Flight 13: Germantown Soccer Complex

Location: Germantown Soccer Complex
Winds: 10-15 mph
Lighting: Overcast
Kite: 80" Rokkaku
Results: 118 images. 3 posted to Flickr.

I had some time today and the winds looked good so I decided to get in a little practice with the KAP rig. I drove over to the soccer complex and set up in a parking lot near a small pond with ice on it. The Rig was set up with all servos connected and the aiming pattern centered on vertical. The winds were nice and steady between 10 and 15 mph. (I was able to measure it on my new anemometer!) So the kite launched with no problem. I got it up about 75 feet and attached the camera which also flew with no difficulty.

I walked the camera and rig around the pond so the kite was over the frozen lake. From that vantage point I got a couple interesting shots of fractures in the ice cover. Then I let the line out all the way and got some higher shots of the grounds of the soccer complex. These weren't very interesting. Because the line was out so far and the wind blowing pretty hard, I decided to walk down the kite.


When the camera was only about 10 feet high, I tried to lay down under it to get myself in some shots. This was pretty difficult since the camera moves a lot and i only had a few seconds between shots. I ended up with two shots with pieces of me: one had my head and shoulders, the other was missing the head. So I pieced them together in photoshop and I think the result looks pretty cool.

After bringing the kite down I flew it two more times without the camera. On these flights on was trying to change the bridle adjustment to find an optimal setting. On the first flight (prior to these two test flights) the bridle was attached about 1.5 inches above the marked point. I moved to about .75 inches above the mark for the first test flight and it seemed to fly a little better. For the last flight, I put the bridle back on the mark. In this configuration, it flew but not as high as in the previous flight. So I returned the bridle to that point about .75 inches above the mark and I don't think I'll need to mess with it again. Also, on all these flights I used less bow than I typically use. The bow was only about 6 inches. This seemed to work well, also. I'll try to duplicate this setup from now on.

Notes: There is an interesting barn in the soccer complex area. This might make an interesting target. Also, there's a model sailboat club that meets at this pond every Sunday (but not in the winter.) That, too, might be interesting.