Shortly before those magnificent military formations started zooming past in the Air Show this month, did you happen to notice the sweet little Piper Cubs pulling banners heralding Atlantic City tourism? They belong to Barbara Tomalino, owner of Paramount Air Service, running a fleet of the “Model Ts of aviation” out of a private air strip in Cape May County. Also a civic and political leader, Tomalino talked with us about aviation and tourism.
How did you get involved with the stratosphere?
I grew up with it — though we don’t go quite that high. My parents started the business in 1945, after my dad served as a glider pilot in WWII. He first saw a banner airplane on vacation in Florida, and said, wow, what a great way to make a living doing what he loved. My parents started the business, with one airplane, in Cherry Hill. But southern Jersey had the beaches, so they bought out Knocky Nordheim’s business in Atlantic City and moved here fulltime. I took over in the ’80s, when I was in my 20s.
Was it a sense of responsibility, or choice, that kept you on?
A little of each. You know, when you grow up and every plane going by at the beach has a pilot waving at you, it becomes a part of you. So yes, there was a sense that we should keep it in the family. But also, I viewed it as a marketing business that uses planes as a means to deliver messages.
It’s such a part of the beach experience.
It’s a captive audience — we reach everybody who’s there, and between Cape May Point and Sandy Hook on a summer day, that’s three million people. But the message must be conveyed in a short space. Clients are used to dealing with conventional print, so they often want to say something way too long. We focus on what’s really key, just to pique peoples’ interest, and refer them to print media for the details. On standard plane banners, letters are five feet high, and I like to keep messages to about 35 letters. If the banner’s too heavy or too long, it’s not going to fly or read well.
I love the occasional quirky message: “Marry me, Martha!”
It’s not only messages that can be unusual. Clients might initially ask for, say, flashy colors, not realizing that a color like red can actually seem to disappear when the suns hits at certain angles. And sometimes clients want to fly over places like stadiums. But since 9/11, that’s heavily regulated, and traffic stops altogether an hour before major events. It’s just not as effective as planes on the beach. As for the “happy birthdays,” graduations, and so forth, yes, they’re fun. Years ago, we even had a “Jean Pierre, call your brother.”
Your fleet’s like “the little seaplanes that could.”
We own 12 Piper Cubs, and we operate off a grass field, preferable even at standard airports because the ground, rather than the plane, takes the impact of landings. Today’s airplanes are made for speed — just the opposite of what we want. The faster we go, the less effective it is for our clients. A local restaurant, by the way, typically may stay on one or two adjacent islands, while a business like the Borgata, with whom we work very closely, runs from Cape May Point to Long Beach Island. We fly from Memorial Day to about the third week in September. Then we just pickle the airplanes, close up, and start getting contracts out for next season. Soon enough, it’s spring and we’re training pilots again.
It can’t be easy trailing a banner at take-off.
Before my dad got involved, planes did take off and land with the banner attached, causing lots of wear and tear — not just to the banner, but for the airplane, the engine. He developed a method that basically everyone uses now. I call it the “clothesline.” Two poles, about five feet high, are set into the ground, with the banner laid out behind them and looped lightly onto the line. The pilot takes off first without a banner, then circles back. He has a boom and a hook; he dives, snatches the banner, and ascends. And as he ascends, of course, the banner comes up. At the end of that run, he just releases the banner, circles around and picks up the next.
If there is one thing I love, it’s winning — whether it’s board games, competition at work or whatever, it’s always fun to win. Eight years ago, my husband and I won our wedding through the Mike & Diane Morning Show on 95.1 WAYV. That was probably my biggest personal win, however, a great feat is when you’re able to win something for an admirable cause and get people rooting for you, voting for you online, and cheering you on to victory. Well, that is the situation Terry Dougherty, a third-grade teacher at Roland Rogers Elementary School in Galloway Township, finds herself in...
Article:
Atlantic City Beach Guide 2012
Article:
Atlantic Club Adopts MMSC
Article:
Remembering ‘Memorial Day’
Article:
Ted Nugent Talks
Article:
Unprecedented Concert Line-up for Atlantic City
Article:
Save-A-Lot, First Supermarket to Open in Atlantic City in Years
Article:
Black Keys in Atlantic City: Rock & Revel
Article:
Taste of Revel May 18-20
Share this Story: