Having just watched Sligfantry's video about this excellent discovery of his, it turns out that his grabbing method is actually different from what I've been doing - which surprises me! But whichever way you cook it, it's clear that a Banshee grab could knock a big chunk of time off a Heroic or Legendary speed run. Perhaps over 50 seconds even? I've had time to consider this in advance, so here's a bit of elaboration concerning the arch method I've been using. I'll focus on NTSC.

The critical section of play is from (a) arriving at the first bridge, to (b) dismounting from a Banshee as you approach the exit door at the twin bridges. Normally that takes about 3:23, to judge from a Scurty run. Now what about doing a Banshee grab? On arrival at the first bridge, you could be boarding the Banshee in as little as about 22 seconds if the pilot gets ejected promptly on his first attack run. As for the subsequent flight (including opening two doors), I timed that at about 2:40 on PAL, but on NTSC the Banshee is significantly faster. I don't have an accurate figure (anyone?) but it think it's around 20%. Suppose it's 20%. In that case the flight would be about 2:08 on NTSC (actually a touch more but I'll ignore the detail of stoppages for doors), making a total of 2:30, which is 53 seconds faster.

Grabbing the Banshee so quickly is a big if, but isn't hopeless. With suitable technique you can raise the odds of getting the Banshee into a fix, which is something I've been investigating, hoping to exploit the predictability of that first attack run. And a few hours ago (after much trying) I finally had a bit of payoff, proving that it can actually work. Movie coming shortly!

What about Sligfantry's method? Looks like that would be a bit slower, due to needing to drag the Banshee to a point where you can flip and board it. But maybe it's also more reliable? I've yet to even try it out, so I don't know. But either way, AOTCR speed runs seem set to get a lot faster!

Also handy for vehicle collecting!

There's another pretty obvious use I'll quickly mention. You can now add this Banshee to a single-player vehicle collection. As far as I know, folk were previously only getting it in co-op, using object overloading (see this HIH thread and the video 6 Banshees in the AOTCR Control Room).

Actually though, there's another method available anyway. Remember BCM171 where I got a pilot ejected by having his Banshee closely chase my own? You can do the same thing with the bridge Banshee after fetching one of your own. Just lead it to the cavern. It'll adopt 'mad Banshee' behaviour there, closely tailing you, enabling you to cause ejection against a wall.