BBC's Newsnight and an Airads Banner Over Margate

Did anyone spot the Airads banner on the BBC Newsnight programme on Tuesday night?

A quick interview with Tracey Emin followed by an aircraft flying across the beach with the message: "Mad Tracey from Margate."

If you blinked you may have missed it!

Giant Aircraft Banners Don't Get Any Bigger

The embedded video may be a little larger than life but when an aircraft banner rolls past the shoreline, it certainly captures the public's attention!

It All Works Out in the End for Lloyd and Charlotte

There are times, when the weather gets so bad, that you have to be a little creative in having a banner flown!

This afternoon, while spring-like sunshine covered parts of Kent, Rochester airport was bathed in fog, drizzle and the occasional dusting of snow for much of the day and nothing was moving on the runways.

By lunchtime, it became clear that there was very little chance of lifting Lloyd's proposal to Charlotte over the cloud-locked hills towards Detling, only a few miles away and so I suggested that he drive her to Rochester airport, where at least I could have a try at picking-up the banner and working at low-level inside the airfield circuit.

Kelvin Carr, Rochester's operations manager, very kindly invited the couple into the control tower, while I quickly got off the ground to pick-up Lloyd's proposal. In the mixed drizzle and sleet, collecting the banner was nothing short of a miracle, given the poor horizontal visibility but fortune smiled on the couple and off it flew on the very first attempt. You can see how wet it was by the curl in the sodden banner,making it less than aerodynamic.

Airads would like to offer our congratulations to yet another happy couple on what has proved to be one of our busiest months for marriage proposals since before the recession began.

All The Way From South Africa for an Airads Flying Marriage Proposal

Another successful Airads Valentines' banner this afternoon at Leeds Castle in Kent.

Congratulation to Kevin and Veloshini who came all the way from South Africa to stay at the picturesque castle in Kent, for Kevin to 'pop the question' just after they arrived.

He called me in the aircraft to announce yet another successes in Airads unbroken record of flying proposals! Given the weather, they were incredibly lucky to find enough of a gap for us to operate in. Sixty minutes later, the weather had closed in again.

Over 100,000 see Dandy's Top Soil Airads Banner Plane

It is estimated that over 100,000 people saw Dandy's Top Soil's latest form of advertising, their 60ft Advertising Banner being towed 600mtrs high by a Plane.

The Plane, which was destined for Chester Racecourse, where 41,000 people where enjoying the City's Family Day while watching the world famous races, took off from Blackpool Airport at 1.30pm, flying down the Northwest coastline over St. Annes, Southport, Ormskirk, Liverpool, Widnes, Runcorn, Ellesmere Port and finally Chester itself arriving on the scene at around 2.00pm.

The Plane towed a 60ft advertising banner with the letters: DANDYSTOPSOIL.CO.UK behind it. After circling the City centre and Course for over an hour the plane then moved north to the World Famous Chester Zoo where thousands more visitors and tourists were enjoying the sites the Zoo had to offer.

After one final lap of the City Dandy's Advertising Plane headed north back over Warrington and Liverpool City Centres to it's final destination back at Blackpool Airport.

The total flight lasted two and a half hours and could not be missed by anyone who was outside and within 2 miles of the plane.

Adam Dandy commented "It was a great success! If they didn't know who Dandys Topsoil were, they do now!"

The Dandy's Banner Plane will be touring across other major UK Cities, Towns and high profile events over the next twelve months, increasing the National Topsoil Company's Brand Awareness

Another Marriage Proposal at Leeds Castle

The first fairy-tale proposal of the year today over Leeds Castle in Kent, which along with Brighton Pier in the summer months, is our most popular aerial proposal choice.

In fact, this February, we have three marriage proposals to do at the castle with one client coming all the way from South Africa to 'pop the question.'

Today it was the turn of Jaysen and Neelam and despite the damp February weather, the fog lifted long enough to maintain Airads unbroken 100% proposal record to date.

Congratulations to the both of you and a long and happy married life to come!

Free Bronson Flies Over Long Lartin

An unusual mission for Airads today, over Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire and organised by the supporters of Charles Bronson, with the message: “FREE BRONSON- ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”.

The group has issued the following statement:

“Charles Bronson has been imprisoned now for 35 years 30 of which have been in solitary confinement and despite 10 years good behaviour he has still not been released or de-categorized. Charlie's human rights have been constantly breached throughout the years and his next parole hearing is not until 2011 even though he is 8 years over his tariff.

Charles Bronson continues to support and donate to charities mainly to under privileged children and is a dear friend to all his supporters as such we hold protests regularly to gather signatures for his petition.

Charlie has no voice but we do!

