Camber, another windy day

Gemini, originally uploaded by Pitprops.

Today saw a few KKF members visit Camber sands near Rye, for ritualistic kite abuse. I arrived in the beach car park at about 1pm, and on getting out of the car, decided that another layer of clothes was required. It was a bright sunny day, but the wind was bitter, and blowing hard. I wandered down to the beach to meet the guys, who were playing with various high wind kites. From the KAp perspective, things didn't look promising at all. So being a natural born coward, I decided to follow standard KKF procedure and go an eat!

Suitably sustained for the afternoon, I headed out on to the sand and took with me a 2.4 radsail. Severla of us played with this for a short while before the bridle tags were torn from the sail - OOPS!. OK so everyone now decided to go and partake of coffee to warm up.

Leaving the cafe a little later, the wind seemed to drop to a mere gale. i wandered up onto the dunes to see if it could be true. Well it did seem to be, so out came the camera and and a selection of small rokaku kites. wandering down to the beach again helped by Andrew, but when we got there, it did seem that the wind was still pretty strong. I put up the rok, and brought it down a couple of times to adjust it, but it was still fidgetty, so eventually, it had 50 feet of tail attached, which seemed to dampen some of its more manic moments. To try or not to try...?

Well frustration is a wonderful thing, and I was still looking for my second successful KAP flight, so I decided to brave whatever the conditions threw. With Matt and Andrew managing the kite, I prepared the rig and we let it climb to about 50 feet before clicking away. There was one really scary moment when the kite decided to nose-dive. But Andrew made a stunning recovery just before the rig hit the ground - thanks mate. So we fired off a few shots, and this one is pretty pleasing. Everything was very difficult to control as the rig was being thown all over the place by the wind. In fact, at times it was almost impossible to get any pan as the wind resistance of the rig couldn't be overcome.

Having scared myself whitless, we brought the rig down and examined the results. Given the conditions, they were very pleasing, and can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pitprops/ This one is a favourite of mine, as it shows Bill's mini-gem from slightly above with the cafe building in the background. Hopefull conditions will calm down a bit and I'll get out again next week.

Hendon 19th January

And didn't it rain! Again we ended up trapped in a hangar with little opportunity to fly. We did manage to play with some indoor air toys, like air-yos and prism triads, but apart from that there wasn't a lot more to be said, so I won't bother. I guess I'm going to have to wait for the british summer to wake up before I can get some decent conditions for photography. Ah well, c'st la vie!

And to really cap (KAP) a wonderful time, got home to discover that my rig had taken a bit of a battering in the car, and teh KAPfeather is broken - Ho Hum!

Back to Hendon tomorrow

We're back to Hendon RAF Museum for the second weekend of the Festival of Flight. I've just checked on Metcheck and it looks like being quite a good day. It will be chilly, with only a very light wind, but blue bits in the sky and no rain.

Looks like it may be a day for the megadelta again. With a bit of luck I'll get enough lift to get a camera airborn this time and get some pix.

On another note, there's a chance I'll get to go to Leeds Castle in May. This is one of the most beautiful locations I've come across, but can be a pig of a place to fly. But if the weather is good, then I'm really looking forwards to it.

Even more disappointed of Hendon

Well I had great hopes, but unfortunately, life was definitely against me. All week leading up to the event the forecast was for overcast and dry. Then the night before, the very last forecast I saw said heavy rain. So how come the change? All I can say is the last one got it right.

So we ended up at Hendon, early on a Sunday morning, in the pouring rain, and had no option but to set up a static display indoors. The day went very well from the point of view of meeting a lot of people and talking kites with them. So there is a good chance that some may come along to festivals in the North London and Middlesex area this year. I pointed them all at kitecalender.co.uk, so if your event isn't listed, get it published.

OK so not a lot to say about KAP, except I seem to have a problem with the pan gearing on my rig. It turns in one direction, but in the other the servo turns but the gears don't. Something for me to look at this week.

We're there again next week, so with luck will be able to get outside. But they have said we can display kites suspended from the ceiling, so I'm hoping to get some form of support arranged, so that even if I can't fly, I can show how the rig works. Oh and by the way, the security guards at Hendon are a really nice bunch of guys.