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...