Spelling it Out for EUjet

"Your'e not going up in this?", said another pilot this afternoon, as the rain lashed down on the aircraft next to us. "Got to", came the answer, "Bit like the Pony Express, EUjet want their banner over the War & Peace Show at exactly 16:30 and Airads have to be there."



At least we had the skies to ourselves on the way down to position for the banner and broke out of the rain and dense swirling clouds in time to find the grass runway exactly where it should be.

Fortunately, the skies were beginning to clear from the west as the forecast had predicted. EUjet had its banner on time.

Cryptic Clue

A message up at Tatenhill today. Lucky George gets some special treatment from partner Deb, with a little help from Airads on the way.

Take Me Higher

Love above the Malvern Hills with a special message to Lauren on Saturday.

Congratulations Anna & Russell

Another message for a happy couple near Panshanger on Saturday.

Airads Tows Labour and UKIP Banners on Election Day

Red Letter Day

Airads was towing both Labour and UKIP elections banner around Kent during the election on May 5th

General Election

Airads Bob Shilling seen with Health Secretary, Dr John Reid. Airads have been asked to tow the Labour Party election banner during the week of the General Election.

Bracklesham Bay Again

An interesting excursion along the South-coast to Bracklesham Bay yesterday to tow a promotional banner for a customer near Bognor. The BBQ detector on the front of the aircraft quickly identified a very small grass strip in the area , the home of the Bracklesham Bay Microlight Flying Club that we dropped into, run by Roger and Sue, who were busy setting-up the club's Sunday lunchtime BBQ.


Hidden between two fields, a caravan a hangar and a windsock

While Captain Bob took their excited teenage daughter Ella for a ride, I stayed on taking photos, with Bob's new digital camera, which weighs more than the aircraft!


Bob and Ella

If you're looking for Bracklesham Bay on a weekend, head towards the Isle of Wight from Bognor but wait until you smell cooking sausages, just before you run out of land. You'll be very close.

From Bracklesham, we followed the south coast at low level taking aerial photos before turning inland beyond Brighton toward Rochester to refuel. Then it was of towards another private strip near Andrewsfield in Essex to tow a wedding banner over a reception in a small village, before returning, and embarking on a photo shoot of the bigger London football grounds.


West Ham Stadium

We had hoped to sneak in towards Tower Bridge for the Marathon but the London City controller wouldn't let us along the river and with a police helicopter hovering above Docklands, we took the hint and moved-off towards Croydon and the Crystal Place ground before working our way back along the M25 toward Biggin Hill and then Rochester.

In contrast with today's pouring rain, Sping had definitely arrived on Sunday with great visibility. But that's Britain for you. One day it's Summer and then it's back to wet Winter weather again.

A Year in Photos

You can find an Internet slideshow of a year in photos of Airads banner-towing adventures and activities around the UK by following this LINK.



Broadband strongly recommended.

East Fortune with Airads

A proposal of marriage and a desperate escape by two rough-looking characters, disguised as pilots, from Teeside airport.


Edinburgh Airads 13
Originally uploaded by DrMoores.

A long flight to Edinburgh and East Fortune airfield today to tow a marriage proposal for the lucky Anne Gilchrist, watched closely by a BBC Scotland film crew as her boyfriend proposed, with a little help from Captain Romantic and an Airads banner.

While Kent at 07:30 am was locked in ice and snow and we took off into a blizzard, Scotland basked in bright sunshine and you can see all the day's photos if you "click" on the image attached.

Back home to Maypole via Teeside for a refueling stop. Having parked next to all the other aircraft, filled-up and then wandered into the terminal with our bright yellow jackets, getting back out to the aircraft again, even as aircrew, wasn't that easy, as security viewed us with some suspicion and searched us thoroughly.

Claiming to have an aircraft parked outside next to the KLM "City Hopper" wasn't much use. However "Osama Bin Shilling" and I finally managed to persuade them to let us back airside and we finally escaped from Teeside without being placed under house arrest.

Back in Kent, it's freezing cold the ice on the airstrip is thawing into sticky mud. The Costa Del Scotland is much more pleasant a destination this weekend.

BBC Valentine's Special

Airads does a "Special" for the BBC in Norfolk to support a Valentine's Day feature. Look East reporter Alex Dunlop made for his wife Susie Fowler-Watt. The aircraft displaying the banner flew from Old Buckenham airfield in South Norfolk.



A quick landing with the banner in the background.



Read the full story on the BBC Norfolk Website

The Leicester Mercury

Today, Airads has been towing an advertisement for the Leicester Mercury, advertising a jobs fair in the area. A bitterly cold day with strong winds in the North of England, didn't prevent us being on time and on station as required at Leicester airport to pick up the banner



The Wind was so strong that the banner almost flew away on its own!

A nice view of G-OMAC disappearing towards Leicester.

Birthday Banner at Old Buckenham

Views of Norfolk

Back from Norfolk, where Airads dropped into a warm welcome at Tibbenham to pick up a “Happy Birthday Nick” banner to tow around Old Buckenham airfield, fifteen minutes away.

Both Tibbenham and Old Buckenham have distinguished histories as bomber bases in the Second World War. The latter is very much in use today with parachuting a flying club and of course home to its famous vintage warbird airshow in June. Tibbenham however, is now home to the Norfolk Gliding Club, small gliders looking lost amid large runways, when once it was home to the 445th Bomb Group, commanded by the Hollywood star, James Stewart, who was also exec officer at Old Buckenham.



One of Stewart’s contemporaries wrote: “Everybody loved Stewart. As commander, he could select the missions he’d go on. Whether it was Nuremberg or Berlin, one of the heavily-protected targets, he’d always take that mission,” he says. “He never ducked out, never took what they called a milk run. He always took the toughest mission, and all the pilots loved him. He was just an honest-to-goodness hero.”



Watch out for Airads advertising the Old Buckenham airshow on June 26th 2005.

Captain Cupid on Meridian Television News

Bob Shilling (described as "Captain Cupid") was featured on Meridian Evening News on 30th November.

The feature followed a marriage proposal, towed behind the Airads aircraft and described how Bob has now successfully proposed to over fifty women on behalf of their fiances.



Bob being filmed for the Meridian News story

Banners for Local Government

You might normally associate Simon Moores’ name with the leading edge of eGovernment but there’s another aspect of his public sector work that you might not be familiar with.

Regularly flying with Airads, Simon is also a working pilot and can frequently be seen over the UK towing banners with local government messages, two in the last month having been “Crimestoppers” over East Anglia and “One County – One Council – Vote A” for Durham County Council.



As a means of communicating public service messages to the general population, he believes aerial banners can be remarkably wide-reaching and cost-effective, particularly over large urban shopping centres at weekends and lunchtimes. Airads many local government customers include Warwickshire, Breckland, Canterbury, Kent and Durham. “For local government, keen to promote online services or new initiatives, simply towing a banner with the web address behind the aircraft can capture more interest in sixty minutes than the most expensive local radio campaign.

It’s not quite the eGovernment I’m used to”, says Simon Moores, “but in many ways, it captures the attention of the general public with more impact and interest than most public service messages ever can.”