the aerial eye v2 n4 - members.kite.org eye 2.4.pdf · The world’s largest selection of kite-related books. Catalog. Kite Studio 5555 Hamilton Boulevard Wescosville, PA 18106 Phone

KITES & KITEFLYING

28 the aerial eye / fall 1996

Playground,Golden Gate

Parkby

Cris Benton

the aerial eyea quarterly publication of the aerial photography committee

of the American Kitefliers Associationvolume 2 / number 4 / fall 1996

Town Square, Villanova di Bagnacavallo, by Andrea Casalboni

US$4.00USA & CANADA

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Manufacturer of Sutton FlowForm Kites, from 4 sq ft to 450 sq ft. Custom orders too.

the aerial eye fall 1996 32

the aerial eyeThis newsletter is produced by the

Aerial Photography Committee of theAmerican Kitefliers Association. It isour goal to publish quarterly, in Au-gust, November, February, and May.

Single copies and subscriptions areavailable to AKA members and non-members alike, under the followingfee schedule:

single 4 issuesAKA $3.00 $10.00overseas $4.50 $16.00

Non-AKA $4.00 $15.00overseas $5.50 $21.00

Domestic subscriptions will bemailed by first class mail; overseassubscriptions (i.e., outside NorthAmerica) will be mailed by air.

Advertising is available in modulesof 2.25 inches wide by 1.25 incheshigh, at $20.00 per module, payable inadvance. Advertising in which aggres-sively competitive pricing is featuredwill not be accepted; call if you havequestions or need more info. Camera-ready copy is not necessary, but is ac-ceptable if it meets the above criteria.Copy deadline is the first of the monthof publication. Contact Brooks Leffler.

american kitefliers association aerial photography committeeSteve Eisenhauer, Chair Brooks Leffler, Editor229 Lake Ave, Pitman, NJ 08071 PO Box 34, Pacific Grove, CA 93950

(609) 589-2049 Fax (609) 785-1766 (408) 647-8363 Fax (408) 647-8483

[email protected] [email protected]

Wolfgang Bieck Craig WilsonAm Britzenberg 23 7210 Harvest Hill Road

29549 Bad Bevensen, Cermany Madison, WI 53717(+49) 5821 24 43 (608) 831-6770

[email protected] [email protected]

A year ago, kites were the focus of thesummer issue of the aerial eye.

Since then, I've made changes in thekites I fly and how I fly them. Other KAP-ers have likewise made changes and im-provements in their kites and flight meth-ods. So revisiting and updating thesetopics seems like a good idea. There’struth in the adage “Only a fool learns fromexperience: a smart man watches andlearns from the fool.” In kite selection andflight method we've all made some fool-ish mistakes, but let's learn from mistakescollectively, not individually.

For me, delta-Conyne kites are still theideal load lifters. Six DCs are in my bag: a13' Sun Oak, a 10' Marshall and four 8' Ul-tralights. Some experienced KAPers userokkakus, parafoils, deltas, and other de-signs. Each design has inherent advantag-es and disadvantages; flying skill can over-come disadvantages and accentuateadvantages.

I’ll describe my own technique for flyingDCs, and leave the detailed discussion ofother designs for KAPers with more non-DC experience. Last year I used one non-DC kite—an Italian-made facet box kite forhigh wind conditions—but it crumbled in agale one day and is no longer in my kite-bag, So my experience is now exclusivelywith DCs.

Like most kitefliers, I watch tree limbs,leaves, and flags to estimate wind speed.In a strong wind, the 10' DC goes up alone;in weak winds, the four 8' DCs go up intrain. For moderate winds, the 13' DC pro-vides the lift or, if needed, one or two 8'DCs are added in train below it. The 10'

our feature this issue:

kites & flightby STEVE EISENHAUER

and 13' DCs have cen-ter openings toosmall for use as alower kite in a train;the 8' DCs have largeopenings designedfor flying in a train.

The hardest-pullingkite should always beat the top of a train;during early ascent atlower elevations the lower kites tend toflop around (and even occasionally circle).Like a train locomotive, the top train kitemust be big enough to pull the lowerkites into flying position and to preventderailment (a plunge from the sky).

