KAP Journal of David Wheeler

KAP at home (No CF Card)

2006-05-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

Place: Home
Winds: Very strong. (8 mph on ground, 15-20 at altitude?)
Kite: FF16
Camera and Rig: Digital Rebel, Rig 2.1 fixed in vertical orientation.

By late afternoon saturday I had finished working on the new deck gate. I decided to de-stress by flying the FF16 before dinner. The winds aloft looked very strong but our house is sheltered by a lot of trees so on the ground the wind was intermittent. I did manage to get the FF16 up with some work and soon it was flying confidently at the end of a 500' line.

Since it was working so well, I decided to attach the camera rig. That wasn't so easy because a) I was already at the end of the line, b) The wind was getting a little fitful and didn't want to lift the heavy rig and c) I tied off at the bottom of a hill and walked out the line to attach the camera. The third point was an unforseen difficulty. Because I was walking uphill to the attachment point, the camera didn't have much altitude above the ground once it was attached. Even though it was 30-40 feet above the attachment point, it was only 5 or 6 above the ground. This meant in the lulls, it dropped back down onto the grass a couple times. Ouch. (No damage done, however.) Eventually I managed to attach it and walk the kite and rig back out of the hole to my own house.

Once back home, with camera flying, I positioned it over Christina as she was working on the grill. I also tilted it at one point to get an oblique shot of the neighborhood. Eventually I wrapped it up and hauled the camera back down.

By that time the wind was very strong. The FF16 was pulling like a horse. I had a hard time detaching the rig from the line. And at one point with the picavet attached at one end, I slipped and dropped the rig a couple feet onto the driveway. Ouch again. (Again, no damage, fortunately.) Then with a lot of work I hauled the kite in a bit at a time.

Once everything was put away, I tried to view the images in the camera to see if any of the shots were decent. To my surprise it just said "No CF Card." I had spent all that time and effort and risked the camera for nothing -- not one image.

Note to self: make a checklist and follow it!

The performance of the heavy rig on the FF16 is giving me some concerns. The wind was quite strong and it held the rig well but it was obvious that heavy rig and low flying angle are not a good combination. Changes in wind speed meant fairly large altitude changes for the camera and rig as the line tension fluctuated. With a more vertical flying angle, this isn't such a problem. Makes me think I need a much lighter rig to use on the flowform.

Dopero over Kings View Ridge

2006-05-01T19:02:00.000-07:00

Location: Home
Kite: Dopero 104
Winds: 1-2 mph (est.)
Camera/Rig: none.

When I got home from work Gina didn't have any immediate plans so I decided to try flying the Dopero from the house. The wind was very light and sporadic so I wasn't sure I would be able to get airborne. After setting up the kite, I boosted it up and let it drift down wind a bit. Then I had to walk up the street a bit to keep it flying. I kept this up with the kite never seeming to have quite enough lift to fly on its own. Eventually I ended up standing at the end of the sidewalk (no further to walk) and the kite was up about 200-300 feet. At last the clear winds up high made themselves felt and the kite was flying. Barely.

It had enough self-sustaining lift that I was able to walk back to my own house. Once there, it kept flying for about 10 minutes but never with enough lift to hold the camera. Then it started slipping down so I had to pull all the line in. I think during the entire descent there was virtually no wind -- I was keeping the kite in control by continuing to pull down the line. But the Dopero flies great in those conditions, it glides down very gracefully.

As I was pulling it down, a fellow named Jim came walking by with his daughter. They had seen the kite from far across the neighborhood and she wanted to see it up close. They stayed until the kite was all the way down to the ground.

While I was setting up, I timed myself. It took 10 minutes to assemble the Dopero and prep the camera rig. But I think it took more like 30 minutes to put the kite away and wind up all the line.

KAP Gods Reward Persistence

2006-04-26T13:07:00.000-07:00

I tried taking the Dopero out today on my lunch hour. The wind was very light, though, and non-existent at times. I couldn't get the Dopero 104 to hang up there. Oh well, there are worse things than spending an hour in the sun playing with a kite.

Location: Germantown Soccer Complex
Kite: Dopero 104
Winds: 4 mph (est.)
Light: Evening sun and partly cloudy.
Camera/Rig: Digital Rebel on new rig. (Fixed vertical orientation.)
Images: 69

After work I had some time on my hands and the wind looked marginally better so I headed back to the soccer complex. At first I thought it was going to be a repeat of lunch -- no wind. But the wind was just a couple mph stronger and consistent. So the Dopero flew well and soon I was ready to attach the new camera rig.

That's when a problem appeared: the camera wouldn't power up. So I switched to the backup battery -- it was also low. But there was nothing for it but to fly the camera with low battery.

I got it out over the mini-golf course first. Then over the splash park and back over the golf-course a second time. After that it was over to the tiny little pond surrounded by cattails.

At that point, I brought the camera down low for some close-ups and the kite starting losing lift. I had to take off the camera rig and let the kite out another 100ft or so to get a better grip on the sky.

Then I walked the rig over to the King Barn. I was all over that thing and got some closeup verticals right from the top of the silo.

Finally, I walked over to the playset where a family of four had just arrived. I parked the camera over the playset for quite a while then brought it down. When it got down to the ground the camera wasn't shooting anymore. The battery had died.

Once I got home, I pulled up the photos on the computer and found the battery had died just a couple shots after the second launch. So there's no barn shots and no playground set. But the mini-golf course, pond and splashpark shots all turned out. I'll have to go back for the barn and playset shots another day.

