Banner tow/no floats
 

If I ever have to put one in the waves I'm probably gonna keep the banner attached. Less likely to nose over.

Wouldn't that rapidly bleed off all of your glide energy? I guess that would be OK if you were already in a position to land where you wanted.

I wouldn't keep it attached. The banner hangs below your aircraft and would come in contact with the water first. Your airspeed would quickly bleed off and you would pancake in.

Less likely to nose over 'cause you'll be going in at about a ninety degree angle... Like a rock with a streamer on it...

You must never have pulled the power to idle with a banner in tow....

I have (unfortunately) landed on LAND with a banner attached.
The technique is to land the airplane before the banner touches (and possibly snags) the ground. Usually this means an idle approach with a 45 degrees nose down (to maintain about 40 kts) until about 5-10' above the runway.

If you snag or drag the banner, it will stop you IMMEDIATELY, this is an uncontrolled situation, the cable fuse could (should) break first but any number of things could happen.

No, you do NOT want the banner attached when making a forced landing. trust me on this one.

You'd be surprised how much detail of the runway there is when looking at it, filling your entire windscreen, at 10'. :eek:

CE