Well I didn't do any KAP, cos it was too cold. My tiny hands were frozen, but I wasn't to be put off flying having not been out for some time.
I arrived at about mid-day, along with Barry (Arfman) and Len (Ochiltree), and we soon had some kites int he air. It was cold, and there was a good, but gentle breeze. So I decided to forgo the pleasure of setting up the KAP gear, and play with sports kites. Out came the Trident and I had a good hour refamiliarizing myself with trick kite flying. It didn't take too long to get back into the groove.
Time for lunch when Bill arrived, so off we went to the cafe to see what was on offer. A good old fashioned plate of english cholesterol was the order of the day! full and warmed up again, we headed back along the cliffs to Palm Bay where the others were playing. The wind had all but disappeared, but I gave the Trident another outing.
Eventually, I was having trouble keeping the kite aloft, so decide to christen my Christmas present - Trident Light. Yes I got this on Christmas day, and it has only been out of the bag to check that everything was well. So now it was going to feel the (lack of) breeze. I like the Trident a lot, and I really didn't think that Mark could repeat his success, but he has, and I think I like the Light even more. It didn't take long before I was performing my full (but still somehwat limited) repertoire on this kite, and it just gave everything up so easily. A joy to fly!
Oh well, time to head off home and speculate on what might have been with the dopero!
Monday, February 19, 2007
Monday, February 12, 2007
Damp underfoot at Canterbury
Well I went flying at Canterbury yesterday, but didn't manage to get any KAP done.
When I arrived at the site, there was a good strong breeze blowing, definitely not the conditions for trying out the new Dopero, so I resorted to my trusty rokakku. Having got the kite into the air, I decided to attach the camera rig and try to get some photos. I didn't realise quite how wet it was until I put my foot down and spalshed muddy water everywhere!
Anyway, I got the camera rig on the line and tested the shutter release - nothing. I'm now using a Canon S70 with infra red release and using a gentled. But nothing seemed to be happening. So while I fiddled with the camera, the kite came down, then went back up again, then went down, then up - you get the picture about the weather conditions!
So I decided to take the camera off and investigate the problem. For whatever reason, it had lost the setting for infra red release, and it took me about 20 minutes to find the correct setting. Its not in one of the menus, its in the functions screen. So feeling a bit fed up, I now had the camera working and sure enough, when I fired up the tx and pressed shutter release, I got a comforting click, whir and flash from the camera, yes it was getting pretty dark, and by the looks of things we were about to get a squall. So I decided to give up on photography and just go for the flying.
Well the squall hit, but wasn't as hard as the couple I had driven through on the way out, but enough to give the rok a good soaking, so it had to stay flying for a while to dry out. THen I tried out a Gomberg shadow delta that I bought last year but was still in its original bag. The kite flew nciely, but the leading edge sleeves were too tight for my liking and the glass fibre rods much too flexible, so it may all get changed for carbon at some point.
Enough of this, getting cold and dark so time to head home. At home, checked out the camera, and I think I've now got the IR setting saved. I hope so as having to set this every time I want to use the camera for KAP would be a major pain in the A***.
Likely to be off to Palm Bay in Margate next weekend, hoping for better KAP luck and some decent weather. See you all soon.
When I arrived at the site, there was a good strong breeze blowing, definitely not the conditions for trying out the new Dopero, so I resorted to my trusty rokakku. Having got the kite into the air, I decided to attach the camera rig and try to get some photos. I didn't realise quite how wet it was until I put my foot down and spalshed muddy water everywhere!
Anyway, I got the camera rig on the line and tested the shutter release - nothing. I'm now using a Canon S70 with infra red release and using a gentled. But nothing seemed to be happening. So while I fiddled with the camera, the kite came down, then went back up again, then went down, then up - you get the picture about the weather conditions!
So I decided to take the camera off and investigate the problem. For whatever reason, it had lost the setting for infra red release, and it took me about 20 minutes to find the correct setting. Its not in one of the menus, its in the functions screen. So feeling a bit fed up, I now had the camera working and sure enough, when I fired up the tx and pressed shutter release, I got a comforting click, whir and flash from the camera, yes it was getting pretty dark, and by the looks of things we were about to get a squall. So I decided to give up on photography and just go for the flying.
Well the squall hit, but wasn't as hard as the couple I had driven through on the way out, but enough to give the rok a good soaking, so it had to stay flying for a while to dry out. THen I tried out a Gomberg shadow delta that I bought last year but was still in its original bag. The kite flew nciely, but the leading edge sleeves were too tight for my liking and the glass fibre rods much too flexible, so it may all get changed for carbon at some point.
Enough of this, getting cold and dark so time to head home. At home, checked out the camera, and I think I've now got the IR setting saved. I hope so as having to set this every time I want to use the camera for KAP would be a major pain in the A***.
Likely to be off to Palm Bay in Margate next weekend, hoping for better KAP luck and some decent weather. See you all soon.
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