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.

Disappointed of Tonbridge

Yesterday was a disappointing day in Tonbridge. The day was bright and sunny, and gave the impression of being an ideal day to carry out some KAP. Unfortunately, when I arrived I soon realised that any hopes of getting any photographs were unrealistic.

The wind, when it blew, was gusty and turbulent. I tried flying a couple of kite, that darted around the sky and were completely unstable. Every so often the wind would fall away to nothing and whatever was in the sky would plummet to earth.

So another day of disappointment. As I can't get out next Sunday, I might try Mote Park on Saturday, otherwise it will be the RAF museum at Hendon that forms my next opportunity to try some KAP.

Capstone - At last a successful flight

Yours truly, originally uploaded by Pitprops.

Well its been a long time coming, but at last we got into the air, and managed to get some photographs.

The picture is one of several I took today from about 100feet with the rig suspended from a Seigers Fliegers mega delta. It is of course, your photographer. The other pictures can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pitprops

The day didn't look to be that good for KAP. When I got to the park there was no wind, and we spent most of the morning and early afternoon struggling to keep ultra-light kites in the air. A couple of roks and a small ghenki were about all that would stay aloft.

Then the breeze picked up a fraction and it looked promising, so I decided to give it a go. I ran out the mega delta and let it lift into the sky. It looked promising as the kite stayed steady at about 100 feet. But when I attached the camera to the line and let it out, the camera flew horizontal and managed to reach teh spectacular height of about 10 feet before returning to earth. It looked as if this was going to be another unsuccessful afternoon as the camera rig lifted and dropped several times.

Then a breeze picked up and suddenly the rig was airborn. Ah. Idiot alert! I'd forgotten to turn the camera on. DOH!!!!!!! So had to walk the camera down and turn it on, then let it climb again. Finally we were high enough to snap away. And the results can be found on my flickr page.

A successful first flight with some pleasing results, but need to lear how to tell the orientation of the camera. Also, I discovered that I could only pan in one direction. On bringing the rig down, I discovered the gear on the pan spindle has come loose, so that needs to be tightened before the next outing. Next Sunday looks like a trip to Tonbridge recreation ground. Hopefully we'll have a bit of breeze and we can get some more photos and I can get used to handling the rig a bit more.

Saturday 21st January - modifications complete

OK, I've now made the modifications to the rig to raise the picavet cross about 8 inches above teh camera cradle. This should give sufficient clearance to prevent the feather either fouling the rig or getting into the shot. This is what the rig looked like pre modification

You can see the feather sticking out to the top right of the rig. It is shrouded in its sleeve, and has the suspensions lines draped over it for safe keeping. But you should be able to see that when opened the feather would possibly foul the rig legs and would certainly get in any shots not taken at a 45 degree angle or more.


This is the rig after modification. You can see that now the feather is well clear of the rig, so that when opened it will certainly no longer foul any part of the rig and should stay out of shot even if I am taking shots int eh horizontal plane.

Its been a really nice sunny day today, so I'm hoping the weather will hold for tomorrow so I can give the rig a proper flight test. Watch this space for more news.

Stud has arrived

But I won't get time to do anything now until the weekend. So Saturday afternoon will be when I modify the rig and test everything with the feather installed. I'll post some photos if I get the chance.

Batteries are all powered up, and I'm hoping to get up to Capstone Farm on Sunday for some flying with some friends. The rangers tell me they've coppiced a number of the trees on the perimeter, which should give cleaner winds at lower level. All we need now is some good weather!

Monday 16th January

I've bought this KAP feather from Jones Aerfoils, designed for use with the BBKK kit (see http://www.kapshop.com) The idea is to stabilise the platform more. The only problem is that the picavet suspension needs to be raised high above the rig so that the feather doesn't get into any shots. It comes with a long threaded stud, but being of American origin, the stud is imperial and we being European all work in metric. I spent a few hours trying to source some long 4mm machine screws.

Eventually a friend suggested that RS components stock 4mm stud, so I should give them a try. How right he was, but their minimum delivery is 5 lengths of 1metre each. Still its relatively cheap so I've put an order in. I'll let you know how I get on when it arrives

Sunday 15th January 2006

Spent Saturday afternoon testing the rig again looking forwards to a days flying on Sunday.

Sunday dawned dull, overcast and chilly but with a good breeze inland. A group of us had agreed to meet up at Camber, on the Sussex coast, to get in some flying. High tide was at about 11:30 am, so the afternoon was looking good. When I got down to Camber, the tide had just turned. There were a couple of the guys already there. Wind was a brisk 10-15 mph onshore, so conditions wre pretty ideal.

Took a stroll along the beach to inspect some of the washed up flotsam. Loads of rubbish indicate there had been sever storms in teh channel in the not too distant past. Got in some flying on a Psycho, before deciding to bite the bullet and set up for the maiden voyage. In these conditions, a small kite was called for, so I decided to try a small HQ rokkaku. This needed to be re-trimmed as I usually use it for fighting, so spent a while tweaking the bridle until it was giving more stable flight. There was plenty of lift, so once airborn and steady the rig was attached. Turned on the receiver, took the transmitter out of my box and disaster. Like a pillock, I had left the transmitter on from my testing the previous night. Result, no juice!

Oh well, to prove a point the rig got its maiden flight and was pertty stable given the conditions, but I didn't leave it up too long.

New Years Day 2006

Was cold, wet and miserable. A group of hardy idiots from Kent Kite Flyers met up in a local park (Mote Park in Maidstone) and stood around chatting. Bill had finally finished a set of ultralite rokkaku kites, which we palyed with in the zero wind conditions. Absolutely no chance of getting the rig off the groud though, so it stayed in the car.

First tentative steps

Having spent a long time considering whether or not I was going to do this Kite Aerial Photography (KAP) thing, I finally decided to bite the bullet. First thing I needed to do was some serious research. To the rescue comes the wonders of the internet and the wealth of experience of people who have passed this way before and are pleased to share there experiences with you.

Some decisions needed to be taken. What sort of rig to use, what sort of camera to use, was I going to control the rig and camera from the ground, etc.?

The current wisdom is that a picavet suspension system is the way to go. If yo don't know what this is, then pop over to http://www.kaper.us for some detailed information. What soon became apparent was that all of the equipment can be bought rather than built. So with that in mind, a Brooxes Better KAP Kit was sourced from http://www.kapshop.com. This duly arrived just before Christmas.

Having made the decision to go for a compact digital camera and radio control, it was over to eBay to see what could be found on the second hand market. Lo and behold, everything was obtainable, and soon I was the proud possessor of everything needed to get started. This is an important point though. All the kit has to be collected before assembly starts. The rig has to be modified to work with whatever camera and radio equipment you choose to use, so make sure everything is available before we start.

Christmas break was spent in the workshop getting everything put together, and finally a couple of days before New Years Day, the rig had been finally assembled, had been tested indoors and was ready for its maiden voyage. All we need now is some wind...