Here’s another photo, though over-exposed, I still like.

I was up early on this morning, and the wind was pretty strong. The Sutton went right up – but started pitching around pretty violently after a while. Luckily the camera didn’t go flying off, and the whole rig managed to get quite a few shots taken, though the majority of them were blurry. By the time I got it down again – quite a struggle, frankly, which involved me stepping on the line to create slack and my partner reeling in, which took at least 20 minutes – a screw and nylon bushings were missing. I had spare parts, but not these, so that ended my New Zealand attempts. Looking back I should have tried the smaller kite – the Sutton was a bear to get on the ground again, and I’m not sure I could have even done it without help.

Despite most of the photos being blurry, I’d count this as my most successful attempt yet.

I took all my gear with me on a recent vacation in New Zealand, knowing that I’d be close to beaches, and thinking this might provide some opportunity for an attempt or two. The first attempt, which was somewhere just south of Tongaporutu, shows the black sand beaches of the area (west coast, North Island). There were some folks flying fishing kites when I first arrived, but the wind died down soon after, so the photos I managed to get weren’t from very high. The tracks you see on the beach are from the four-wheelers, which seemed to be used mostly by the fishermen and locals.

It has been a looong time since I’ve been out. The weather today was just so beautiful I couldn’t resist. Even though the winds were at about 6mph that proved not quite enough for the Sutton. I could get some height, but not reliably, and this was the best shot I had from this outing. The good news was that I could get the kite and rig up fairly easy by myself, and that the camera fired continuously and correctly. So at least I’m becoming more accustomed to the gear. I’m still bothered by the lack of sharpness in the distance, though, since I had the camera set to “sport” and one would think the shutter in bright daylight would be fast enough to be sharp… I guess I’ll have to keep an eye on that.

The wildflowers were spectacular this year – some say the best they’ve ever seen. Certainly they were more abundant than anytime I ever remember, and I’ve been in Austin 20+ years. I had hoped for an aerial shot of bluebonnets, but that wasn’t meant to be.

This time my trouble wasn’t with the kite, but with the camera. I had bought a cheap replacement for the one I wrecked, and while it was the same brand and nearly the same model, the shutter button was an oval shape instead of a round shape. First I had trouble getting the lever to target correctly, (though I had tested it at home), and then I had trouble with the lever pressing hard enough. I got tricked – I thought the shutter was triggering, but it actually was only focusing. Since the shutter didn’t get pressed, the camera turned itself off after five minutes, after the camera was aloft! This was extremely frustrating, as I had gone to great lengths to find a remote field blooming with bluebonnets which would have been perfect. Imagine my disappointment when I brought the rig down only to find two shots! Sigh.

Note: I’m quite late posting this attempt which has been nearly 6 weeks ago. That’s part frustration, and part just plain busy.

So it seems that maybe my kite flying skills are lacking.

I took the Sutton 16 out to Zilker, in about 8-9 mph winds, and had no trouble getting it airborne. I flew it for a while (with tail), and she seemed fairly steady, so I launched the camera. All was well until some gusts hit, and the kite started acting erratically, and the camera was swinging wildly all around. It wasn’t that far off the ground yet, maybe 30 to 40 feet, when the kite did a couple of loops and took a nosedive for the ground. The camera rig swung around, and with additional centrifugal force, slammed into the ground. I literally saw parts flying everywhere.

Sigh.

I walked quickly to where the rig was and detached it from the line. The wind was so strong now I actually had a hard time getting the kite in, but I finally wrangled it down. When I went to where the rig was and assessed the damage, I found the camera had hit with such force that the tripod screw post had broken out of the camera. The battery door had popped open and the battery had flown about five feet away. The shutter servo had snapped from it’s screw posts, and the brackets were bent and askew.

A rather discouraging outing. I did some research online later, and it seems that my response to the kite acting erratically was incorrect – I should have given it more line when it started pulling in the gusts. In my nervousness of the new kite, I just hung on tight. Next time I hope I can react more appropriately.

While the camera can be repaired with a new base plate, I’m not sure it’s worth it. I can’t find the part for less than ~$25 with shipping. Instead I’ve found a used Casio Exilim on craigslist, a newer version than the one I broke and which offers 8.1 megapixels instead of 6.0. Since it’s from the same line of cameras, the dimensions are about the same, meaning the tripod post and shutter are in the same place, saving me the trouble of having to adjust the rig.