DCs have a tendency to overfly [i.e.,glide over your head with slack line] inlight winds or whenever the wind diesdown. If your camera is attached, this ten-dency can be problematic: your cameraloses altitude quickly, and crashes if youcan't reel it in quickly enough. One solu-tion is a substantial tail or drogue. I useboth on my 13' DC: a drogue (29" circum-ference inlet, 4" circum. outlet, 16" length)that trails 15' behind, and two 6' long 5-strand streamer tails. On my 10' DC, two 6'long 5-strand streamer tails alone are suf-ficient since this kite isn't used in lightwinds; the tails are more for stabilizingkite movement than to control overflight.

On the 4 DC train system, the top kitehas similar 6' long' 5-strand streamer tails.Never put a tail or drogue on kites belowthe top kite: entanglement can occur asthe kites often wander during ascent.

• continued on page 24

2 years = 8 issuesThis issue completes our second year of

publication. It’s late due to conflicting per-sonal priorities—sorry about that. Our sub-scriber list now stands at about 200. We’lllose some of those in the big year-end re-newal frenzy, but our dropout rate hasbeen very low, which is most gratifying.Makes the volunteer effort worthwhileand rewarding. Thanks.

Each issue brings a new contributor ortwo, but we can use more. Deadline isfirst of month of publication (see left).

Text via Email or on 3.5" (9cm) high-density disk (Mac or IBM in ASCII text for-mat) is preferred, but typed text or hand-written letters are welcome too. Like-wise, diagrams in PICT, TIFF, or EPS formatsare best, but pen drawings, preferably onwhite paper, will work as well.

Photos may be sent as negatives, printsor slides, or by electronic transfer only ifyou’re on AOL. We can also read KodakPhotoCD, or 3.5" high-density disks in theformats listed above. We'll keep theprints unless you direct otherwise, but re-turn all negatives, disks, CDs, and slides—eventually.

Send everything to Brooks Leffler at theaddress below.

the aerial eye fall 1996


nents: lift and drag. Lift is presumably use-ful since it lifts the kite and any payload.Drag is generally considered undesirablebut is very important in that it providesmuch of the stabilizing force the kiteneeds to fly steadily.

One of the important quantities meas-ured on aircraft wings is the lift to drag ra-tio, L/D. Ratios for different wings (or kites)can be compared as a measure of efficien-cy. The lift to kite weight ratio (L/W) canalso be used in comparison. But the windspeed must be considered too since thelift is directly affected by the wind speed.Since the drag also varies with wind speed,L/D may also be affected. Can of worms,isn't it?

I prefer to compare real kites on the ba-sis of lift per unit weight. This basis in-cludes all the faults of the builder and awk-wardness of the design.

How can one measure simultaneouslyenough of the factors involved to make ameaningful comparison? The proceduredescribed below may be one way.

If, in a photograph, the ho-rizon, the kite, and the kiteline are visible, the line angleand the angle of attack ofthe kite may be recorded si-multaneously. If the line ten-sion and wind speed couldbe measured and recordedin the same photograph allthe variable data could bepreserved in one picture!

Wind speed should bemeasured at the kite sincethe wind on the ground may

Looking up at kites flying overhead onesometimes wonders “Which is the betterflying kite?”

One can make a pretty good judgment ifone kite is outstanding or the others won'tfly. What if they are fairly evenly matched?How well is a chosen kite actually perform-ing? If you make a subtle change, did it im-prove or injure the kite performance?

Some measurements can be made fairlyeasily, such as the line pull, line angle, andkite weight. Others are more difficult, suchas sail area and wind speed.

Everyone knows that the pull on a kitestring increases as the wind strength in-creases, within limits of either not flying orcrashing. Even that is not strictly true; atlaunch the kite may pull very hard andthen pull less strongly as it assumes its nor-mal flying attitude.

Every kite is affected by three forces(Fig. 1). One is gravity, one is the line pull,and the third is the force caused by airflowing over the kite surfaces. The latterforce is composed of two major compo-

measuring kite characteristicsby ROBERT S. PRICE, Burtonsville, Maryland

Sure, I could make it just like someoneelse’s but that isn’t my style. Mine wouldneed to come from my heart, my soul, mygarage. So on Saturday I started.

The first thing I did was to go out intothe garage and look for different thingsthat I could use to build the Picavet out of.According to Wolfgang Bieck, before start-ing any project, you first need to build agarage. I already had a garage so I saved agreat deal of time and could get straighton to the Picavet.

Sure, any two sticks forming a crosswould work, but I was looking for some-thing with a “spirit” to use. Much of mypresent and past systems are constructedout of pieces that have spirit. Part of mypendulum is a piece of broom handle. Thebroom was used for as long as I can re-member in my family’s garage where Igrew up. It had spent it’s life sweeping upsawdust and dirt from many creative en-deavors over a period of maybe a dozenyears. When the bristles were worn downto mere nubs I cut the handle off andsaved it knowing that some day it wouldhave another use.

Some of the parts of my kites are fromold parachutes that my family used to setup as sun shades when we went camp-ing. A few nuts and bolts, some aluminumand aircraft-grade plywood componentsof my rig were once part of an airplanethat my father built.

A MATERIAL WITH SPIRIT

When I went into the garage to select amaterial for the Picavet I searched for amaterial that had spirit, a material thatwould contribute that spirit to my photog-

The trip to Berck-sur-Mer, France, inApril was quite an ex-perience for me. Theaspect of the experi-ence that had thegreatest impact onme was meeting oth-er KAPers. With the

exception of very brief encounters withBrooks, Anne, and Steve, I had never beenin the presence of another aerial photog-rapher.

Berck was for me a pilgrimage to theMecca of KAP, and I was completelyfloored by the creativity and beauty of therigs that I saw there. From the creative rigof 16-year-old Julien Guilbert of France tothe highly technical video-assisted rig ofAndrea Casalboni of Italy I was amazed atthe different approaches to solving thesame problems. My conclusion is thatthey all work quite well and that any sys-tem in the hands of a skillful and knowl-edgeable operator will make terrific pho-tographs.

HARANGUING & THREATS

After much ridicule, haranguing, persua-sion, and threats from some at Berck, Ihave conceded to go on-line, pay more at-tention to the needs of my family, andconstruct a Picavet suspension system.

I am on-line at work and at home now.I am still negotiating the family thing. AndI want to make it clear that I am not re-placing the pendulum with the Picavet,only adding the option of this beautifulsuspension system.

On the plane home from Berck I beganto consider how I would make the Pica-vet


the eagle of sitkaby CRAIG WILSON

4 5

Aerodynamic Force

Lift

Drag

Line Pull

Kite Weight

Fig. 1Forces on a kite


them. It's too heavy. Some ordinary paperglue will do the job just fine.

Never use heavy Dacron for reinforce-ments unless it is really necessary. Multi-ple layers of the sail fabric saves weightwith same result. Five layers of Icarex P31weigh as much as one layer of Dacron.

When you like to change the woodenframe of your kite to save some weight itis important to maintain its stiffness. Fromso-called spar comparison charts and myexperience I created a simple chart [left].

To attach the lines to the kites I uselark’s head knots to be fixed behind a fig-ure eight knot. Undoing these knots isproblematical unless you have a little loopat the end of the main loop. If this loop is

about 20 mm long you even canleave your gloves on. [see below]

I launch the kites one by one. Thefirst kite has 12m line and as soonas it flies stable the next kite is at-tached. This process is continued un-til I have the required lifting power.

• æ

6 7

When I started KAP the only serioussingle-line kite I owned was a 2.5m delta.Obviously this wasn't enough. I wentthrough a lot of kitedesigns; deltas, rok-kakus, delta-conynes, foils etc. It was diffi-cult to make a decision. The fact that mykite had to be a large one made me moreuncomfortable because I had no experi-ence in flying those kites.

Eventually I came to the conclusion tobuild a train of deltas. Trains of kites dohave some advantages. You can controlthe amount of pull by the number of kitesaloft. What's more trains are known to beless sensitive in “dirty” windconditions.There are always some kites in the trainthat do their work properly. And a delta isknown for its high flight angle and goodperformance in the light wind conditionsthat often occur in the place where I live.

What size? Some literature suggestedthat the pilot-kite should be larger thanthe others to provide some pull on thewhole system. Another argued that the pi-lot must be small to prevent overflying.Well, stay in the middle of the road andbuild them 2.5 m wide.

To overcome the traditional problem oftraining deltas I used Tom Pratt's designof a Twin Keel Delta as published in thebook Kites: A Practical Handbook by RonMoulton and Pat Lloyd [Argus House, 1992;ISBN 1 85486 050 X].

The last kite I had built was a indoor-stunt kite. In that sport, weight reductionis paramount. So why not use that experi-ence now? For weight in the kite reducesthe amount of “payload” in KAP. That'swhy I made the delta-sails in Icarex™ P31.That is a polyester ripstop weighing only

training deltasby PETER BULTS, Holthees, The Netherlands

31 g/m2 (1oz/sq yd). Other features areminimal stretch, high UV resistance andzero water absorption.

