Banner tugs

[evangilder]

I know you have probably all seen them, the airplanes that tow banners, advertising any number of things at the beach, over sporting events, etc. Years ago, I remember just a lattice type thing with red letters. Now it has gotten more fancy.

I got to witness a banner snatch and a banner release yesterday at Camarillo. It was pretty cool. I wrote up an article about it and posted it here:
Van Gilder Aviation Photography- Banner towing aircraft in action

Here are a couple of shots from the article:

 

[Gnomey]

Nice Eric! Interesting article about it.

 

[evangilder]

Thanks Gnomey, I know it's not as interesting as warbirds, but I always wondered how they did it. I figured someone else must wonder too.

 

[comiso90]

I was taxi-ing one time in so-cal and saw an aircraft doing what appeared to be an erratic maneuver. I was happy to see that it was swooping to snag a banner...

very cool to see.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

I believe that aircraft is a souped up cub (Not a Supercub) - if I'm not mistaken it was at Erie Tri County airport for a spell about 3 months ago.

 

[evangilder]

They actually have several of them at KCMA. I looked up the N numbers on the FAA site for the model numbers. I looked up Van Wagner, and they are a nationwide company that does the aerial banners, the largest in the US. So I would guess they have a pretty good sized fleet.