Met Cris Benton and Tom Nied at Philadelphia University of the Arts

2006-04-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

TODO: Describe trip to UARTS. 4-22

Test Flights: Dopero and FF16

2006-04-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

TODO: Describe test flights of Dopero and FF16 4-16.
Field next to splash park.
Adjusted bridle way down on Dopero. Flies better but winds are too high right now. (8-10 mph)
Took out FF16 and flew it with 250# and 100# lines. 100# marginally better. It's flying in 8mph wind but not enough pull for KAP rig.

KAP at Little Park

2006-04-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

TODO: Describe KAP attempt at the little park.
(First flight after left-right bridle adjustment)
Flying well now but winds too light and failing.
Flew SLR rig briefly but couldn't get any altitude.

TODO: Determine actual date from photos. (Actual date between 4-10 and 4-15.

Adventure Park

2006-04-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

TODO: describe KAP attempt at adventure park. 4-9
Dopero is squirrely again -- overflying and turning slowly in circles at apex.
Made left-right centering adjustment on top and bottom bridles.

Dopero crash

2006-04-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

TODO: describe third attempt to KAP townhouse fire. Dopero flew squirrely and ended up crashing.

New Flowform 16

2006-04-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

TODO: Describe receiving flowform 16 and first KAP with SLR.

KAP at Jefferson Memorial

2006-03-30T09:00:00.000-08:00

TODO: Describe KAP trip to DC. 3-30

Townhouse fire, Broken Rokkaku

2006-03-26T12:00:00.000-08:00

TODO: describe 2nd attempt to shoot townhouse fire location.
On this flight, the Rokkaku's spar pocket wore through.

First Dopero Flight

2006-03-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

TODO: Describe first Dopero flight 3-24.
Soccer Complex, evening
light wind
used stakes to hold kite on ground
slow walk needed to lift kite
at 60 ft smooth winds lifted the kite
Let out entire spool (~450 ft)
flew at 70-80 degree angle.
lift was very light -- not suff for KAP rig.
Anemometer reading: 1.4 mph.

Germantown Townhouse Fire

2006-03-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

TODO: Describe KAP attempt at site of townhouse fire.
launched well
overflying
insufficient lift
failing light

New Dopero

2006-03-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

[Note: entry made on 4-25-2006 and back-dated]

For my birthday, my wife and some other family members pitched in to buy me a new Dopero kite. I ordered it from Jones Airfoils and it was ready to be shipped just about the time we made our trip to Lisa and David's. So I asked Mike Jones to have it shipped there and it was waiting for me when we arrived.

Saturday morning, I decided to try assembling the new kite in their basement. I was a bit puzzled by the longerons because they were made in two segments and I couldn't see how they mated with each other. It turns out the ferrules that allow one to be inserted in the other had slipped inside the longerons. So when I was nearly finished setting up the kite on the floor, I was pushing one of the longerons into place and it slipped at that joint and ripped the fabric. Oh no!

Anyway, I sent Mike and email describing the problem with the longerons and the rip I had made. I asked if he would be able to fix it if I sent it back to him. To my surprise, he emailed back and offered to come by the house to fix both problems that evening! I didn't realize we were in his neighborhood so to speak.

So Mike came out that evening, fixed the longerons, fixed the rip, showed me how to set up the kite and gave me a bunch of good advice on flying it. What great service! And that makes Mike Jones the first KAP personality I've actually met in person.

KAP in Raleigh, NC

2006-03-10T20:00:00.000-08:00

[Note: entry made 4-25-2006 and back-dated.]

Location: Lisa's house, Raleigh, NC.
Kite: 80" Rokkaku
Winds: moderate
Lighting: Late day sunlight (nice!)
Images: 219 images, good exposure!

The family and I travelled down to Raleigh for a long weekend to enjoy a bit of early spring. Soon after we arrived on Friday, I broke out the kite and launched it behind Lisa and David's house. (I had some trouble getting the kite to fly at first and switched to my lightest line: 110lb nylon. Not my favorite.) Soon the kite was flying great as I stood in their driveway. I attached the camera, then, and let it up over the homes across the street from them. I let it up high because I wanted shots showing the overall neighborhood. Mainly I wanted shots that included Lisa and David's house, of course.

The kite flew well with the camera attached but it had a few ups and downs. Too bad because that means many of the shots won't stitch together afterwards.

After letting the camera shoot the whole motion sequence, I brought the kite down by walking it down. I had to walk and pull back to the starting point three times to get the camera down. And as I was detaching the camera, the kite floundered in the waning winds. I had to run out in the street pulling the line down to get tension back on the line. But that got me "behind" the kite. I tried to get it to stabilize but it crashed into a neighbors roof from an altitidue of about 30 feet. How embarrasing.

Anyway, the camera captured a lot of interesting images including a few of their house. So far I haven't been able to make any interesting panorama's including their home, though.

Rokkaku solution

2006-02-25T12:00:00.000-08:00

[Note: this entry was made 4-25-2006 and back-dated.]

Location: Germantown Soccer Complex
Kite: 80" Rokkaku
Lighting: Sunny
Winds: 6 mph (measured)
Images: 189 images, mostly boring.

A few weeks ago I had trouble getting the kite to fly at Rio and at Home. I got some good advice on tuning the Rok's bridle from Cris Benton's Forum. So the plan for today was to experiment with bridle settings and see if the Rok wouldn't behave better.

The winds were fairly light but constant at about 6 mph. (Measured with an anemometer.) Once I got the kite assembled, I played around with the bridle holding the top and bottom parts separately. Once I found the point where the kite flew at the highest angle, I set the line attachment point there. I had to move it up quite a bit from its previous position. So the advice from the forum was right -- the earlier problems were caused because the bridle was set too low.

