Sunday Deep-dive! 🤿

Missed it last week? Sorry for being absent. I had a LOT to do. But we’re here now.

How familiar are you with the whole banner towing industry? I know I know very little. Today’s company is a relatively big player, it’s Air America Aerial Ads.

Let’s dive in.

“I started this job with a fresh commercial certificate, around 250 TT, roughly 220 actual. I did almost all my training in low wing planes like archers. This job is primarily high wings with Cessna’s and super cubs. I just happened to connect with someone who had previously worked for this company and recommended it as a good first time pilot job since I was seeking an alternative to getting my CFI. But as for the future I’m unsure, I don’t have anyone in my family who has been in aviation before so I’m trying to find my own way, but two of my realistic goals are to do a season as a bush pilot in Alaska and a season being an island jumper.

About the job…

A typical day in the job starts the day before when we get our schedules for the next day. This will usually include what airport our towing will be based out of for that day, the banner we are towing, what time the banner is supposed to be towed, and location of the actual tow. The day of (assuming we don’t have a ground crew at the location which we usually don’t unless there is a lot of pilots there for a big event) you get to your plane with ideally enough time to ensure your plane is ready to go (pre flight, fuel, oil, etc), time to load your plane with your banner and towing supplies, fly to the location, set up, refuel, and have time to burn in case something hangs you up. So now you’ve left the home airport (for us Toledo), you had a good flight and are on the ground. We usually park near the section of grass we want our banners on and unload our supplies and set up the banner by unrolling it, putting in the poles, letting out the bridal rope (which is the ropes that connect the banner to a little ring), which we run a route to two flags and have the rope across the top. Get back in the plane, refuel, and attach our hooks. About 10-15 minutes before our start time we preflight again, and takeoff. On our takeoff while still inside the airport environment, we let one of our hooks down and fly a pattern to pick up our banner. Unlike some banner pickups you might have seen on YouTube we fly a low level approach across the ground and pull up once we pass the poles instead of a dive snapping into a climb. For the Cessna’s the max time we can have our time after the engine starts is 3 hours, but longer for the super cubs. This is because the biggest cause of accidents in our industry is fuel starvation, something that should be easily avoidable and we do our best to avoid. Once I’m close to my 3 hours I drop my banner in the same field I picked up and land. If there’s no more banners after that we begin our cleanup by packing up the banner and all our supplies back into the plane, refuel and fly home. So some days you’re ‘working’ 6 hours for a 3 hour tow. We’re only paid for our time in the air so on days by ourselves it can be long, but if we have a crew on the ground it’s a great day. Those are the days where you just fly, pick up, drop, fly back with little to no ground work. A lot of the time you’re just doing day trips, but sometimes you’ll overnight somewhere or even stay multiple days away from home.

The company is great, the airplanes are a fleet of Cessna 150s and super cubs that are top of the line, modified as much as possible for safety, and kept in premium condition. You are left with virtually no supervision and are expected to carry out flights by yourself and on your own planning. This job is very much a solo job that is up to your skills and effort. The atmosphere has a hustle to it but with an extreme emphasis on safety. The other pilots help each other out and do our best to help when we can. And you build hours fast, most of the time you’re working Thursday-Sunday, but on holidays like the Fourth of July you’re working for possibly a week plus every day almost all day.

Some clarifications…

Yes I did get my tailwheel after my commercial, my handshake agreement was from January 24th until December 25th. My company paid for my tailwheel. The training for banner towing is about a week long, taught in-house, teaching you how to rig a banner, pick it up, proper procedures, and emergency procedures. Only based out of Toledo but we operate out of many airports across the Midwest. The season is usually February until thanksgiving. The tailwheel endorsement isn’t mandatory but the pay in super cubs is better. The current fleet is two Cessnas, five cubs, and one Pawnee. The pay is weekly via check, you only get paid for the hours towing a banner or over an hour cross country, no grunted daily pay or hours. Everything is day of decision, and the schedules are only the day before unless we know about a big event. You’re basically on call all the time.

There is per diem when staying overnight at other airports with hotels comped.

Basically for interview you’ll do a phone and in person and flight interview. Be a good pilot, a good person, and tailwheel/cessna time is a big plus.

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I’ll see you next week. 🫡