Of course the frame is made of graphitespars. I use a Exel RCF 7 spreader, a RCF 6Ultra for the spine and the leading edgesare kept in shape by RCF 5. This kiteweights only 180g [6 oz], which is a reduc-tion of 43% compared to my original deltamade of nylon cloth and ramin dowels.

If you consider to use Icarex for any ofyour kites in the future the following tipsmay be useful:

Since Icarex doesn't absorb water youcan use water to glue together temporari-ly larger pieces of fabric prior to the sew-ing. Just spray a little bit of water on onepiece and put the other in the right posi-tion. Stuck like nailed!

If you care about the weight of yourkite never use double-sided tape to keepsmaller parts in position before sewing

spar stiffness equivalentsSIZES (OD) IN MM

DOWEL GLASSFIBER CARBON

7 .................................................48 .................................................49 .......................6 .......................5

10 .....................6 .......................511 .....................8 .......................612 .....................8 .......................713 .....................9 .......................714 ....................10 ......................8

12 ......................914 .....................1119 .....................1522 .....................15

Lark’s Headwith loop

Figure-8 Knot

[left] Tethered Boat, by Peter Bults


A B

C

D

E

F

G

H

J

K

L

• æ

Craig’s delta is one of the hardest-workingkites in KAP, having carried his camera forthousands of pictures. He adapted the planfrom one published long ago in KAPWA News,and like all kite plans, it is scalable to largerand smaller sizes. He usually flies this kitewith a 100-foot (30m) tube sock tail tokeep it from overflying (i.e., flying attoo high an angle).

We mailed this plan as a bo-nus insert to our third issue,before many of our cur-rent readers had joinedus. But it’s such a suc-cessful lifter thatwe thought it de-served an encoreappearance.

—bgl

Lengths in cm.

Wingspan C-D = 472.4

SparsA-B = 274.3C-G & D-H = 233.7E-F = 213.4 Keel

A-J = 60.9Wings J-L = 142.2A-C or D = 304.8 L-B = 71.1B-C or D = 254.0 J-K = 91.4C-E & D-F = 162.6 L-K = 132.1

craig wilson’s trusty 18-footer

All spars are.616 filament-wound epoxytubing; sail is1.5 oz ripstopnylon.

nakajima-san’s double-box deltaby MASAMI NAKAJIMA, Narashino-shi, Chiba, Japan

The Cape of Futtsuis a major headlandrunning into TokyoBay. This headlandserves as a park, andits tip has a publicobservatory, goodspot with wide pros-pect.

I flew my 2.2mdouble-box deltafrom the top of theobservatory andtook the photo withthe Nikon Mini com-pact camera.

This kite, es-pecially in ul-tra-light materi-als, should be agreat lifter inlight air, due tothe biplane“slot” effect.It’s more com-pact andshould be easi-er to fly than atrain of delta-Conynes.

–bgl

8 9

• æ


and was concerned about the possibility ofbeing lifted off the ground if the otherneighbor abandoned him. I sat on theground with my feet braced among somerocks to anchor myself, while the twoneighbors walked the line down.

I wish I had a video of the whole en-counter as it was very interesting to seethe power of the wind at work. I was im-pressed at how well this rescue worked,even though I wasn't able to make a goodattempt until the second day after thetreeing. This was primarily due to the verygusty and changeable wind directions ofthe day after. It was amazing that thekites didn't get any more tangled thanthey did after a couple of days of beingtossed about by the wind.

I kept the line of the treed kites at-tached to the spool and clear of theground away from animals until I was ableto make each attempt, until success wasachieved.

[Between trips for his job with the Alas-ka State Ferry system, Henry keeps meposted by email on his adventures KAPingin the Great North Woods. Here’s a recentsaga which fits our theme for this issue. —bgl]

Yesterday I was trying to shoot somebetter photos of the neighbor’s house,while they were gardening in their yard. Itseems almost every time I try, the wind isjust not cooperative. This time was no dif-ferent and I should have quit while I wasahead.

Another neighbor's Chesapeake Bay Re-triever was being very playful and wantedto “fetch the stick” or anything else forthat matter.

The wind was going through lulls andgusts but I was trying anyway. I had two8' Delta-Conynes [see æ, 1.3] in tandem toprovide lift and had let out the line to thealtitude I wanted, intending to walk theline down to attach the rig since I had anavailable beach.