Paedophiles and rapists are released back into the public regularly. A woman who kills her 2 teenage daughters gets 33 years imprisonment, Charlie is still in solitary confinement after 35 years and has never killed anybody. "

Anyone wishing to find out more information on Charles Bronson and his ongoing campaign can visit his website on http://www.bronsonloonyology.com/ and sign the online petition or attend the next protest on the 16th Oct 09 from 11am-6pm outside the Houses of Parliament, Central London.”

From Dan to Sam

I see the Thanet Times ran the story of the marriage proposal we flew for Dan to Sam at Palm Bay near Margate on Saturday afternoon. A nice photo (pictured left) and the memorable moment of a lifetime for the happy couple!

Jungle Sounds

An interesting six hours or so in the air on Friday.

First stop was Calais and 'The Jungle' the sparsely wooded area adjacent to the port, for a national newspaper, having a good look at what was taking place in the refugee encampment below. I was struck by how many blue tarpaulin-covered shelters there were, lean-to's huddling miserably together in a relatively small and dirty space and the presence of scaling ladders visible and badly concealed on top of several.

Most surprising of all is how close the industrial estate and coach park are to the 'Jungle', quite literally on the other side of the bushes.

Below, there was evidence of organised activity, with one large group of men visibly being directed by a single individual in a leather jacket. Where they might have been going I can't say but there was no shortage of lorries or coaches within easy reach of any passing travel interest.

Back on this side of the Channel, it was back to nuclear reactors, taking in Bradwell Bay and Sizewell B, which I couldn't survey on Monday and then across East Anglia to survey building progress on two brand new prisons; one on the site of the old RAF Coltishall in Norfolk and the second near Peterborough. Mind you, given the present deplorable state of our criminal justice system, I believe we would need to build a prison a month simply to keep up with the demand for places which now sees even the most serious offenders swiftly released into the so-called 'Community' for rehabilitation.

The 'Jungle' is scheduled to be buldozed soon but this will simply displace the problem elsewhere as the French appear disinclined to police the problem in Calais vigorously and instead, blame us for our "Ridiculously generous" benefits system. However, as you may have seen in the news this week, the trail of human misery which ends in Calais at the opposite end of the Channel Tunnel, starts a very long way from Europe and passes through the barren desert of Libya on the way; one reason why our Government and the Italians are so very keen to seek rapprochment with Colonel Gaddafi, large oilfields aside!

Tiger's Eye

Over at Leicester today flying a promotional banner for the "Tigers" rugby team. Leicester is only 138 miles from Thanet as 'The crow flies' but I'm sure it seem rather longer by road.

From the air and on a lovely autumn day like today, it looks like a very attractive city with lots of green spaces and a very accomodating airfield to operate from too!

With the evening now starting to draw in, the banner season will soon come to end or at least quieten down until April of next year. It still runs through the winter but becomes increasingly more of a probability exercise, each time I fly as the winter weather depressions and shorter days make flying more challenging.

Off to Milan

I found myself on a day trip to Milan on Sunday, as a member of the flight crew on a positioning trip of a Gainjet Gulfstream 200.

Ninety minutes was all it took, followed by several hours of aviation hell, as I caught the 16:50 (delayed to 18:00) Easyjet from Milan's Linate airport back into Gatwick with all the other poor souls squeezed on-board.

From the cockpit of the Gulfstream, the view over the Alps was breathtaking from 37,000 feet, giving way suddenly to the flat plain of Northern Italy and then a sharp right-turn and a radar-vectored descent into Linate.

It's easy to understand why Manchester United and members of the super wealthy prefer executive jet travel whenever possible. Passport control and travel formalities are a polite nod at both ends and the interior of the aircraft is lavish in mahogany and leather with all possible comforts supplied.

This particular aircraft was scheduled to go on to Frankfurt in the morning and then Istanbul and beyond, finishing-up, I think, in Moscow.

In contrast though, I have to tow a banner for Leicester Tigers rugby club this week, not quite the same as exploring Istanbul but another challenge none the less!

Rugby Time

Leicester Tigers rugby club has asked Airads to fly a banner for them in September.

As you can see from the artwork, it's a going to be a very large version of a rugby shirt in club colours, followed by a streaming text message: "TEXT TIGERS TO 60600".

I think it maybe hard to miss over the town and we will be interested in the results of the text campaign on the public below!

A Deal Castle Wedding

A nice wedding happening at Deal castle this afternoon. I was temporarily confused through not knowing that Deal Castle and Walmer Castle are very close and look almost identical from the air. After several minutes circling the latter, where nothing obvious was happening, I finally arrived at the former, where the reception had just started.

We were lucky with the weather too.

So that's Leeds Castle last Friday and Deal Castle today. Seem to be making a habit of fortifications!

A Leeds Castle Proposal

Congratulations to Dhiren and Hema who had a very special afternoon at Leeds Castle in Kent yesterday.

Dhiren, proposed to Hema, who said "Yes", maintaining our unbroken record of marriage proposals!

After a week of very "iffy" weather, they chose the perfect day for their very special walk in the country.