Of course, with the bridle now correctly set up, the kite flew eagerly even though the winds were relatively light. Previously I thought I needed at least 10mph winds to fly this kite but when adjusted correctly it flies great at 6. It was flying so well, in fact, I decided to put the camera on the line. I let it out above the pond by the soccer complex and shot the full motion sequence. I got 189 images in all. Most are boring, of course. From the camera's vantage point, the view was dominated by the parking lot and the black waters of the pond. And the shots that included the surrounding area are dull because the grass was brown. Once shot did include the King Barn and its playground. That was probably the best of the bunch.

One final note from this flight: adjacent shots have no overlap. I'll need to adjust the motion control program if I ever want to create panoramas from this rig.

A digitally controlled KAP rig, chapter 1

2006-02-21T20:02:00.000-08:00

I like those really small, simple KAP rigs. Really I do. The problem is they just won't do what I need.

When I started in KAP, I had a goal in mind. I wanted a panoramic aerial shot of Old Lyme Shores. This is a private beach in Connecticut my family has been visiting since my father was a child. A few years ago, I made a panoramic photo of the beachfront from the ground that was popular with the OLS community. Now I want to do the same thing from a KAP perspective.

So last summer, I built my first KAP rig to attempt a shot of the beach but the winds didn't cooperate. (And I didn't have enough kite.) Before I got a chance to fly my rig, it was time to go back home. I didn't want to quit there, of course. I got a bigger kite and successfully flew my rig many times. I figured it was all good practice for my next chance to shoot Old Lyme Shores.

But practicing with my rig was revealing some problems. The controller on my rig was pre-programmed to shoot overlapping images of a wide area. I planned to stitch these together with Photoshop or other software to produce the final image. But the constant swinging of the suspended rig was wreaking havoc with the camera's aim. The photos didn't overlap perfectly. There were always gaps in the final merged images.

So I gave up on panoramas for a while. Instead I adjusted my technique to try to get better single-frame shots. By changing from telephoto to wide-angle settings I was able to improve my yield a bit. Also I found I got more good shots in a vertical orientation so I adjusted the camera cradle to shoot more downward aiming angles. Finally, I learned to set the exposure controls properly before each KAP flight.

But I still hadn't solved the problem of getting my panoramic shot.

Other KAPers were creating panoramic shots with their R/C controlled rigs. So I decided to try to incorporate an R/C receiver into my rig. But I still didn't want to jettison the automated controller. I wanted the R/C receiver to be an input to the microprocessor which would then control the servos. With that setup I could do both manual shots and sequenced shots.

The main problem with combining the two would be getting the 360 pan servo working. I had resisted modifying a servo for continuous rotation because that defeats the feedback mechanism of the servo. In effect it creates an open-loop control system. This means it may suffer from drift on the pan axis. For a manually controlled system this is just inconvenient but for an automated one, it would be a huge flaw. But a solution to this was sitting under my nose -- we had a surplus digital compass module in our lab at work. If I used the compass as a heading reference, I could close the feedback loop and eliminate the drift. And when operated in automatic mode, the controller would shoot in the intended direction regardless of shifting wind direction or a swaying rig. Hey, that means not only
can I use a servo with continuous rotation, I can eliminate the gaps in my sequenced shots. Eureka!

After a few days consideration, I realized, though, that I wouldn't be able to fit the compass and R/C receivers on my old rig. Nor would I be able to modify it for 360 degree operation on the pan servo. The old rig's design was too rigid. Not only that, it was starting to show signs of weakness (literally). It was time for a new rig -- one that incorporated all the lessons I learned from the first rig and from studying other's designs.

So the new rig would have to be different in many key respects. These are some of its requirements:
* Use continuous-rotation servo for pan axis.
* Incorporate digital compass and implement closed-loop control for pan axis.
* Able to accomodate a digital SLR camera.
* Wider range of motion: 360 degree pan, 45 to -135 degree tilt, -135 to +135 degree left-right motion.
* R/C manual operation in addition to full-auto and semi-auto shooting modes.

So those were my requirements to start from. With this rig I believe I can get the beach panorama I've been gunning for as well as many other interesting KAP shots.

Stay tuned for more since design and construction have now begun. There are many more interesting aspects of this rig I would like to share.

Rokkaku problems

2006-02-05T12:00:00.000-08:00

[Note: this entry was written 4-25-2006 and back-dated to the day of the event.]

Location: Rio Center and Home
Winds: 10-15 mph (est.)
Kite: 80" Rokkaku
Results: 16 images, none good.

The wind was up today and I headed over to the Rio center to try getting some KAP photos. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the Rokkaku to take to the air. The buildings seemed to be blocking the wind for me and also the bridle lines were entangled part of the time. After about an hour I gave up and went home.

Once at home, I decided to get the kite out again. The winds were quite strong. 10-15 mph I would estimate. I managed to get the kite in the air but it didn't want to fly up. It was just holding at an angle just 30 degrees above horizontal. I tried hanging the camera on it just to get some neighborhood shots but the line wouldn't hold up the rig since it was almost horizontal.

Also, in my rush to attach the camera, I forgot to check it's settings. All the shots were made with the wrong white-balance and have a distinct blue hue.

Flight 13: Germantown Soccer Complex

2005-12-26T15:19:00.000-08:00

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.

Flight 12: Adventure Park in Germantown

2005-12-21T05:54:00.000-08:00

Monday, December 19, 2005
Kite: 80" Rokkaku
Sunny, Winds steady 10-15 MPH
Results: Picture of world map and a couple other interesting shots

I decided to do some KAP over lunch today. The sun was shining and the wind blowing steady and I needed a break from work. I decided to try "adventure park" nearby so I could get a shot of the world map painted on the asphalt. (Flickr's KAP group has a theme of "Paint" this month.)