After a couple of tries, with the rig notattaining enough altitude for good shots, Ishould have quit. One last try, with thecamera in the air and the energetic dogclamoring for attention, I looked up in hor-ror to see everything sort of tumbling outof the sky.

I grabbed the camera, covered the lensand dropped it on the ground. A gust ofwind hit and the kites were upside downheaded for earth, then sort of startedtheir turn skyward. The line hooked abranch in a fir tree and the kites got intothe turbulent air behind the trees. Theyfell into the downwind side of the tree-tops and are still there.

After too long a time puzzling my pre-dicament, I decided to try to use my 14 ftD-C as a rescue kite. I didn't think of it be-fore the wind became entirely too light(though I did try). I made one attempt thismorning, but the wind was unreliable,changeable and from the wrong generaldirection. I became a bit afraid of losinganother kite to the trees. What do I dowhen I run out of kites?

TWO DAYS LATER…

Yayyy! I got em back!

Just thought I would drop you a shortline to let you know that I managed tofish my kites out of the tree. I used a bit ofexperience gleaned from KAP to help me.

kites in trees—an on-line serialby HENRY JEBE, Douglas, Alaska

On the rescue kite’s line (with the kiteabout 100 ft above the ground), I used along loop of line attached with a larkshead knot and then added a couple of ex-tra hitches to make sure the line wouldn'tslip at all. Through this loop I attached asmall carabiner, and snapped it aroundthe line of the kites to be rescued fromthe trees.

I let out enough line to start lifting therescuee’s line from branches. Holdingboth rescuee and rescuer lines and con-trolling them both was difficult at best.Soon a couple of neighbors came out andhelped, taking some line up on the spoolswhile I controlled the lines with my han-dles [see Henry’s Handles, æ 1.4].

First one kite let loose of the branches,and after about 15 minutes of walkingaround getting different angles of tensionthe other kite came free. Nearly the entirepower of the 14-ft D-C was pulling on thetwo rescue kites in a near-20-knot windbefore they came free.

Upon freeing, I was somewhat sur-prised that the kites pretty well flew inde-pendently. The tandem D-C's flew to oneside a ways and the14-ft D-C flew off tothe other side.

I have a couple ofsmall snatch blocksthat I made, whichwere very useful forpulling the three kitesdown all together.They were essentiallyflying on the sameline up to about 200ft where the carabin-er held them togeth-er.

The one neighboris only about 140 lbs.

Our intrepid correspondent ,KAPing in a less-frenzied setting.

• æ

A tree’s eye view ofHenry’s backyard flying field.

10 11


3

4

5

5°

rokkaku tips & techniquesby KEVIN SHANNON, 809 Factory Street, Carlisle, Pennsylvania 17013

[The traditional japanese design calledRokkaku—meaning six-sided—is widelyused as a KAP lifter, in sizes of 4 to 8 feethigh. It’s very stable, powerful, and easyto build. Rokkakus are among the de-signs marketed by Kevin’s Carlisle KiteWorks. He originally wrote these notesfor the 1991 AKA Convention and has gra-ciously allowed us to reprint them here. —bgl]

Rokkakus are built to proportions. Thetwo most common are the ratios of 3-4-5and 4-5-6. The first number is the distancebetween the two horizontal spreaders,the second is the span of the horizontalsand the third is the overall height of thekite. See illustration.

For example, if your base unit is 10 in.and you use the first ratio above, yourkite will be 30 in. between the horizon-tals, 40 in. wide, and 50 in. tall. By usingthese ratios, you can easily design yourkite to any size.

Of the two ratios, the most popular isthe 3-4-5 due to its more square shape.This is more pleasing to the eye when de-signing artwork for the kite materials.[Theoretically, the taller variant should bea bit more stable for KAP but would gen-erate slightly less lift due to its lower as-pect ratio. —bgl]

MATERIALS

The preferred fabric is ripstop nylon inthe 3/4 oz. to 1 oz. weight. Heavier weightripstop is usually too stiff to billow correct-ly for stability. Amazingly, cotton fabriccan make a very well-behaved Rokkakudue to its porosity, which induces stabiliz-ing drag. Just be aware that the winds

necessary to fly the kite must be strongerthan for ripstop versions. Also due to theirsofter coatings, parachute nylon or evengeneral nylons will make excellent Rok-kakus if you are willing to hot-cut every-thing and stabilize the finished kite by us-ing non-stretch edge binding.

