A week that can best be described as "interesting"

Well last week was an interesting one for flying, but b awful for KAP. I was off work all week so hoping to find some time to get airborn. My only real opportunity was late Wednesday afternoon when I had a spare hour so decided to take the Trident for a spin at a local field. This turned out to be a complete waste of time. The wind was awful, swirly turbulent, bumpy, all of the things you really want. So after half an hour I packed u and went home in disgust.

Thursday evening I met up with Alexis from Crystal Palace. He'd posted a plea for help on Cris Benton's KAP discussion site. HIs kit and kite had arrived from KAPShop, but he had no idea where to start. So a couple of hours later we had the line on the reel, the tail on the kite and the KAP rig ready to go. He seemed very pleased as he left, and sure enough I got a text on Satruday to tell me he had been up to Blackheath and as the kite had been rock steady in the breeze, he'd put up the rig and got some photos. Apparently they are all self portraits as he is using an auto Gentled, but hasn't got any means of turning the rig. I've had soe thoughts about that so if you're reading this Alexis, we will meet again and get the rig to move.

Saturday afternoon I got a couple of phone calls from guys who had goe to Capstone, to test conditions for the festival on Sunday. Apparently the feild was deserted, but the wind was ideal, blowing across the field.

And so to Sunday and Kites over Capstone. When I arrived, the first order of the day was to get my new gazebo erected to provide some shelter. We'd just got the thing up when the first heavy shower (downpour) arrived. Interesting, whilst it kept most of the water out, it let through a fine mist, bit like being in the tropical houses at Kew. I spoke to a few other people with the same gazebos and all had the same experience! Anyway, bakc to kites, and guess what the wind had turned through 90 degrees, and was blowing in from across the tree line. Anyone who knows capstone will know this makes flying conditions in the main field almost impossible. The arena and childrens flying areas were OK, but the rest of the field was useless. So there were very few display kites flying throughout the day. Fortunately Paul Brookes had managed to get a huge delta up into the cleaner winds, and offered to let us use it for teddy dropping. So an afternoon of dropping ensued, during which we managed to melt one of the pulleys on the drop rig! However we did come up with a 3 point attachment system, that allows the kite to be managed indepeendently of the dropping gear and seemed to work very well, another Andrews special!

I think, all in all a pretty good time was had by all, all we've got to do now is get things dried out. It was good to have the scratch bunnies and flying squad entertaining the normal people. Thanks to Paul for the loan of his kite and ground anchors (available from Kiteworld for all you people with huge kites to hodl down). It was also nice to meet up with the Essex Kite Group again. We must organise a combined fly-in one day at a mutually convenient site. Next stop is Leeds Castle in early September, Dieppe in mid-September then Bewl at the end of September. Hope to meet some people there.

Teston Family Kite Weekend

Well, nothing at all to do with KAP this one, but nothing unexpected if you know anything at all about Teston.

Saturday was rain nearly all the way, and Sunday looked like following suit, but then at about 11 o'clock the rain stopped and apart froma couple of spots of rain a couple of times, it stayed away all afternoon, and by late afternoon we were bathed in sunshine as the front passed by to the north.

But as ever, the winds at Teston were tricky to say the least. If you could get above the tree line you stood a reasonable chance of staying up, but getting up above the tree line was all too much effort for most. So as usual, Teston is a place to gather and chat rather than fly.

I did get a couple of opportunities to try out the new Trident by Mark Clements though, and was very impressed with its capabilities. So were a number of other people who showed a lot of interest in it.

Hopefully we'll have better conditions at Capstone next week.

Melting in Margate

Bill, Matt and I decided to head down to St. Mildred's Bay just outside Margate yesterday. THe weather forecast showed it was going to be wall to wall sunshine and a westerly at about 10mph.

Having suffered the queues on the M2, I got to Margate at about 1pm, and Bill arrived a little later. It was on the journey down that I realised that having taken the camera rig out of the car to recharge, I'd forgotten to reload it all!

I'd got in about 20 minutes flying on the QP before Bill arrived, and I've got to say conditions were ideal. Steady wind blowing along the cliffs meant no turbulence at all. First things first though, off to lunch. Walking down into the bay, I spotted someone trick flying across on the other headland. He was doing rather well. Bill said it could be Steve, but I said that Steve new where we fly, so it wouldn't be. IT WAS! He'd got lost and found a nice spot so decided to fly there!

