Most signs are flown for half an hour. Then the planes return to the farm, drop both the banner and its tow line, deploy another grappling line, snag another banner and head back to the beach. Each plane starts the day with four separate tow lines aboard, permitting it to tow four separate banners, one after another, before having to land. Bunting says the aerial beach business has grown steadily since he and his late brother got into it part time in 1980. His brother was killed in a freak crash in 1983 when a banner he was picking up snagged on his plane's landing gear as he climbed, stalling the plane.
Carper comes from Virginia.
Henderson from Kansas City by way of Las Vegas. Moore was doing aerobatics in Brownsville, Tex., when she got the call to return to Ocean City for her second summer. Bernath is from nearby Cambridge. But Bunting furnishes them housing and trains them for the special FAA certification they need to tow the signs. Most are relatively new pilots piling up flight time to beef up their credentials as professional aviators.