Aerial Advertising Banner and Billboard
Pickups

Picking up an aerial advertising banner starts on the ground in the designated pickup area. Prior to each flight the ground personal and pilot carefully inspect the banner and all the equipment that is going to be used for the banner tow flight.

Once all the banner tow equipment has been inspected, the ground crew lays out the banner in the pickup area. Then a 250’ to 350’ banner tow rope is attached to the banner and stretched its’ full length to the pickup poles. A large loop is tied at the end of each banner tow rope, this loop is placed on top of each of the pickup pole which are spaced about 10’ from each other. Essentially creating, what looks like, two poles with a rope running across the top from one pole to the other. With the rope, banner and pickup poles setup the ground crew makes one final inspection and lets the pilot know the banner is ready for the pickup.

At the same time the ground crew is getting the banner or billboard ready for the banner tow the pilot is preparing the airplane. Besides the normal preflight safety inspection that is done prior to all flights, preparing for a banner tow flight requires the inspection and setup of the special equipment used to pickup a banner.

Banner tow aircraft are equipped with a special attaching mechanism that was adopted from glider towing aircraft which allows additional equipment to be attached to the aircraft. The pilot attaches a 25’ cable that has a grappling hook on the end to the attaching mechanism on the aircraft. Finally the pilot secures the grappling hook for takeoff and everything is ready for the banner pickup.

Now that the pre-banner pickup preparations are complete it's time to go pick up a banner. Once the airplane is in the air the pilot releases the grappling hook from the takeoff position. With the grappling hook released the pilot calls the ground crew on the radio and asks for visual confirmation that the hook has dropped properly and to confirm that the banner is ready for pickup. If the ground crew confirms that everything is a good the pilot continues to fly the airplane in a rectangular pattern around the banner pickup area until the airplane is lined up to fly straight over the banner pickup poles, in the same manner as if he/she was landing.

Lined up with the pickup poles the pilot begins starts a descent towards the poles at a safe maneuvering speed. As the plane continues to inch lower the airplanes descent is controlled so that the grappling hook trailing behind the airplane flies between the two banner pickup poles on the ground. Just as the airplane reaches the pickup poles the pilot applies full power and pulls the aircraft into a steep climb swinging the grappling hook under the banner tow rope stretched across the pickup poles. When the grappling hook grabs the banner tow rope the ground crew tells the pilot “you got it” while the pilot continues the climb away form the ground. With a small jerk in the airplane the pilot knows that the banner or billboard is beginning to come off the ground and away the banner goes. With the banner in the air the plane continues to climb to the cruising altitude and begins to head towards the target location.