed my fuel as efficiently as possible and as I was making my final descent to land at the edge of the levee; the wind direction below 150 feet shifted 90 degrees and my track paralleled the levee about 10 yards from dry land. After about 150 more yards of paralleling dry land I was totally out of fuel and forced to land between trees and brush in what turned out to be three feet of water. On landing the balloon leaned forward and was caught by an old dead tree limb and a locust tree leaving several holes in the balloon. My crew brought me a spare fuel tank which I hooked up and flew the balloon another 300 yards and landed on the edge of the levee which was curving around into my flight path. While we were wet up to our back pockets; other than water in our shoes; no one had even a scratch.  This balloon is not my personal balloon. The owner and my crew chief live about three hours apart. Several weeks earlier they had met halfway for my crew chief to pick up the balloon trailer and take it. They somehow miscommunicated about the need for fuel. The owner was present and flying another balloon. Both thought the other had taken care of fuel. I arrived at the launch a few minutes after they had already began assembling the balloon for flight. I also thought it had been refueled and did not ask either of them about it.In my years of ballooning I've always refueled my own balloon and have never launched without a full load of propane. The obvious solution to this potential problem is to never fly a balloon that I have not personally refilled without somehow verifying the fuel level before launch. None of us will ever again assume that something has been done before launching another balloon that we have not personally refueled. A simple question about fuel from any one of the three of us would jogged their memories and prevented this launch. I am periodically asked to speak at balloon safety seminars during the winter months. I plan to ask to be on the podiums this winter specifically to tell this story. Stories like this are extremely valuable for both new and old pilots and it will be retold for years with hopefully positive safety results for those who hear it.
A Hot Air Balloon pilot reported running out of fuel.