My strategy was to find the best camera for the least price, so I went with one that cosmetically looked pretty bad, but still functioned perfectly. Since the chances are good I’d wreck it, I figured I’d feel less bad if I spent as little as reasonably possible – in this case $40.

As for the servo, which snapped off at the screw tab (I had already flipped it when the other side broke on a previous trip), I ordered two more from Tower Hobby. An extra couldn’t hurt, right? This is a weak spot on the rig – I’d like to find a way to secure this servo better. I may just try strapping tape at least.

With some luck, I hope to get the rig in working order again this week in time for next weekend – if the weather and wind is good, Shelah and I will take a drive in Hill Country. The wildflowers this spring are the best in years, and I’d like to try to find an open field or two to see what I can get.

Since I’ve learned it takes at least a 14mph wind for the Sutton 8 to lift my rig, I decided a bigger kite was in order so I can KAP in a broader range of winds. I settled on the Sutton 16 from Brooxes. Wow, this kite is a monster! The #200 braided line it came with is practically rope. I’m both nervous and excited to fly it. Rated for 8-25mph winds, I’m going to guess I’ll be able to get my 1lb. rig up at 10mph.

The wildflowers are in full swing now, so I hope to find a nice field, a sunny day, and the perfect wind!

The photo for this post is from an attempt at Zilker. The winds seemed to die down between the house and park, so I only got it up once, and very briefly.

The wind wasn’t blowing in an ideal direction to try to capture this parking lot carnival, but the winds were good, and I was eager to get another successful flight in.

The N/NW winds at about 13 gave me just enough lift. I’m still afraid to fly the camera over anything, and that’s prohibiting me from getting as close as I’ll probably need to. Also, I didn’t have the tilt set at enough of an angle, which means I got a lot of shots of asphalt.

Still, this was the most successful flight ever, with the camera operating correctly, rotating, and logging about 100 shots before the wind started flagging and I reeled it in. I can see now the advantage of radio setups as one can keep the camera rotated towards the points of interest.

Note to self: That small pair of binoculars might be more useful in your gear bag than the junk drawer.

I experienced my first real success today, albeit modest. I managed to get the kite up, the camera up and down (without damage!), and a few shots off before the wind died.

I sent the kite up first to test the waters, and tried to find a spot not too high where the wind seemed fairly steady. Then I stuck the the line under my foot, while I unraveled and prepared the camera rig. This part unfortunately takes two hands, as I’ve learned from past efforts that it’s an absolute necessity to set the camera to the “sports” setting so the shutter speed is as fast as possible. Regrettably, my camera can’t save this setting, so I have to turn the camera on, select sports, and then mount the camera on the rig through the frame using the screw. Drop the screw at this point and one is in deep shit – it’s super easy to get the picavet lacing tangled and caught, not to mention trying to find the screw in the grass.

At any rate, I got the camera set and mounted on the rig without the lines getting tangled, so I clipped the camera on and away it went. I wish that I would have thought to orient the camera away from me since it wasn’t in the air long enough to rotate all the way around, and thus get a shot off of the carnival set up in the parking lot across the street. Next time maybe I’ll remember.

Some of the shots were fuzzy, so even with the shutter set to sports there’s some chance of blurry photos, I guess if the camera is bouncing around at that point. All in all, there were about 3 non-blurry shots, none of them that interesting, but still a whole lot better than I’ve been getting. Yay!

There were strong, gusty winds yesterday as a cold front moved through, so I convinced my partner Shelah to bundle up with me to see if we could finally get this thing aloft. We went out twice, to different locations. Certainly the kite wanted to fly, but it never wanted to stay up, and the rig came crashing down hard several times, bending the frame once and snapping off the plastic screw tab on the shutter servo later in the day. The water on lens, seen in this photo, is a result of the camera being dragged through wet grass.

All of it is fixable, but I’ve definitely feel I’d be better off with the Sutton Flow Form 16 rather than the 8. I’m a bit disappointed because I almost upgraded to the 16 in the first place, but didn’t want to get way more than I needed just starting out. The good news is that while I was researching kites, I discovered that my technique appears to be incorrect in that I’ve been attaching the camera much too close to the kite. In other words, the kite isn’t fully aloft and as a result, quite unstable when I’m clipping on the rig. By the looks of some KAP photos out there, the rig can, and should, be much further from the kite.

I’m hopeful and eager to try this, as it seems obvious to me now. Today is windy again, so later I’ll get out and try getting the kite up enough to stabilize before I clip on the camera. I hope it works – I’ve got quite enough pictures of my shoes.