Leeds Castle 21st May 2006

castle3, originally uploaded by Pitprops.

The weather was awful. It was dull and miserable, but I did manage to get airborn long enough to get a couple of photos, and this is probably the best of the bunch. Its a view of the castle across the moat. Unfortunately conditions meant it was difficult to get close to the castle. There are a few more photos on my flickr page, follow the link below. AND who left the scaffoling on the castle?

Saturday morning was just dull and miserable with the occasional shower. Saturday afternon we got slightly more persistent rain. Did manage to get a few kites in the air, but had to be carefulk we didn't spook the shire horses. On Sunday the wind had turned through 90 degrees, so conditions were a little better, though still very turbulent because of the trees. The morning was definitely the best of the day, but after about mid-day it was persistent rain, occasionally lightening to a light downpour. So the outcome of all this was a very wet gazebo and kites - we suffer for our hobby!

Oh how annoying

Bill and I spent the afternoon in Tonbridge again. This time, althought there was very little wind to start with, at about 4pm a good stiff breeze got up, sufficient to get a camera aloft methinks.

So armed with a 2m rokkaku, I set to work, and everything seemed to be fine. With the kite at about 300 feet (sh don't tell the CAA), I attached the camera turned everything on and away it went. Time to try out my new line handling kit (carabiner and towrope) which worked fine, so I set off for a stroll round the park with kite attached to me, clicking away merrily and answering questions as I went.

Finally as the wind was picking up and the wether deteriorating, broght everything down to earth and packed away. Before leaving, I decided to check the pictures. Funny no display. Oh well, I'll check when I get home. So having arrived home, I took out the CF card and put it into my card reader. Hmm, according to my computer there are 108 images, well I've got to have at least one good one. NO!!!!!!!! They are all just black.

So after a little experimentation, it seems that my digital elph has expired. It seems to be working fine, but recording black images to the card. As there is no display or anything, my guess is the electronics are fried, so its time to put this oe to bed and see if I can get another. Ebay here I come!

windless in Tonbridge

Despite my good intentions, it seems that the meteorological gods are determined to prevent me from getting any photographs. Last weekend we were in Margate, with no wind and occasional drizzle. This weekend we decided to try the park in Tobridge. the weather forecast didn't promise much but they got it completely wrong.

I got there about lunchtime to about 40% cloud cover and the lightest of breeze at ground level. I decided to try out the new flowform 30 and managed to get it into the air after a short while, but it was destined to come back to earth as th ewind dropped away completely.

The rest of the afternoon was spent tryng tofigure out which way the wind was blowing and what we could fly, settling on brazilian headsticks and a Benson innerspace, and they were hard work!

At about 5 pm there was enough breeze to launch the gflowform, but turbulence off the houses seemed to make it difficult to get too high. Eventually a very long launch came to the rescue and we were airborn, but all too soon it was time to hed away, just one of those days I guess.

Tomorrow is bank holiday and the weather gods are predicting rain all day. I have some chores to get finished so it is unlikely I will get out to play.

Back home in blighty

We're back in the UK after a week trip to Berck festival. The weather out there was pretty awful this year. Being sandblasted, frozen and soaked does not really make for a good festival. In fact, the best day was the Monday as we left!

Nothing truly inspirational this year. Lots of nice show kites, but nothing that made you sit up and say "want one". Some fabulous examples of KAP though. I'll be posting the photos on my Flickr page later, so keep an eye open.

Bonjour from Berck

Well we made it, and haven't been blown away yet.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was a bright sunny day with a stiff breeze, so a good day for flying, which we did all day. But today is cold and wet and windy, so the bars are the most attractive proposition for us. The competition teams have no choice but to fly, pour fools.

Had a look round the kite aerial photography display, and there are some magnificent images, together with a history of kap at Berck. It is well worth a visit. I will post so,e pictures of our visit on my flickr page when we get back to blighty.

Lack of activity

Work and weather conditions seem to be conspiring against me at the moment. So I haven't been out ot KAP for some time. Last weekend I went to Blackheath with some friends, but I'm really glad that I didn't take my rig with me. Regular heavy showers (read downpours) meant we quickly gave up on the day.

This weekend is going to be a KAP free zone. Saturday I am at the local library giving a kiting exhibition. Sunday I am "otherwise engaged".

But next week I am off to Berck for a few days to enjoy the festival. I'm not sure whether to take my rig with me or not, but hope to meet up with some expert KAPers while I'm there and learn from their experience. Whilst totally off topic, if I can get to an internet cafe, I will post regular updates on my experiences.

Allington on a glorious day

Well, I've been waiting for a long time, and for once a day off coincided with some sunny and breezy weather. So having done my chores, I set off to Allington Community Association to see what interesting subjects I could find. I only had an hour as I had some other bits to do. But above you can see one of the images I got looking out over the 20/20 industrial park, and can see the new incinerator chimney in th eleft background. More pictures are on my flickr photostream, follow the link at the bottom of the page.

So when I got to the field, I only had some small/medium kites in the car as it seemed quite breezy. But getting out of the car, it felt as if there was very little breeze. About the biggest kite I had with me was a 1.5M Rock from Premier. So I hooked this on the line and let it fly. It was a bit unstable so needed to be trimmed but up it went.

Then attached the camera rig and let it try to lift off the ground. Not a huge amount of lift but it slowly climbed, and I let out lots of line until I was flying out over the railway, with the camera over the trees. Then the wind dropped, and the camera was heading towards this small tree.



So some rapid work to bring the camera safely to the ground and keep the kite out of trouble. It wasn't long before we had some more lift and were able to get some half decent photographs. It was about now, whilst waiting for the camera to stabilise in the wind, that I discovered that I hadn't altered the settings to disable auto sleep, so it kept swithcing itself off! But still not a bad day.

The weather is against us

Amongst other things, the weather is conspiring to keep us out of the sky. Last thursday I went to try a bit of KAP in a local field. Two things were against me, first of all the battery in my camera had died (oops, note to self - check everything before setting out!) But also, the wind droped considerably and left the rig firmly attached to the ground.

Yesterday (Sunday) I was hoping to get some flight time in at Mote Park in Maidstone, but eh wind was so strong and gusty thet I decided that was a really bad idea.

However, we are progressing on another front. I'm now in the process of adding a video downlink to the rig. I've got most of the hardware, but needs ome components from Maplin to build a power supply. I'm hopefull of having everything built ready for testing by the weekend, so I'll be puttiong on an update then.

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...