Setup was pretty easy with the constant wind. I got the Rok up with little fuss. (A pleasant change of pace.) It didn't seem to fly at as high of an angle as I would have liked, though. I think I need to move the bridle point down some more. There was a little lull in the wind as I was setting up the camera. Once it was attached it seemed like it might not fly, but fortunately it did. (I think the low angle was hurting me there.)

I set the exposure using a grey card for 1/1000 and f/5.6. Also, since I wanted a vertical shot of the world map, I disconnnected all the motion servos and angled the camera straight down. This was the first time I tried shooting all verticals.

Once the camera was flying I placed it over the target as best I could. It was still too low, though, so most of the shots were misses and wouldn't have captured the whole target. After getting a bunch of lower shots, I let the line out and got a couple higher ones of the same target. This was even more difficult since I had to walk back quite a long way from the target area. (Again, that low flying angle is a problem.) It was a good thing I did this, though, because the only usable shot of the map was the last one taken from the higher altitude.

Having accomplished my primary mission, I walked the camera over above the pirate ship and got a few shots of it from above. Those came out pretty neat but none contains the whole ship. I think I can merge a few together to see the whole thing but I haven't tried it yet. Then I let the line way out, letting the camera rise and move back to cover more of the playground. Finally, I walked the kite down, letting the camera come across the front of the playset.

Later, when I loaded the pictures on the computer, I found a couple surprises in the pictures I got. In one, you can see that a set of flagstones set in the ground are actually in the shape of a labyrinth. I don't think I ever noticed that from the ground. Also I captured one shot showing the curving paths puzzle near the front of the park. Graphically it looks pretty interesting from the air. Another interesting shot has the arrows puzzle down in one corner. The puzzle looks pretty good from the air but that shot isn't very aesthetic. I think I would like to get a better picture of that one day. In fact, I think I could get a lot more good shots from this park so I'll definitely have to bring the kite when we go back. The kids love playing here in the spring and summer and they're getting older so they don't need as much supervision. This could be a frequent KAP location.

Comments are back

2005-12-08T16:32:00.000-08:00

When I created this blog I really wanted to get feedback from others in the KAP community. But the blog started accumulating spam comments almost immediately. Therefore I disabled the comments.

Now blogger has a feature to help reduce spam -- a word verification challenge. So comments are back on. We'll see how it works out.

Flight 11: Bridle Tuning on Rokkaku

2005-12-04T12:00:00.000-08:00

Sunday, December 4, 2005.

This wasn't really a kite flight, it was more of a tuning session.

I've been reading about how to set the bridle of a Rokkaku. When I first bought my Rok, it took some trial and error to get it to fly the first time. (See flight 1.) I didn't know how to adjust the attachment point of the bridle so I ended up shortening the top leg of the bridle by tying a loop in it. Now that I know the correct way to adjust it (by moving the tow loop up and down), I thought I would re-do it properly. Also, I know a bit more now about how my Rok handles and what the tow point adjustments are supposed to do.

Initially I just untied the extra loop I had put in the bridle. In this configuration the kite wouldn't lift. My winds were variable from 0 to 10mph, perhaps. So I moved the attachment point up. Then it would fly but seemed a bit squirrely. Since I've read that having the bridle set too high makes it unstable, I moved it back down a bit. Better? Hard to say. The variable winds and a lot of turbulence around the houses here where I was flying adds a lot of uncertainty. But basically I found there seems to be a fairly small window between too low (won't lift) and too high (flies unstable).

During all this experimentation I didn't let the kite up more than about 50 feet because the winds were too unreliable and there are too many houses around the area I was flying. But I think I've got the bridle set in such a way that it should fly. When I get some steady winds and/or a safer place to fly, I'll take it out again and try to get up into some smoother air.

Flight 10: Lock Haven on Thanksgiving

2005-11-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

Location: Lock Haven, PA
Kite: 80" Rokkaku
Winds 15-30+ MPH
Temp: 28F (-2 C)
Lighting: Completely overcast.
Exposure: 1/640 f/2.6
Results: 52 Images. Good exposure. Focus not sharp. One good shot of courthouse.

The weather forecast from noon to 4 was for 20 mph winds, partly sunny, and some occasional snow squalls. It was 28 degrees F. Not ideal conditions, to be sure, but I don't get many chances to fly the kite so I decided to go for it. Gina's dad also wanted to go along.

We went to the bank of the dike upriver from the bridge. I thought this would be a good place because we could include the courthouse (and interesting looking building in Lock Haven) in the shot. Also, the kite would be flying over the river where it couldn't hurt anyone if it crashed.

We set up the kite and got it in the air without much problem in 20 mph winds. But shortly after we were flying the wind picked up to about 30 or more mph. The kite line was virtually horizontal and the kite was bowed more than I've ever seen it as it resisted the wind. Then we looked behind us and saw a snow squall coming down the river. Within minutes we were flying our kite in the snow with driving winds. We kept it up for 5 or 10 minutes waiting for conditions to improve but there wasn't any sign of easing. I decided to take the kite down -- had to walk it down all the way. Fortunately there was plenty of room to walk it down on top of the dike.

As soon as we had the kite down and stowed, the snow stopped and the wind eased. The clouds broke up a bit and we even saw a little blue sky. So we just had to shrug our shoulders and launch the kite again. Again it launched easily. In fact in the ligher wind (perhaps 10-15 mph) the kite's flight angle was much higher. We quickly set up the camera, attached it, and let it out about 200 feet.

