KAP Reports

Aerial Photos Using Big Dowel Kites

These KAP reports document what happened when some aerial photography was done in our state of South Australia. Over a period of several years. 

Port Adelaide from 300 feet.

Port Adelaide from 300 feet.

The Multi-Dowel Barn Door kite used to see most of the action, with the Sled getting pulled out in winds that were too light for the Barn Door.

Similarly, the Fresh Wind version of the huge Barn Door took over when the winds were too strong for my other kites.

A Fresh Wind Sled was also created, which has a zero rig-time and ended up doing the bulk of my aerial photography flights. I still pull it out occasionally, particularly at the annual kite festival! In fact, that Port Adelaide photo was taken under the Fresh Wind Sled kite.

There's the huge Barn Door in the photo further down. A test weight is suspended in a bamboo tetrahedron which was my first idea for a camera cradle.

This design tended to struggle around the 28 kph mark, so another Barn Door design was created. This 'Fresh Wind Barn Door' used the same diameter dowel, but had much less sail area and a whopping big hole in the center. It flew right up into the 30-40kph range.

Although suited to stronger winds, the Multi-Dowel Box kite proved awkward for KAP. The big traditional box design had a much longer setup time and was prone to sinking out to the grass while you were trying to get the camera into its cradle! However, it did successfully loft the camera rig on one occasion when the average wind strength was high enough.

Home-Made KAP Cradle

After several different ideas were tried for making a KAP cradle, a simple solution based on bamboo BBQ skewers proved most practical. There it is in the photo...

The bamboo rig featured...

• A loop of 20 pound Dacron as the suspension line.
• 4 large paper-clips as pulleys for the Half-Picavet suspension. 2 on the line and 2 secured to the cradle cross-piece.
• 4 vertical skewers brought together at the top, through a hole in the cross-piece. Hence, with a friction fit, the camera could be pointed in any horizontal direction.
• Paddle-pop sticks that were positioned and glued in place so the camera could be inserted and held in a slightly downward-facing direction. More ground than sky in the photos was the aim.

Once at a flying location, this rig was lofted several times if required, to capture a different point of view each time. My standard sequence ended up being 20 frames at 10 second intervals.

KAP Reports From Around Adelaide

And sometimes beyond. Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia, one of the windiest states of Australia. Still, you occasionally can't loft a camera at all, due to 'no wind'! Perhaps a large R/C blimp would have come in handy on those days.

MBK Multi-Dowel Barn Door
with KAP test weight

MBK Multi-Dowel Barn Door
with KAP test weight

OK, here are the KAP reports. Most recent ones first, although they are now all receding slowly into the past...

Adelaide CBD - 2 (Sled)

Port Adelaide - 1 (Fresh Wind Sled)

Marion Shopping Centre - 2 (Fresh Wind Sled)

Flinders University - 1 (Fresh Wind Sled)

Happy Valley Reservoir - 2 (Barn Door)

Marion Shopping Centre - 1 (Barn Door)

Brighton Beach - 1 (Sled)

Meningie Fair - 1 (Sled)

Adelaide CBD - 1 (Fresh Wind Barn Door)

Noarlunga Centre - 1 (Fresh Wind Barn Door)

Happy Valley Reservoir - 1 (Sled)

Knox Park - 1 (Barn Door)

Wilfred Taylor Reserve - 1 (Barn Door)

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