These KAP reports document what happened when some aerial photography was done in our state of South Australia. Over a period of several years.
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.
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...
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.
Wind Speed Handy Reference
Light Air
1-5 kph
1-3 mph
1-3 knts
Beaufort 1
Light breeze
6–11 kph
4–7 mph
4–6 knts
Beaufort 2
Gentle ...
12–19 kph
8–12 mph
7–10 knts
Beaufort 3
Moderate ...
20–28 kph
13–18 mph
11–16 knts
Beaufort 4
Fresh ...
29–38 kph
19–24 mph
17–21 knts
Beaufort 5
Strong ...
39–49 kph
25–31 mph
22–27 knts
Beaufort 6
High Wind
50-61 kph
32-38 mph
28-33 knts
Beaufort 7
Gale
62-74 kph
39-46 mph
34-40 knts
Beaufort 8
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.
OK, here are the KAP reports. Most recent ones first, although they are now all receding slowly into the past...
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)
Adelaide CBD - 1 (Fresh Wind Barn Door)
Noarlunga Centre - 1 (Fresh Wind Barn Door)
Happy Valley Reservoir - 1 (Sled)
Wilfred Taylor Reserve - 1 (Barn Door)
It's a printable PDF file. Make a diamond, delta or sled step-by-step. They fly hundreds of feet up for hours on end. Woohoo!
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