After lunch headed back to the site and got the QP out again for a while, then the wind picked up, so decided to give the Paradox a go. At about 4pm, when Julian arrived we decided to switch to single lines and put on a pretty good display. I think at one point we had about 10 kites in the air, and worked up a theme of animal kingdom laundry and kites: Octopus; Whale; Dogs; Elephant; Pig; Owl; Cow. Unfortunately none of us had a camera with us. I've got a couple of images on my phone which I will post to my flickr account if they are any good. Follow the link below.

HYthe Town Festival

Cars, originally uploaded by Pitprops.

Well it was hot and sunny for day one of the Hythe town festival. Day one typically starts with "Free on the Green" where all the activites are funded by sponsors. The only real blot on the landscape was the English fotball match at 4pm. What would happen to the crowds?

Well we arrived at about 11am, and I quickly got the focus rok in the air and hung some spikey balls and a pig from it. Then we set about getting the teddy dropping rig aloft and bunged a few experimental bears. All seemed to be going well. You can see fromt he phot, we were positioned just across the footpath and the wind was blowing favourably down the field, so we had a large area to play with. As the wind was almost perfect, Steve decided to spend some "quality time" with his Akuji.

After the burger lunch, I decided to take the laundry off the rok and fit a camera to it, and take it for a walk around the field. Well it was going to be a tough assignment as the wind was light to nothing, but we had to try. However one of the harder coming to grounds managed to dislodge the camera just enough so that the shutter release servo was no longer operating the shutter. Completely oblivious, I carried on clicking away until the transmitter battery failed. Bringing the rig safely to earth was tricky as I was flying in a gap between the Drake & Fletcher new Mazda stand, and all of the classic and kit cars. I didn't think anyone would be too impressed if I landed my camera rig on them, but we got down safely.

The afternoon was busy bunging bears for the children. Apparently a number had been looking forwards to the experience all week. We managed to place one bear in the hedge at the far end of the field. If you know Hythe, you'll get some idea of how far he travelled. We almost had one roman candle, but his chute deplyed in the nick of time. And once again the focus rok was doing sterling service, as by now we had swapped it for the original lifter kite as I had more height.

Good day, good fun, and an hour or so of sports kite flying to end the day, followed by fish and chips. Who could ask for more?

Some Panos from Tonbridge

Had a little time tonight to play with the images I took at Tonbridge and stitch a few together to create some panorama type shots. I've also gone through and enhanced all of the other images as all looked a little washed out - ah the wonders of digital photography, we no longer have to accept what the camera provides us with!

So to the panos. This first is of the family cricket match. I think the guy in the bottom left corner should be concentrating on the cricket rather than the camera. A surorise imact from acricket ball can seriously hurt!


Next up, the children's play area and crazy golf course. Stitched from two photos.


And finally, the KKF base camp. On the left you can see me with Heather and Will, and in the top right are Bill and Steve.

Tonbridge Festival 4th June 2006

Well a few of us popped over to Tonbridge for the day. It was probably the best day for flying of the year so far. The day was suny and warm, but the breeze was a little iffy.

I arrived at just after noon, and Steve had arrived just before me. When I got to the field, there was Andy from All Good Fun already set up and trading.
Steve and I decided to set up base in the middle of the field. Plenty of space as there were not a huge amount of people about. After a while, Bill arrived, soon followed by Andy and Will and then Heather, so the KKF base camp was formed.


After a short while we were joined by a family group who set up camp close by. Unfortunately we can't choose our neighbours, and they were a bit loud and the language left a little to be desired - more what we would expect on the football terraces.


The wind was a bit up and down all afternoon, which meant we had to keep a constant eye on the kites and junk as they had a habit of suddenly deciding to fall to earth. But eventually, the wind picked up and steadied enough for me to put a camera to a rok and go for a stroll. Got a couple of nice photos too. This one looks across the river towards the bridge and behind it the swimming pool complex.

and right across the other side of the park, I discovered this family playing cricket.

But before I could get the photo, the wind dropped and while I was rescuing the rig, the kite landed right by our base camp. So thanks to Andrew for helping me with a relaunch to get me back flying as soon as the wind picked up. I had time for a few photos over the children's play area before heading back to base to recover everything and find out whether we had any useable photos.


Slowly people started to drift away, until it was just me Bill and Heather left on the field. Unfortunately for those who left early, we got by far the best of the weather conditions, as the wind steadied and kept everything nicely aloft. But at about 7 o'clock it died completely and all kites came gently to earth. Time to pack away and reflect on a really good day. This was probably my most successful KAP outing, and certainly the most pleasant days flying of the year so far. As usual, the useable photos from the day are on my flickr photostream. Follow the link at the bottom of the page.

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.