Conditions didn't remain ideal. We didn't get any more snow during the camera flight but the wind strengthened some more. At times it seemed the kite line was horizontal and the camera's perspective was almost as if it were from ground level! (Since we were standing on the top of the dike about 30-40 feet higher than the river level, the kite was well above the water even at its lowest.) There were moments of lighter winds, though, when the kite rose up to a nice altitude. We kept the camera on station for about 35 minutes -- long enough to complete two sequences of the autokap program. Then we walked the kite down again, retrieving the camera along the way. The camera had shut down when we got to it. Apparently it had run out juice only 8 minutes into the flight. (Normally the batteries last longer but the cold temperatures shortened the camera's battery life significantly.)

While we had the kite flying over the river, the occasional cars crossing the bridge seemed to be going very slow. I think they were trying to figure out what the hell that thing in the sky was.

After packing up, Lyle and I headed to Dunkin Donuts to warm up. We met a fellow who had seen our kite flying and thought that someone had lost a tarp or something.

The photos we got weren't terribly interesting. The focus was soft and the overcast lighting left all the colors muted. We did capture our target, the courthouse, in several shots but we weren't nearly as close to it as I thought we would be. The constant motion of the kite made stitching panoramas out of the question.

Still, I'm glad I got some more experience flying the rig. KAP days just don't come along as often as they should.

Lessons Learned.

* In subfreezing temperatures, the camera battery lasted only about 8 minutes. Far less than the 30+ minutes it lasts in warm temperatures.
* The controller and servo batteries worked fine throughout the whole 35 minute flight.
* In driving winds, the flight angle of the Rokkaku becomes extremely low.

Questions:
* What kind of bridle adjustment would give a higher flight angle in these winds? How effective would this be?
* Is the soft focus a result of improper focus adjustment, camera motion, or use of f/2.6 aperture? (I'm guessing its the aperture and will try some experiments with focusing at this f-ratio.)

Notes:
* The controller program for this flight was a wide-angle spiral out pattern with an initial 2 minute delay. The program would repeat 3 spiral patterns, one with neutral heading, one with heading of -45 and one with +45. The camera battery died before completing the first spiral.

Flight 9: Home

2005-10-30T12:47:00.000-08:00

Location: My house
Kite: 80" Rokkaku
Wind was light and weakened during flight
No cloud cover
Results: 224 images. 3 keepers.
No motion blur this time and exposure is correct.

Yesterday would have been the perfect day for KAP: steady strong winds and sunlight. But I was busy going to Cox Farms with the family....

Today seemed good enough: nice light and some winds. Not strong winds but I thought it might be good enough. I managed to launch the kite right in front of our house and it was flying nicely. I had about 6" of bow -- less than usual hoping to get better lift. The kite was quite stable once it was up.

While setting up the camera, I used the grey card to calibrate the exposure and set it manually. Also I set the camera for wide-angle instead of telephoto. Both of these turned out to be good moves. I ended up with three or four usable shots. If the telephoto had been used or the exposure had been incorrect I doubt I would have had any.

I attached the camera with no problem and then let it up to a height of 50 feet or so. The wind was doing some strange things at first and the kite ended up straight above me, turned about 180 degrees and then started flying upside down! (heading downward!) I managed to get it back to an upright attitude, though, by giving it some slack. All these acrobatics caused some problems with the Picavet so I reeled it in and fixed that. By this time the camera had just started shooting after its initial 10min delay. Having corrected the Picavet's problems I let it up again.

From this point on the rest of the flight was literally up and down. The wind would pick up and lift the camera then tail off and the camera would sink. I had a couple soft landings of the camera in the grass. Toward the end of the flight it was getting harder and harder to maintain the camera's altitude so I decided to remove it from the line. Unfortunately I was a bit late on this decision and the kite itself floundered and fell out of the sky. I was trying to haul in the line as fast as I could to bring the kite up but it was no good. It went down on the street side of one of the neighbors houses with the line draped over the house. I had to run up toward the street to find the kite. Luckily it had landed in the grass between the road and the house -- nothing damaged on kite or home.

Once I loaded the images on the camera I found a lot of junk shots and a few keepers. Actually I was surprised to find I had three worthwhile shots: one of our house and two of neighbors houses.

Although the wind didn't cooperate, a lot of things went right on this flight:
* The new Picavet worked well
* I set the exposure manually and got good results
* I got some experience in winds where the kite flies but the camera doesn't.
* nothing got broken. :-)

I think I should make some changes to my KAP rig based on recent experiences:
* Buy PeKaBe blocks and build a new Picavet cross
* Change delay on the controller from 10 to 2 or 3 minutes.
* Change motion program: spiral pattern isn't so great.
* Buy a GentLED to control the shutter.
* Add a power switch and try to eliminate some batteries.

Flight 8: Black Hill Regional Park

2005-10-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

Location: Boat launch area of Black Hill Regional Park
Kite: 80" Rokkaku
Wind was fairly steady around 10mph, No cloud cover
Results: 136 Images. Some interesting algae patterns in the water. Many shots have motion blur and are overexposed.

I'm trying to redeem myself today after my KAP fiasco on Sunday. I chose a good location this time, the shallow finger of Little Seneca Lake adjacent to the boat launch area. The wind was coming a long distance across the lake so it was nice and steady. I was able to launch the kite in the adjacent parking lot then walk out to the point I wanted to flly from. Finally, the kite flew over the lake where nobody would park or walk underneath.

Actually, before I launched from the parking lot, I tried doing it from the lake shore and ended up getting all the lines hopelessly tangled. (Some stray fishing line even got in on the tangling action!) I had to retreat to the parking lot, untangle, then launch it. Once it was flying it was good and stable. (I set the bows more carefully this time but didn't need to adjust the bridle attachment point.) I walked it over to the the place I wanted to photograph. A couple times it seemed the wind faded and the kite slipped down but I was able to keep it flying.

