Teston Mini Festival 2009

Tradition has it that Teston has almost no wind. June 2009 was to keep up this fine tradition. Actually that's unfair as Saturday was quite a good day for wind. Unfortunately my rig was at home.

Sunday was typical Teston, very little wind, lots of thermals and glorious sunshine. But for a little while in the afternoon, there was enough wind to launch the maxi Dopero and get a camera aloft. I needed to fly the kite as it had been lying on the ground for most of the day, and was therefore soaked. A launch and a couple of shakes made sure that Janet and Gerty got a shower before we headed up into the sky. Having confirmed there was sufficient lift to carry the rig, I brought the kite down and set up the rig. Ready to fly again, I put the camera on the line and off we went. But soon I had tangled with a Flying Empress squid. The dopero did a big loop in the sky. Looking closely I saw that the kites weren't tangled, but I had got under his line so walked the kite down a bit. Although the squid was being flown by quite a young lad, he was experienced and we soon separated lines and went our own way.

So time to get aloft. With 500ft clearance, it was easy to get plenty high enough to get some decent general shots of the area. This one shows the campers and overflow carparks, and lots of kites, most of them on the ground!



From this height, I also managed to get a good shot of the bridge, and guess what, It was perfectly framed - no cropping required!

Singleton Environmental

Hey, long time no speak and all my fault. Yes I've been a bit quiet with other things going on in my life. But on Sunday I met up with Friends from Kent Kite Flyers for some flying at a community country park called Singleton Environmental in Ashford. It was a warm sunny day and a stiff breeze, but th eprofile of the site meant that there was a very turbulent airstream.

Never mind. Time to do some KAP with my new rig. Because it was a stiff breeze, I decided to try a 56 inch rokkaku. The wind at ground level, and up to about 50 feet was very turbulent and getting a launch wasn't easy, but eventually I got into the air. The kite certainly needed trimming, but I decided to go with it anyway. So attached the camera and off we went. Well it was a struggle to keep the camera in the air as the kite was pulling hard but not really lifting and certainly not climbing. The kite was flying at totally the wrong angle and so wasn't getting out of the turbulent air at all. I did manage to get a couple of photographs though.



Enough of this! too much like hard work. So I brought the camera and kite down and decided to re-trim. The kite doesn't have an easily adjustable bridle, but a little tweak and we had a much better flying angle. This meant I could get higher out of the turbulent airflow and hopefully into the clear airstream. So with the camera re-attached, off we went again. This second flight was much better. But we were still in very turbulent air. I tried walking towards the interesting sculputure at the bottom of the park, but as this was down in the valley, as I walked towards it, the kite started swinging dramatically, and the camera was penduluming alarmingly. Some drastic action slowed the swing and I got a couple of shots, then headed back towards the high ground.



Whilst from the KAP purist point of view it wasn't the most successful outing, it is a lovely site with a good cafe and facilities. Lets hope we go back soon,