Some Coastal Residents Want to Ground Aerial Billboards

If Kenneth Kahn were to have his message towed on a banner sky-high above Southern California’s beaches, it would probably read: THE END.

Banner-towing aircraft spark Kahn’s ire. They ruin his afternoon naps. They mar the natural beauty that drew him to his $750,000 dream home overlooking the ocean in Manhattan Beach.

“What started out as one or two colorful airplanes pulling banners has expanded into a coastal stream of advertising,” he says. “I have a right to have one place in this world where I can see nature. This crass commercialism comes right into my bedroom.”

Kahn, a Santa Monica-based attorney, is not the only one who becomes angry every time a banner goes by plugging beer or burgers or, in a sign of the times, condoms.

An irritated Hermosa Beach resident, Shawn E. Hamilton, has called for a boycott of all businesses that use aerial advertising. And an advisory group to the County Board of Supervisors, responding to a citizen’s complaint, is looking into the prospect of banning the banners.

Jim Lissner, a competitive sailor, said he decided to take his gripe to the county Department of Beaches and Harbors’ Beach Advisory Committee in June, because what was once a novelty has become a “plague.” Especially irritating, he said, are the pilots who use planes with unmuffled engines, horns, loudspeakers and trails of smoke to attract attention.

The committee responded to Lissner’s complaint by asking its staff to investigate what can be done to regulate the aircraft. A report is expected in September.

Those who take to the skies every weekend plugging nightclubs, deodorant, automobiles and other products grant that their efforts are eye-catching.

“It’s hard to avoid seeing it,” said Wayne Fulton of Long Beach-based Paradise Aerial. “Radio and TV advertising blows right by people because there is so much of it. With banners, they’re sitting on the beach looking out at the water and it’s hard to miss.”

But operators say the banners, which sometimes extend 500 feet behind the aircraft, offer an exciting distraction for beach-goers and an unusual medium for advertisers. Pilots report cheering and pointing from viewers--not clenched fists--when they pass overhead.

“Most people like the signs,” said Doug Stavoe, owner of Pacific Drifters, which flies out of Long Beach and John Wayne airports. “They provide a distraction. They’re colorful. I’ve only heard two complaint calls in five years.”

And those two complaints were made against out-of-state banner towers who swooped down too low, Stavoe added.

Fulton said he soars overhead as quietly as he can and doesn’t resort to any excess noise-making.

“I don’t think you should be blasting the beach to get their attention,” he said. “I keep as quiet as possible. These banner towers are not like the police helicopters that come over my house at midnight.”

Fulton has flown above Colorado ski resorts, Nevada casinos and Long Island beaches. He has plied the airspace from Malibu to San Diego the past three years, specializing in large billboards, which require high-horsepower aircraft.

Half a dozen planes can soar by in a single afternoon. And critics of the overhead banners also raise a safety issue, saying that increasing traffic above the beaches makes it just a matter of time before a banner gets caught in another plane’s propeller.

Stavoe discounts such fears, saying other pilots simply have to keep their eyes out for the slow-moving banner-towing planes. He said there have been occasional close calls with recreational planes “buzzing” the banners, but no serious incidents.

The FAA reports that 27 aircraft are registered for banner-towing in Southern California and that they represent about 15 companies.

The agency has no official estimate of how many of the planes take to the sky on an average weekend. But pilots in the trade report that banner-advertising is gaining popularity among corporations, which pay a fee of roughly $900 for a message to be carried above weekend beach-goers.

The planes will also soar above Disneyland, sporting events, rock concerts or private parties.

“We’re just like a billboard, except we move,” Stavoe said. “We take the billboards to people instead of people passing the billboards.”

The banners, which trail about 250 feet behind the airplanes, also display many personal messages.

Actor Bill Paxton, who auditioned for the lead part in the Disney movie “Rockateer,” sent a banner over Disney offices in Anaheim the day producers were making the final cut. “FLY BILL PAXTON FOR ROCKATEER,” said the banner, which Disney officials ignored in their final casting decision.

Dale Jennings had better luck when he used a banner to pop the question to his girlfriend last month.

“I wanted to make an impression so I reserved a table at the end of the Newport Beach pier and I asked her to take a walk at the exact moment the plane was coming over,” he recalled. “We were just standing there and I pointed out the plane. By the time she turned back around, I was down on one knee with an engagement ring in my hand.”

She said yes.

Getting the banners airborne is not as easy as it might appear.

The single-engine planes can’t take off with the banners because of their weight. Instead, they swoop down to the side of the runway and a hook attached to the plane catches a cable attached to the banner.

Once they leave the airport, they must follow the same Federal Aviation Administration regulations that apply to all small aircraft.

FAA spokesman Fred O’Donnell said the agency inspects the planes to ensure that they operate safely but does not restrict the number of flights. The planes must stay at least 500 feet off the coast, with a minimum altitude of 500 feet.

“I know there are considerable complaints from homeowners along the beach, but as long as (the aircraft) remain over the water and stay away from restricted airspace, they are totally legitimate,” he said.

In 1987, the FAA banned banner planes from flying at low levels along Dockweiler State Beach near Los Angeles International Airport. The ban forced the planes to fly at 4,500 feet, out of the view of beach-goers, to avoid jets taking off from LAX.

In 1989, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco invalidated the ban, but companies were required to obtain permission to fly near the airport.

Avoiding LAX or waiting for controllers to give the OK has interfered with business, operators say. And further regulations up and down the coast could be catastrophic, they warn.

“If government gets their hands on banner towing it would just be a big hassle,” said Pete Mason, who flies over county fairs, strawberry festivals and beaches in Ventura County. “There are two sides to the coin. The homeowners see us overhead, but we see them on the ground. Maybe they annoy us.”

Restrictions also would infringe on their First Amendment rights to display their messages, banner towers say. Honolulu is the only jurisdiction that county officials have identified as having a ban on aerial ads. But attorneys there say the ordinance is not routinely enforced and its constitutionality has not been tested in the courts.

Kahn, who appeared before the Manhattan Beach City Council last month with his complaints, insists there must be a way to bring the airplanes buzzing past his window under control. What about his rights? he asks.

“I have a right to take a snooze on Saturday,” he says, “without these unmuffled planes waking me up.”