Scenic Disaster

The end of Margate's famous 'Roller Coaster' the 'Scenic Railway' caught by a passing Airads flight on Tuesday.

Police suspect arson and one wonders whether the damage to this historic wooden structure is too much to be repaired?

Watch the Sky

If the weather holds-up this week, Sky News is set to join us for a 'mission' over London and to film a piece on aerial advertising. It's going to take a little arrangement, having the Sky helicopter, the banner aircraft and of course a camera crew and the client, all working together out of Rochester. The latter is presently recovering from the weekend's snowfall and is closed and so we are rather hoping that it will be dry in time to avoid having to think about a "Plan B".

The banner over Everton , for the fans yesterday, Sunday, was a bit of luck, given the weather so Free Tibet's loss was arguably Everton's gain.

Free Tibet

The approaching cold front ruined another weekend's flying. It strikes me that we have had almost five weekends of strong winds with gaps of pleasantly warm Spring weather in-between.

Having gained permission to land late at Rochester this Sunday, we've reached our deadline for a decision and have heard nothing further from one client who asked if we might 'surprise' the finish of the Olympic torch ceremony with a 'FREE TIBET' banner. On a personal note, I think that the message might well have made a more peaceful impact than demonstrators lining the route of the torch relay but then it's not for us to judge such things as we simply facilitate an airborne message request for our clients.

Mission Impossible

Sunday morning and a bit of a challenge, with a telephone call from Abu Dhabi. Apparently, the ruler of this wealthy state wants a special banner flown for him this week, to celebrate his son's birthday but while we are delighted to have been approached, as the most visible operation outside the United States, the logistics required present an enormous challenge, even with our partner banner operation now operating in Dubai.

The impossible we can achieve but miracles can present us with a real challenge!

Airads Flies BALPA March Banner Past Heathrow

Despite pretty daunting conditions this morning, with fog and low cloud, we decided to "have a go" at getting to Brimpton airfield just north of Farnborough, to launch the BALPA banner to support the British Airways pilots union march at Heathrow today. (see BBC)

Departing in minimal visibility, we were in the cloud past Rochester and pretty much until Ockham, remaining "VFR on top" at 2000 feet but found, to our surprise as we passed Blackbushe that the weather, although not great, looked good enough for the flight.

While one of us filmed, AIRADS Chief Pilot, John Waller, took BALPA's Head of Flight Safety, Carolyn Evans, along as co-pilot. (Pictured) Off first towards Reading and then with the approval and control of Heathrow ATC, along the M4 towards Slough and the Burnham beacon.


By then the rain had started and the cloudbase was starting to fall but John, as you can see from the video, bought back a very wet and "draggy" banner to drop at Brimpton without mishap.

It was raining so hard, I couldn't get any decent photos! Because the background was so dull, the banner photo is colour enhanced which is why you can see the smaller tail-flag 'parachute' - actually a different colour which normally goes unnoticed - at the end of the banner. Otherwise it wouldn't fly horizontal!

I'm looking forward to getting a souvenir T-shirt!

Footnote: A warm welcome to all the BALPA members from all around the globe that are visiting this website in large numbers from Cape Town to Tokyo - from looking at the traffic log - . If you don't have the Adobe Flash Player installed on your PC, you won't be able to see the You Tube video. Flash Player is easily downloadable but on some public PCs it's either not installed of turned-off with the Active-X controls for security purposes.

Spitfire U2

As today's strong winds have put a stop to any flying work I had, I've been having a quick look through some of my videos and remembered this one, that I took of Spitfire U2. Corgi even produced a special collector's edition scale model of the same aircraft that I have on the shelf in front of me.

Thanks to the wonders of YouTube, I can now share this short clip with any Spitfire fans or history enthusiasts.

The rain that day was so bad that the fresh blue paint on the Spitfire started to wash off!

February 29

On the wild side out there this afternoon but divine providence helped one young lady from Germany propose to her boyfriend at Bluewater a little earlier, although I had told her that the chances of getting a banner overhead were slim.