I ran through my camera checklist before attaching the camera but somehow skipped a step: setting the manual exposure. This was really the only mistake I made on this flight and it wasn't enough to ruin all the pictures. About 30-40% of them are still reasonably sharp. There are blown out highlights on a larger percentage, though.

I decided to use a middle zoom setting instead of full zoom. In retrospect I think it would have been better if it were set for wide angle. I haven't flown the camera with a wide angle setting yet. I know KAP pictures usually look best in a wide-angle format but I was trying to achieve that by stitching images together. I thought the zoom setting would serve to increase the resolution of the final image. But in practice it seems the tight zoom is making the stitching too difficult because too many component images are needed to cover the subject. Also the individual frames aren't as interesting as wider angle shots would be. So for the next few flights I think I'll try going with wide angle.

After setting up the camera I attached it to the line and let it fly. I was careful this time to make the attachment points quite far apart and I think it helped a lot. The picavet lines on one side were pretty badly twisted. I didn't notice this until it was already attached so I let it go rather than take the time to fix it. It didn't seem to cause much of a problem. But when I retrieved the rig, two of the Picavet lines had jumped their pulleys. I think its time to get some Pekabe blocks.

The kite flew much more stably than on Sunday. I think the bows were tuned a little better. But mainly the wind was steadier and not as intense. Even though it was stable, though, the kite's altitude varied quite a bit during the flight so the images have too much parallax to allow autostitch to combine them all.

I brought the rig back in after just 23 minutes. (10 minutes initial delay plus 13 minutes of imaging time.) This was enough time to complete one scan of the area.

The camera was retrieved without incident. I think the wind had picked up from when I launched the kite -- the kite was much more reliable during retrieval than it was during launch. Once the camera rig was detached I walked the kite back to the parking lot and landed it.

The resulting images are fairly interesting. There aren't any large swaths that can be stitched together but some smaller patches are stitchable. Of the individual images a few are kind of interesting. I posted 4 to Flickr and put two of them in the KAP group.

After I retrieved the camera I used it to take some shots of the lake from ground level. These I stitched together and posted on Flickr as well:

Flight 7: Black Hills Park

2005-10-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Location: Boat rental area of Black Hill Regional Park
Kite: 80" Rokkaku
Strong winds with some gusting (BF 5-6)
Partially cloudy conditions
Results: 222 images (none very good.)

This flight was an ordeal from beginning to end. I didn't get any good shots out of it so I'll have to write it off as a learning experience.

My first mistake was my choice of locations. I intended to shoot the eastern finger of Little Seneca Lake so I parked at some friends house who live near there. I expected to hike maybe 500-600 yards around the path to get into position. But that spot was too sheltered from the wind and the trees obstructed the area I wanted to fly in. So I hiked deeper into Black Hill Regional Park trying to find the right spot to fly. To make a long story short, I ended up hiking all the way to the boat rental area with a couple excursions through the woods to scout out the bank of the lake. Total distance: 1.6 miles.

The boat rental area was the only place I found with open ground that wasn't sheltered from the wind. I thought if I got the camera up high enough I would get the visitor's center in the shot. As it turned out, the kite flew very unstably at a low angle. It ended up spending most of its time over a nearby parking lot and that's all that shows in most of the pictures. I had the camera set on auto exposure because of the partially cloudy conditions. But this resulted in some slow shutter speeds and very blurry pictures. The camera was swinging around wildly on the line as the kite moved around. There was no chance the pictures would line up for stitching as I had hoped. And the visitors center didn't appear in a single shot.

While I was setting up the kite, I got the bow lines entangled with the cross spars. As I tried to fix it I over-stressed the main spar and caused a small crack in it. Fortunately the crack wasn't so bad that the kite couldn't fly.

Once the kite was in the air it didn't fly as stably as it usually does. The only other time it seemed so unstable was once when I forgot to tie the spars together on one flight. This time everything was rigged correctly but the top and bottom bows weren't exactly the same. The bottom was bowed more than the top which should have been OK from a stability point of view. As I learned later, though, I probably should have had more bow in both cross members and should have adjusted the attachment point of the bridle downward.

Normally I set the exposure to manual before launch but this time I was concerned about changing lighting conditions. Instead I set the camera on auto. I also set the zoom to its maximum. In retrospect these were both mistakes. The auto exposure setting caused the camera to select a too-slow shutter speed for most shots and the wild swinging of the camera produced a lot of motion blur in most shots. I wanted the zoom at full to test out the new motion control program but, again, the swinging of the camera made this pointless. If I had used a wide angle setting I would have had better individual images, not to mention faster shutter speeds and less motion blur.

After the kite and camera were up, I tied them off using my cargo net anchor then got out my "ground" camera to take some photos of things. The next thing I noticed was the kite had overflown me and the line was vertical. The whole kite lost lift at that point and started dropping but the new hangers held on! So once the kite was back to flying normally, the camera was still attached at the correct location.

It occurred to me as I watched the rig swinging around that it would have been much better to spread the picavet hangers a lot more on the line. I attached them just a couple feet apart so the camera was effectively dangling as it would from a pendulum.

A couple cars showed up while I was flying and decided to park under the kite and camera. This made me very nervous.

When I retrieved the camera, the kite was very hard to reel in. The camera itself had shut down after shooting 222 frames (about 26 minutes of shooting.) I had given it 48 minutes in the air: 10 minutes launch plus 38 minutes shooting. After removing the camera from the line I found it so hard to reel in the kite that I had to walk it down.

A post-flight inspection showed that the kite rigging was all correct and the camera rig was all intact. The only problem was that one of the picavet lines had jumped off track. This probably happened during the overflight when the whole thing dangled precariously and the camera rig bumped into the main kite line a couple times.

