Contents

Log

• 9th October 2005 Sorry folks, I've been very poor at updating this site recently. I have been doing a bit of KAP as you can see in Gallery 3, but I'm tending to put images on Flickr first! These pages are just mine. All in all, despite the lack of enough flying, it has been a good KAP year so far.
• 13th February 2005PDF article on my first year of KAP available here (2182KB)
• 21st January 2005: More coverage in the local press.
• 15th January 2005:. Page added to web site about the image I had published in the Sutton Coldfield Observer. See here.
• 3rd January 2005:
Happy new year to all KAPPERS. I decided to go out and try the flowform again. The wind was much to strong, and even though tethered, I had trouble getting the kite down. I didn't even attempt to put a rig up.
• 30th December 2004: Much more wind today. Took the rig out to the park again and hoisted the Canon up on the flowform. This was the first time these has been together! Some super shots for me! I got the shot I was trying to get for months, across the park to Longmoor pool. It is fascinating from a local knowledge point of view. I noticed some furrows on the grass, so I sent a copy of the photo off to the local paper to see if anyone could explain. It was also th day when I chose to hand hold the compete rig: line, kite, r/c unit etc. This was really liberating until I dropped the line. the kite went sailing off at 200 feet, and dropped into a tree. I decided try and re-launch, only to have the swivel break. The rig fell 20 feet to the ground, and the kite took off again. The rig was in pieces, and the camera was fine all but the battery cover which had fallen off (glad I chose this camera). The kite was rescued at the edge of the woods by a spirited dog walker. Back home I examined the pieces. The main bracket was usable, but bent beyond straightening, and the frame was all glued back again. Long live balsa wood. A bit of tape reinforcement and rig 3b was born.
• 29th December 2004: At long last I was able to put the Canon up on the rig. The wind was low, so the Dopero was sued for lifting. See Gallery 2 for some of the images. I was pleased with the quality, but not so much with the subjects. It was good to have folks asking about what was being done.
• 27th November:It seems ages since an entry has been made here. Not much has happened in terms of flying during October and November, but I have built rig 3 to carry a a new Canon PowerShot A310, and have built a 16 square foot flowform from a Jim Rowlands pattern. Today the kite had its first flight. Hopefully the full rig will be tried out soon! Photo of the kite is here.You may notice it is in the same colours as the Dopero. I thought it would be good to have a KAP identity!
• 25th September 2004: Hadn't been out for a while, so went back to the Jamboree Stone to try to recreate some good summer shots as autumn colours developed. Put the Dopero up, line broke, and had to rescue it from trees and gorse bushes, all the time leaving the rig, camera etc. unattended. Tried again, and got some shots, but as the wind was dropping I didn't get the height. Hey ho!A few shots are posted in gallery one.
• 4th September 2004: It looked like being a good day for KAP.......went to Powells Pool and .... all the sailing dingies went in and then the wind dropped. Tried frantically to haul the kite in, fell over the line and had one big tangle that had to be sorted at home. All the time I had an audience.
• 2nd September 2004: Log page launched. Retrospective logs added below
• August 2004: Rig 2 built.
• 1st June 2004:Test Flight of Dopero
• 13th April 2004:A beautiful spring day in Sutton Park. I packed up the KAP gear in a rucksack and walked to an opening nearer to Longmoor pool, with the aim of getting some sots of the lake. It was definitely the best KAP day so far. No pictures of the Lake, but two I was quite pleased with for an hour's shooting (Remember I'm still on clockwork, so after every shot, the rig has to come down!).
  
  This view was taken of the road towards Longmoor Pool. Sadly the horizon was so skewed, that I have cropped most of the picture!
  
  
  This is the view I was trying to get, but didn't manage as you can see! The light needs to be from a different angle, the camera higher etc. Still It was a view I couldn't get from the ground, as there was a band of woodland between me and the lake at the time. (PS when the wind dropped I was worried about the old "kite eating" trees syndrome.)
• 9th April 2004: Still practicing with the Agfa Easypix. The main problem is that in low light it won't stay still long enough to stay in focus. Here are a few images to show what I mean! In all cases the kite was my 2 metre Rok.
  
  This isn't the most interesting picture ever, but when I get the shot I want it will be good. It shows Powells Pool in Sutton Park, looking towards the sailing club. If the angle was up a few degrees, it will show my parents house, which is what I was after. It was taken about 7.00pm so the light was poor, and the rig was swinging too much, so it isn't as sharp as I wanted.
  Taken on the same session, with Powells Pool car park for "la Reserve" just in the top left!. It shows that footpaths across worn grass do not make good images, no matter how clear the image.
  
  Oops!- the angle of the rig on the ground isn't the same as when it is in the sky! Now I know why a R/C rig is useful.In terms of projects, I'm waiting for the bits to make my "Dopero", and exploring how to make Rig No,2, hopefully with R/C controls.