Banner towing

pretty nice supercub, but flying with the door shut is sacrilege :)
 
Cool video, but I thought banner tow guys would have better taste in music... ;)
 
We have several banners guys using our place.

The saddest is they usually work single handed, so if the wire drops or gets knocked off the poles they have to land and fix it.

You remind me to hook up with those guys to do some demos at our Open House.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Cool! Have you thought about flying banners, Kent?
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Oh, I'd do it - Problem is, the banner job I looked into, their positions are pretty much filled by January, but they don't actually start until April. I can't wait that long. :no:

What's the odds??? Kate has time in that plane!

http://www.airspeedalive.com/flightlog/aircraft.html
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I thought those were the people she knew...

tonycondon said:
pretty nice supercub, but flying with the door shut is sacrilege :)
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Dude, Tony, you do realize it's NOVEMBER right? Otherwise I'd agree with ya. ;)

mikea said:
We have several banners guys using our place.
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In fact, the place I ran into this plane, and the only place I've ever seen a banner op doing pickups, was at Campbell, I think the day that I came down to get checked out in your plane. :yes:
 
Towing banners is an excellent way to build hours. Not to mention, you get to see some of the world's most beautiful beaches. It also teaches you how to handle the edges of your aircraft's capability in slow flight as well as the skills of actually picking up the banner. The banners are incredibly light but it is amazing the drag those aircraft are required to overcome. The guys in Panama city, fl use Pawnees and Cessna variations.
 
eh kent, the front seats not that windy with the door open. backseat on the otherhand...not so much.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
In fact, the place I ran into this plane, and the only place I've ever seen a banner op doing pickups, was at Campbell, I think the day that I came down to get checked out in your plane. :yes:
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We had a 152 and a 172(?) doing banner ops at Clow this summer. And then they'd bring the banners up to Schaumburg by my work! :) Fun to watch them.
 
sdflyer said:
Yes but not every segment of aviation crashes due in attempt to pick up the banner
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Not every attempt to pick up a banner ends in a crash. I stand by my statement. Banner towing does have it's risks. But you make it sound like it is the most dangerous thing you can do in an airplane.
 
I'd put pipeline and powerline patrol way ahead of banner towing. Some folks on here may dispute that, but something about less than 500' with nowhere to go in an emergency leads me to believe that is a better way to kill yourself. But I agree with Greg, it is just as easy to kill ones self on a hamburger run as it is on a banner run or any other type of run for that matter.
 
OK, I give up. How does he grab the banner with the hook without snagging it on the tail wheel. I've never seen this setup up close to figure out how it works. I actully used to think they took off with the banner attached, but I now realize that would be WAY too much drag for the airplane to overcome.
 
AWACSEng said:
OK, I give up. How does he grab the banner with the hook without snagging it on the tail wheel. I've never seen this setup up close to figure out how it works. I actully used to think they took off with the banner attached, but I now realize that would be WAY too much drag for the airplane to overcome.
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Well, they have a hook attached either to a rod or a rope, not sure which, that trails several feet behind and below the airplane. They don't hook it on the tow hook that is installed on the airplane.

When I was in school, they had a Helio Courier that was capable of taking off with the banner attached. They would lay it out in the direction the airplane would take off so it wouldn't create that much drag.
 
Ah, that explains it. I did a quick Google search and I found an article of a guy who uses a 180hp Super Cub with a climb prop to do both air launches as well as ground launches. Interesting stuff.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Well, they have a hook attached either to a rod or a rope, not sure which, that trails several feet behind and below the airplane. They don't hook it on the tow hook that is installed on the airplane.

When I was in school, they had a Helio Courier that was capable of taking off with the banner attached. They would lay it out in the direction the airplane would take off so it wouldn't create that much drag.
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That rope is about 75' long and has a big triple meathook affair on the end. The weight of the hook makes it drag some distance below the airplane. You fly a few feet above the pickup poles and add full power as you approach them so that the sudden huge drag doesn't pull your airplane down.
I found that the biggest hassle was dropping the hook and rope out the side on downwind without it snagging something or without the rope pulling the latch off the towhook and losing the whole thing. Wouldn't want to do that over anything but empty fields.

Dan
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Well, they have a hook attached either to a rod or a rope, not sure which, that trails several feet behind and below the airplane. They don't hook it on the tow hook that is installed on the airplane.
...
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The hook is at the end of a nylon lead like a thick fishing line, played out 5-8 feet under the tail. There's a second cable from the hook release to the cockpit to allow for dropping the banner.
 
I always thought banner towing would be fun. I haven't seen one around here since the stadium TFRs went up. We used to always see them circling Jacob's Field during games.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Well, they have a hook attached either to a rod or a rope, not sure which, that trails several feet behind and below the airplane. They don't hook it on the tow hook that is installed on the airplane.

When I was in school, they had a Helio Courier that was capable of taking off with the banner attached. They would lay it out in the direction the airplane would take off so it wouldn't create that much drag.
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Dan Thomas said:
That rope is about 75' long and has a big triple meathook affair on the end. The weight of the hook makes it drag some distance below the airplane. You fly a few feet above the pickup poles and add full power as you approach them so that the sudden huge drag doesn't pull your airplane down.
I found that the biggest hassle was dropping the hook and rope out the side on downwind without it snagging something or without the rope pulling the latch off the towhook and losing the whole thing. Wouldn't want to do that over anything but empty fields.

Dan
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So, I'm missing something here. The pilot is holding on to a rope coming from the cockpit, lets it out, catches the banner with it, and... Then what? Is the other end of said rope already attached to the towhook? Or how is it that this contraption ends up being pulled behind the plane? I'm pretty sure the pilot isn't using one arm to hold a loose rope end in the cockpit for the whole flight... :dunno:
 
kent the rope the pilot holds is connected to a glider-style tow release mechanism.
 
I've got one for you to consider as being dangerous. Fly about 300' over a large lake and stir up 150,000 ducks.
 
bluesky74656 said:
I always thought banner towing would be fun. I haven't seen one around here since the stadium TFRs went up. We used to always see them circling Jacob's Field during games.
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Now I see them circling all the little league games. No joke.
 
so they dont drag a big grappling hook behind them on takeoff?
 
tonycondon said:
so they dont drag a big grappling hook behind them on takeoff?
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So, they're holding it in the plane (with the non-hook end attached to the tow hook already) on takeoff, and then they let the whole thing out before coming around to pick up the banner. Right?

Finally, makes sense. :)
 
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