Banner Towing at Long Beach Grand Prix

[mkusch]

Here are some pics I took while towing in the Bellanca Scout at the Long Beach Grand Prix yesterday.

 

[Tld]

sweet, looks like another beautiful day in socal, great pics

 

[darrenf]

Nice Pics, nice coordination.

 

[mavsfan31]

Nice man, that looks like a lot of fun.

 

[ppragman]

Nice Pics, nice coordination.

Nice Airspeed. That's how it's done.

 

[Polar742]

Great pics!!

 

[TheAlchemist]

Nice pics.

It is pretty turbulent today in socal. Maybe not as bad in LGB but I was surveying Riverside County and it was pretty bad.

 

[CN94559]

Nice man, that looks like a lot of fun.

:yeahthat:

pretty awesome man.

 

[ntbjounin]

Nice Airspeed. That's how it's done.

yea i noticed that!? i heard banner towers flew below stall speed, but THAT LOW!? that looks like 30 kts!?

can someone even explain to me how that's possible? I'm clearly no tower, but would like to be.

 

[doog]

yea i noticed that!? i heard banner towers flew below stall speed, but THAT LOW!? that looks like 30 kts!?

can someone even explain to me how that's possible? I'm clearly no tower, but would like to be.

At high angle of attack the airspeed indicator becomes very inaccurate, for obvious reasons. My 182 shows 0 Kts in slow flight at the edge of the stall.

 

[mkusch]

yea i noticed that!? i heard banner towers flew below stall speed, but THAT LOW!? that looks like 30 kts!?

can someone even explain to me how that's possible? I'm clearly no tower, but would like to be.

We're flying slower than the power off stall speed (bottom of the white arc). The wing is still below the critical angle of attack (although not by much). The Scout quits flying about 38mph.

 

[ntbjounin]

ahhhh, tricky! so to practice for banner towing i should just fly around slowly as much as possible?

 

[darrenf]

ahhhh, tricky! so to practice for banner towing i should just fly around slowly as much as possible?

Also do lots of squats and leg lifts!!!

 

[mkusch]

ahhhh, tricky! so to practice for banner towing i should just fly around slowly as much as possible?

That's a good place to start if you want to build your slow flight skills/ confidence. It becomes critical during a banner pick up when the speed goes from 90mph to 40mph in a steep pitched climb that peaks at about 200' agl (not much room for error).

 

[JordanD]

I've always wondered how they avoid stalling when they pick up the banners. The angle of attack looks like it gets uncomfortably high.

 

[mkusch]

I've always wondered how they avoid stalling when they pick up the banners. The angle of attack looks like it gets uncomfortably high.

The real fun begins after the pick up. I'll barely see a climb rate of 150fpm when it's a hot day, light winds, and a heavy fuel load.

 

[darrenf]

The real fun begins after the pick up. I'll barely see a climb rate of 150fpm when it's a hot day, light winds, and a heavy fuel load.

Even with that you only need to climb like 3 minutes to reach cruise altitude.

 

[mkusch]

Even with that you only need to climb like 3 minutes to reach cruise altitude.

Exactly

 

[surfCRQ]

towing a giant banner seems counter intuitive to everything Ive been taught as a pilot, maybe im just a ninny.

 

[mkusch]

towing a giant banner seems counter intuitive to everything Ive been taught as a pilot, maybe im just a ninny.

That's not too surprising. There are many flying applications that go beyond just basic flight training such as, aerobatics, crop dusting, mountain flying, etc. Flying a large billboard around is as normal to me as flying around the pattern in a Cessna 152.