After packing everything up, I had to walk all the way back the way I had come in. Looking at some maps later, I realize I walked the longest possible route around the edge of the lake.

Mistakes noted:

Poor choice of location.

Rokkaku not tuned properly for the high wind conditions. (Needed more bow for stability and should have moved back the bridle attachment point for better stability.)

Picavet hangers were attached too close together. (Too much like a pendulum.)

Camera was set for auto exposure and most images blurred.

Was too aggressive with zoon.

On the plus side:

I was able to use a lot of new gear: Henry's Handle, Climbers Eight, Cargo net anchor.

I got some interesting ground shots in the park

Mechanically, everything held up under extreme conditions.

Scouting Great Falls

2005-10-15T18:39:00.000-07:00

I spent most of the afternoon at Great Falls Park on the Virginia side of the river. I wanted to try to fly the camera rig where I could shoot the falls but I had a hard time finding a place to do it. Eventually I had to give up.

More photos available at Flickr.

I started by checking out overlook 1. The overlooks were obviously loaded with sightseers so not good for flying the kite.

After overlook 1 I walked upstream along the trail by the old Potowmack Canal. This trail was overgrown with trees and not actually near the river so no good kite launch points here either. Eventually this led me to the intersection of the canal and the river. I explored a bit by crossing the canal just before it met the river and making my way to the river bank. There's a small strip of rocks there that might allow a kite launch if the wind is blowing the right way. But its surrounded by trees and over 1300 feet upstream from the falls -- not much point flying here.

After this I walked back past overlook 1 to overlooks 2 and 3. Beyond overlook 3 is a set of high rock outcroppings that are accessible and not as crowded. I actually tried launching the kite here eventually but by then it was getting late. The wind wasn't consistent for me so it was hard to get the kite up. And while I was setting up a man with a dog and a camera sat down right in my "crash zone". When I finally started to get the kite in the air I was so afraid of losing control and hitting him that I reeled it in. I tried moving down wind of him and trying again but by then it was about 5:30pm. The sun was starting to set, the gorge was all in shadows, the wind was failing... so I decided to pack it up.

On my walk back from the overlook I noticed a trail leading down to the river just upstream of overlook 3. I don't know if that might make a good launch point or not. Some teenagers who had been down there said the wind was strong but I would worry about turbulence in the air between river level and high altitude as the kite climbed out of the gorge.

By the way, the images on Google Earth don't do justice to vertical features of the falls and the gorge. The overlooks are actually about 60 feet above the river on the edges of vertical rock cliffs. There are ways to climb down to the rivers edge without climbing gear but it would be quite dangerous to try it while carrying KAP equipment or a kite on a line.

Flight 6: Ocean City

2005-09-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

Ocean City, MD. On the beach near the Dough Roller
80" Rokkaku, KAP Rig

Got excellent images of me, boardwalk, Peter Flynn kites.

Images: 212 Photo directory: 2005/kap/oc-20050925
Exposure: 1/1000 f/5.0

Nice strong, steady ocean breeze for this launch. The kite just
lifted straight out of my hand. Robbie Fields helped me on this
flight since I had nothing to anchor to. No real problems to report
except the lines were all tangled again and it took a while to get in
the air. Robbie was getting tired of holding the kite by the time I
got the camera attached. In rushing the preflight checklist I forgot
to turn off the flash. The result was the camera was flashing on
every shot. It was kind of neat to see the periodic flashes and know
the camera was working. But it drained the batteries in the camera --
they were dead when I retrieved it. I had to guess on the exposure a
bit since I forgot to pack my new grey card. But it worked out. The
image quality was perfect. In many of the shots you can see me and
the people around me on the beach. You can also see Gina, Billie and
the kids on the sand and on the boardwalk. Before I landed the kite,
Robbie left to get a temporary tatoo. I had to enlist another fellow
on the beach to hold the line for me while I retrieved the camera.

I got email addresses of two people who were on the beach:
ted.szymanski@itt.com (Ted and Debbie Szymanski) and
d.lemmon@comcast.net (Carol Lemmon). I sent both links to the Flickr
site and both were happy to see them.

From Flickr I got a tip to try autostitch. That thing is great! It
was able to stitch all 212 images automatically.

Flight 5: Germantown mini golf

2005-08-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Germantown, MD. Adjacent to Mini Golf.
80" Rokkaku.

Unassisted flight with camera rig. All images too dark.
Images: 214
Photo directory: 2005/kap/kap-germantown-20050830

My first flight in Germantown. I thought I would shoot for the splash
park but it was closed. It was evening, after work. I took Ian with
me to the field. When we got there the wind was strong but a little
breezy. The first thing I did was untangle the camera's picavet
lines. Then I got the kite in the air. I let it go way up before
attaching the camera -- further than I thought I did. For some
reason, the kite didn't look as high as I expected. I tied off the
kite line on the fence of the mini golf course as I prepared the
camera. I went through the written checklist to set up the camera
but, again, I had the exposure way too dark. One problem was that I
took an exposure reading with part of the sky in the frame. The other
was that the sun was setting so the light got less and less as the
camera was flying. I probably should have left the camera on
auto-exposure for this flight. The pictures are pretty much worthless
but that's OK. I knew before I started that this flight was to get
more experience.

There are a couple problems with the flight checklist. It should have
me setting the manual exposure *before* the manual focus. This is
because once in manual focus mode, you can't adjust the f/stop.
Another problem is it should discuss setting the alignment of the
camera rig. I didn't care much on this flight but I could have used a
better alignment to shoot the mini-golf course instead of the parking
lot and road.

Flight 4: OBX

2005-07-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

Corolla, North Carolina Beach.
80" Rokkaku
Images: 225
Photo directory: 2005\kap\obx2
(exposure was a bit too dark on all images.)

