Bewl kite weekend

After much umming and erring, it was finally decided pretty late in the season that the kite weekend would go ahead. So armed with a car full of kites I headed off for Bewl on the Saturday. The weather forecast looked good, and we weren't to be disappointed. A good strong breeze blew all day, and with the occasional sun, we were able to keep kites in the air all through Saturday, and even managed to get in a little bit of night flying.

Sunday was to be a different story. Having had a quite busy Saturday, I wanted to try and get some KAP done on Sunday. When I got to the site at abot 11am, things didn't look good. But I decided to try the dopero and see what happened. Well it took over an hour of hard graft to get the kite airborne and stable enough to trust the camera to. I managed to get some half decent photographs, but it was a constant battle to keep the camera aloft. We were also surrounded by mist. Whilst we were flying on top of the hill, down in the valley and overlooking the reservoir, everything was just a little dim.



Just after I brought the camera rig down the wind dropped completely, and it wasn't long before the kite was lying on the ground. It looked as if that was going to be it for the day. But at about 3pm, or maybe a bit later, a breeze picked up, So I deceded to try a premier 80inch rokkaku. The kite picked up and flew very nicely, and it wasn't long before I was willing to entrust the camera to it. I wanted to get out over the boat park, and if possible try to get high enough to get some decent shots down towards teh dam. This time, everything was going just right. So feeding out line, the camera was climbing steadily, and every so often I'd stop and take some more pictures. This is possibly one of my favourites, looking down the reservoir into the sun, which gives it a nice moody feel.



I think there is about 1,000 feet of line on my reel. We had permission to fly up to 1,000 feet from the CAA, and so I decided to make reasonable use of the sky. I think I eventually had out about 900 feet of line, and the camera was about 200 feet below the kite. Given the angle of the line, I would guess that at its highest, the camera was somewhere between five and six hundred feet above ground, and was working perfectly. Its at times like this you discover things you never knew from the ground. Out behind the boat park, there nestles a house and nursery.



And this is my favourite of the reservoir and dam, from when the kite was probably at its highest.



Finally thanks to Ray who volunteered to wind in line while I walked down the kite from its highest point. He's the guy in the leathers in this photo.