It's not much fun when it gets that turbulent and the temptation is to simply say "No" than give it a try but miracles sometimes happen and I hope they'll both be very happy together!

You'll see how close we have to work to the ground in this picture from this afternoon.

Trading-Up for Trade Depot

Two flights out of Rochester today, bringing the legendary 'Captain Bob' out of self imposed retirement to fly a banner for Trade Depot to announce the opening of their Croydon store.

Since 'Captain Bob' decided to start flying a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter, with its leather fitttings and generous mini bar, fixed wing aircraft have become a little passe but the old skills were very much in evidence, with a neat pick-up and an even neater drop, right between the posts.

The day started 'Murky' and didn't really improve that match. Much of North Croydon had a fog bank sitting neatly over the top of it and so we had to be a little imaginative moving around the outskirts and the M25 to avoid it. Hopefully, the visibility will be a little better tomorrow.

Here's a quick video of the return to Rochester airport.

Popping the Question

See us this week on ITV's Meridian News Tonight special story on Leap Year proposals.

Friday may be busy. The weather forecast is not good though!

Hannah Said Yes

Very tricky weather today but sterling work from John W. ensured that Richard's proposal to Hannah arrived in time at Southend pier for 3pm, where she was waiting for an unexpected surprise.

Not exactly the finest weather to be out on the pier, drizzle and low cloud but like the fabled "Pony Express" Airads managed to get there and the girl said "Yes". Another succesful marriage proposal to add to our 100% record!

Captain Cupid Strikes again!

I've attached a short YouTube video. It's not great as I only had my little camera with me and the light was very poor. Hope you can see the major details though!

Trading Up Over Croydon

Trade Depot has selected AIRADS to publicise the opening of its new store in Croydon at the beginning of March.

To support the flights, the company is having a "Split" digital sheet banner designed, which can of course be used for other stores and messages if required. The banner involved allows interchangeable 5' letters to be attached to the end to give greater flexibility for different messages.

Love is in the Air

A full page spread for AIRADS in one local paper and again in a second for the City of Canterbury, following our last flying marriage proposal. Given that the latter involved flying round and round the city walls with "The Big Question", the people of Canterbury were bound to notice in the week before Christmas, much as the people of the Isle of Thanet did at Westwood Cross with our charity Xmas Card in aid of the NSPCC, sponsored by the island's 'Bloggers'!

Valentine's Day and the Leap Year are approaching fast. You can tell because it's increasingly wet and windy, making it very awkward for us to operate. Fingers crossed we aren't rained-off in February again!

Old Trafford and Everton in the News

Lots of reporting today in the papers and on TV of yesterday's flight over old Trafford.

The Liverpool Daily Post reports:

"Fans aiming to keep Everton in the city took their campaign to the skies of Manchester yesterday during the Premiership match between Everton and Man Utd at Old Trafford.

A protester flew a plane with a banner reading Keep Everton in Our City over the stadium. The stunt was part of the group’s on-going campaign to stop the club moving to a proposed new stadium in Kirkby.

Similar protests have taken place at home games, but this is the first at an away game."

The Telegraph reports:

"And five minutes after Ronaldo's opener, Wes Brown failed to cut out Pienaar's cross and Tim Cahill rose above Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra and, with the ball in the net beneath the Stretford End, dashed over to punch a corner flag. The light aircraft that had been patrolling the clear winter skies over Old Trafford carrying a banner protesting about Everton's move from Goodison to Kirkby was still swooping above the great arena. From the cockpit, they would have been pleased with what they saw."

Not sure we could see that clearly but more flights yet to come!

Christmas Greetings

It must be Christmas and AIRADS will be making a flight over Kent having raised £150 for the NSPCC for the winner's seasonal message on eBay.

On Saturday, we are over Old Trafford for Everton vs Manchester United and have a Russian marriage proposal over the historic city of Canterbury, if the fog stays away. Our Chinese wedding flight to Oxford earlier today fell victim to freezing fog in the vicinity. It happens and one can never be certain that the winter weather will be in the limits we need to pick-up and fly a banner safely.

A Merry Christmas to all our clients and readers and a prosperous and Happy New Year to come!