Banner Towing et al
There's an awful lot of misinformation floating around here and as the owner of Airads, with over 1,000 hours of experience doing this kind of aerial work let me try and help get some of the facts presented properly.
Banner towing is a tricky as it gets in terms of aerial work. Only a handful of us do this in the UK, one less after the incident being discussed here.
It does however have an unprecedented safety record, possibly because everyone is very experienced and in mid-forties to mid fifties and inclined towards the "No old bold pilots" way of thinking.
Occasionally and like any flying activity, mistakes and accidents can happen. The same thing that happened with the Wilga, happened to me once in sudden unexpected turbulence near the ground during a pickup manoeuvre. It's a problem without doubt but one that can be dealt with without incident if the right procedure for landing with the banner still in tow is followed.
At Airads, we have strict operational safety rules that you will find in the aircraft on a laminated card to remind us before each flight. Most important of all, never let a client put you under time stress and "If it doesn't look right, then it probably isn't"
We don't take passengers because we don't have an AOC and it's best not to test the rules governing such anyway but occasionally, if W&B limits and drag calculations permit we will run with two pilots if only because two sets of eyes are better than one. Just after the pick up, it can be very useful having one pilot concentrating on the climb out manoeuvre and the other running through the checks. If you visit AiradsUK on YouTube you can see some examples.
To stress flight safety might appear trite but believe me, it's at the very top of my list of priorities and takes precedent above anything else. Towing banners has to be treated with the same care as say crop dusting or airshow aerobatics.
We do everything from opening the Farnborough Airshow, to lots of marriage proposals!
Hope that helps but happy to answer any questions if they come my way!