So Ya Wanna Fly?

I was asked for a list of resources for folks interested in doing kite aerial photography. The best place to start is Cris Benton's online KAP forum:

http://steel.ced.berkeley.edu/cris/kap/discuss/

A great many of the people doing KAP are on the forums, and all sorts of questions get asked and answered, ranging from how to get started all the way to things like how to equip one's self for a KAP trip to Tahiti. (I'm not kidding about that last one... KAPiTA 2009 is a KAP conference being planned in Tahiti for October, 2009).

Another good resource is the KAP Flickr group:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/kiteaerialphotography/

A fair number of the people from the forum also post their pictures to Flickr. This is not universal because of licensing confusion with Flickr (confusion on the part of people who lift pictures off of Flickr without asking, not confusion on the part of Flickr.) Nonetheless, I post mine there and many others do as well.

If you want to get going in a hurry, the best bet is to pick up a Brooxes Better Kap Kit (or BBKK for short) from Brooks Leffler's web site:

http://www.brooxes.com

The BBKK is meant to be used with practically any point 'n shoot camera, be it film or digital. For SLRs and larger cameras, Brooks offers heavier duty components. But be warned, a 750g KAP rig requires a fairly hefty kite and some serious kite line. A 2500g SLR rig requires a MUCH heftier kite and even heavier kite line. Start small. Seriously.

Which brings us to the next consideration: Kites. I currently have three, and I'm looking at a fourth. My three are a Flowform 8, a Flowform 16, and a 6' Rokkaku. The one I'm planning to add very soon is a Dan Leigh Trooper. I'd like to add a fifth and a sixth. They'd be an 8' Rokkaku and a 14' Dopero. But all this probably sounds confusing, so I'll try to explain:

My rig weighs just under 600g. It's a BBKK with a Nikon Coolpix 5600, a Futaba AM radio receiver, and three servos for controlling pan, tilt, and shutter. In order to lift my rig I need at least 1200g of upward component on my line tension so I have a safety margin of 2x.

Different kites have different wind ranges they can fly in and different line angles they can fly at. Flowforms typically fly at around 40 to 50 degrees. Rokkakus typically fly around 70 to 85 degrees. These are approximate figures since I've flown my FF16 at almost 75 degrees in an updraft, and my Rokkaku has actually gone past zenith, flying at about a 105 degree angle. My FF16 can fly in up to 20 knot winds, but at those speeds the Rokkaku would fold in half. Likewise, 8 knots will let my Rokkaku fly and lift a rig, but at those speeds the Flowform won't even get off the ground.

The point is that no one kite can suit all flying conditions. Sometimes you need a light wind kite, sometimes you need a heavy wind kite. Sometimes you're after altitude and want a very high line angle. Sometimes you're trying to fly out over a subject and want a lower line angle. There's no ideal kite, just lots of choices. And unless you have an infinitely large kite bag, this also means that at some point you'll have to walk away from the perfect subject because you don't have a kite that will fly it.

But I digress. In order to lift a KAP rig you need a kite that is stable, and can produce enough line tension to lift the rig. You also need a kite line that can handle around 7x to 10x the amount of tension you expect to get during your flight. Which typically means a specialty kite that's not available from *Mart, and some pretty serious kite line.

It's worth it to pick up a kite that's good for KAP. Brooks sells some on his web site, and others are mentioned on the forums. Considering a full RC rig may represent several hundred dollars worth of gear, it's worth spending a little extra to get a kite that won't drop everything onto the rocks the first time you take it out.

Once you have your rig and your kite, it's time to get out and get flying! But don't clip your camera rig on until you've really learned to fly your kite, and have learned the wind at your flying site. Try running your kite up to different altitudes to see how it flies. In the town where I live, I need at least 150' of altitude to clear the turbulent surface air. Others report they're fine with 100' or less. At some flying locations I need over 300' of altitude before the kite really gets stable. Practice. Play. Learn. It saves heartache and broken gear down the road.

And finally, clip on, check everything, take a test exposure, and reel out the line. And share the pictures you take so others can see, too! The view up there really can't be beat.

Tom