Wind was a bit stronger that previous flights and very steady from the
south.

This time I had nobody to help me with the kite and camera. The lines
were tangled pretty badly and it took a while to straighten them out.
I got the kite flying very strong and steady once it was untangled. I
let the kite up higher this time before attaching the camera -- maybe
100-150 feet. In order to attach the camera, I tied off the kite to
the steps leading to the beach. (I was worried the line might get cut
but it didn't get damaged.) Attaching the camera was difficult by
myself because its lines were very tangled and the kite line was under
extreme tension and I didn't have my glove on. But I did manage to
untangle the rig, set it up, attach it to the line and let the kite
raise the camera.

Once in the air I parked it at a lower altitude -- maybe 200 ft. It
was on station before the 10 minute delay expired and I let it stay in
position for 20 minutes. Then I reeled it in until the camera was
only about 1 ft off the sand and tied it off. The kite was so steady
the camera was perfectly stationary at this height. I could see as I
brought the camera down that it was indeed still shooting. (At
altitude I couldn't be sure the camera angle was changing. I was
worried it wasn't even running.) The camera and kite were retrieved
and stowed without any problems.

The results were pretty cool but not exactly what I had expected. All
the images were too dark. (I had set the camera on manual exposure.)
But the focus was good and there were 226 shots on the card. It was
still storing shots as the camera descended to the ground. The
overlap between some shots is generous but between others there is
none. It appears the camera's swaying is fairly significant, swinging
the camera through several fields of view.

Some suggestions for future flights would be to try the wide angle
setting and to leave the camera on automatic exposure control. This
might result in some nice single shots. Being able to merge telephoto
shots into a panorama seems like it may not be feasible. Another
suggestion would be to set the tilt for -45 - -135 degrees instead of
0 - -90 degrees. The horizon isn't very interesting but downward
looking is.

Its becoming clearer that having a control system that references
gravity and magnetic field would be much better for controlling shot angle.

Flight 3: OBX (Rokkaku w/o KAP rig)

2005-07-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

Corolla, North Carolina Beach.
80" Rokakku

Flight without Camera Rig.

Wind was moderate from the west.

Flew Rok without camera just for fun. Unfortunately, I forgot to tie
the lower horizontal member to the vertical member. The result was
that the kite was fairly unstable and visibly asymmetric in flight.

Flight 2: OBX, First flight of KAP rig.

2005-07-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Corolla, North Carolina Beach.

First Flight of Camera Rig.
80" Rokkaku
Images: 28
Photo directory: 2005\kap\obx1

Winds were moderate from the west.

Flew the Rok first thing in the morning with help from Billie,
Dave and Sandy. This time I attached the camera rig for the first
time. It took longer than expected to prepare the camera while Billie
held the kite but it launched with no problem. (I think we were 5
minutes into the initial delay before we even got off the ground.)
Before launch the camera was showing its battery status was "low". I
was just hoping the camera would stay on long enough to take at least
one picture. We had the kite up about 50-100 feet before attaching
the camera then let out the line to about 450'. We reached this
altitude pretty quickly -- before the 10 minute initial delay
completed.

We kept the kite in this position until 30 minutes after camera
controller power-on then reeled it in. When retrieving the camera, we
caught it in a plastic bag but the wind was dying and the kite ended
up dropping into the water. We retrieved it with no damage
fortunately.

Once home, we found the camera had taken 28 shots before its battery
died. The whole system worked! One problem that was noted in the
images was that there was no horizontal overlap in some of the
images. Before the next flight I intend to change the flight software
to halve the horizontal step size.

Flight 1: OBX, Test flight of new Rokkaku

2005-07-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Corolla, North Carolina Beach.
First Flight of 80" Rokkoku.

Winds were moderate from the south.

Flew my new 80" Rokkaku for the first time. No camera flown. The
kite was difficult to get airborne at first -- it seemed unstable.
But I found that by holding the ends of the top and bottom bridles
separately I could fly it stably about 10 feet above me. I decided to
shorten the top bridle by a few inches by tying off a loop. Then it
flew quite well. I let it out to the top of my 500' Navy blue 150#
Dacron line. The kite was very stable and definitely provided a lot
of lift. When I relaxed my arms, the kite held my hands and arms
parallel to the ground! When I retrieved it, it took 20 minutes to
reel in by hand.

Genesis

2005-07-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

So I've found myself involved with Kite Aerial Photography (KAP). I started out doing this on my own. I was feeling inspired by the article on KAP in Make magazine so I designed and built my own camera rig. Later I discovered the very active online KAP community and its many web sites. Now I want to get more involved with the community. I want to learn more about what people are doing with their KAP rigs and how they work. I also want to participate by sharing my experiences and techniques with anyone else who's interested.

This blog will become one tool to help me participate. I've also joined Flickr and its KAP photography group and started using Charles Benton's site. The Flickr site is great for seeing all the aerial shots people are getting. Its very inspirational since the quality of work is very high. But that group's focus is the images, not the gear and techniques people are using. Charles Benton's site is more appropriate for discussing gear and rigs. But I haven't yet found a place with longer articles with more depth. (I did find where I could buy "The Aerial Eye", a print magazine that is no longer published.) So this blog will be a place where I can discuss KAP techniques and equipment in more depth. I would encourage other KAP practitioners to create blogs as well.

[Note: This blog was created on Oct 8, 2005, several months after I built and began flying my KAP rig. I've back-dated the flight log entries for my previous flights to the dates they were flown. Also I've back-dated this entry to an earlier date so it appears as the first entry.]

In some upcoming postings, I'm hoping to introduce my KAP rig and how it works.