Unique video from the perspective of a kite

Third flight of my Brooxes Servo-BEAK KAP rig with Canon SD 850IS digital camera, flown with a Sutton Flowform 8 kite with 500 feet of 200-pound braided Dacron line. The entire rig is 17.35 ounces / 491 grams flying weight.

Planned for a longer flight, but the wind was just too gusty and erratic today (~20 mph with ~35 mph gusts).

TIMELINE:

0:08 -- kite is taking line rapidly

1:48 -- at about 250 feet of line, the turbulence is obvious

1:58 -- you catch a glimpse of the kite upline as the rig continues to rock in the wind

2:04-2:10 -- what I like to call "Max-Q"...the kite gives a hard right and my heart skips a beat

3:15 -- now the wind has died...I'm losing altitude and start to back up to keep clear of the trees

3:40 -- by this point I'm running backward to keep the kite aloft

4:04-4:19 -- losing altitude

4:21-4:31 -- ascending again

4:48 -- final descent begins

5:10 -- landing

Whew.

My primary KAP focus, naturally, is still photography. Check out some of my shots at http://www.flickr.com/photos/edgar_k/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• kite
• aerial
• photography
• video
• flying
• KAP
• gadget
• electronics
• servo
• BEAK
• sutton
• flowform
• flow
• form
• Canon
• SD850IS

[atheistzombie]

Just bought a sutton flowform 16 and, in windy north texas, it's a champ...building my own KAP rig right now. I hope my camera is at least as stable as this one.

[edgarkmendoza]

I could have done better on a less windy day...a couple of scary moments in this video. A good Picavet suspension makes all the difference in camera stability. If you want a higher flying angle and have a less windy day, the Fled (G-Kites) is an excellent lifter as well.

[18greens18fairways]

I did this today with a friend. We had trouble getting the kite down. How do you get the kite down on a windy day? It was between 10-15 mph. The string got caught around the owner of the kites wrist and got really tangled. We got it up about 150 feet, but want to get it higher. Again if you know please respond on a good way to get a kite down on a windy day. He was wrapping the string around his body by turning. Not a good idea, but I didn't say that to him. lmk

thx,

[aartie]

Cool, I just built one myself but haven't flown it yet. This reminds me of my one skydiving jump, but in reverse.

[KeyLargo67]

sweet vid!