Pockets for the frame should be madeof nylon webbing material or heavy cross-grain ribbon. Size the pockets so that theirwidth is four times the stick diameter.

FRAMING

Bamboo is the traditional framing mate-rial. If that is the direction you wish to go,you're on your own!

My preference is for hollow fiberglass(also known as epoxy tubing). My recom-mendations for sizes are as follows:

VERTICALS

up to 45 in. .208 (E-40) 46 in. to 60 in. .370 (FL370) 61 in. to 78 in. .414 (FL414) 70 in. to 110 in. .505 (FL505) IIO in. to 130 in. .610 (FL610)

HORIZONTAL SPREADERS

up to 40 in. 3/16 in. FG rod41 in. to 54 in. .248 (FL248) 55 in. to 70 in. .350 (K75) 71 in. to 85 in. .414 (FL414) 86 in. to lOOin. .505 (FL505)

These are general recommendationsbased on a 4-point bridle. By using a six-point bridle, you can lighten up on therods by one size.

BRIDLING

Probably the least understood part ofall kites is the bridle. Rokkakus are really

very easy to bridleusing this simple method:

1) Bridle positions on the sail are usuallyone unit in from each end of the horizon-tal spreaders, or for a stronger support onbig kites, 1/4 of the width of the horizon-tal in from each end.

2) Cut two lengths of line, each threetimes the height of the kite. Attach oneend of one line to the top bridle point onone side and the other end to the lowerbridle point on the same side. Attach theother length of line to the other side. Usewhatever method you choose to attachthe bridles to the kite so long as the twolines end up being of equal length. I preferloops on the line ends that pass through agrommet on the sail. This allows the bri-dle to be affixed directly to the spar.

3) Pull the left bridle out taut to theright of the kite so that the upper leg ofthe line is aligned with the top spreader.Then slide your finger up so that it isabout 5 degrees above the top spreader.Mark this point. See illustration.

4) Transfer this mark to the same spoton the other bridle line and attach both

lines to a sturdy tow ring with a lark’shead loop at the marked point.

This is your reference mark, whichshould be very close to the actual towpoint. Fine tuning is done on the field in

preparation for flying.

BOWING

The depth of the bowstrings on thespreaders should be 10% of the width ofthe kite on larger kites (6' tall or more)and up to 15% of the horizontals on small-er kites. The deeper bowing is needed onsmaller kites because they react morequickly to gusts and eddies in the wind.

Be sure to use a bowing tie-off methodthat will not come loose if the kite isstruck. I have seen many kites becomeunflyable after contact with another kitesimply because the bowstring has loos-ened, making the kite uncontrollable dueto loss of stability.

FLIGHT ADJUSTMENTS

Kite won't rise: Move the tow point to-ward the top of the kite in small incre-ments until the kite wants to fly.

Kite is unstable (fishtails): Move thetow point toward the bottom of the kitein small increments until the kite is stable.If necessary, increase the depth of thebow.

• æ

12 13

Length of bridlenot drawn to scale.

It will be longer.

the aerial eye fall 199614 15

aerial gallery

Above: Pavilion, Red Reef Park, Boca Raton, by Bob Pebly

Below : Croquet Tournament by Brooks Leffler LR: Old Chattanooga Bridge by Chuck Jones

R: Prom Night Bow-Tie Adjustment, by Cris Benton

R Center: Castle in Bodenteich, near Uelzen, Germany, by Michael Haugrund

Above: Capitol Hill, Washington DC, by Steve Eisenhauer



16 17

It was a normal tension-filled day atwork, so when I got home the prospect ofsome relaxation was a high priority.That’s why kite-flying was invented,wasn’t it? The fact that the wind was per-fect, both in strength and direction, mayhave influenced the situation too. So af-ter checking with my wife about supperplans and finding that it was “a bowl ofsoup anytime”, at 6 PM out the door Iwent. I live in a rural area, so it was ashort trip to the front yard with a 12-footdelta, line, and flight box.

In short order all was assembled, andthe delta was up sporting tails from thecenter and both tips. This was the secondflight for this kite, and I paused withabout 50 feet of line paid out to gauge thestrength of the wind. The pull, whilestrong, seemed manageable and consider-ing the time of day one could expect thewinds to diminish, so away we went.

As the kite rose I noticed it flew at anextreme angle, much higher than 45 de-grees. I attributed this to not havingmuch line exposed to the wind, and wascurious how the line angle would changeas more line went out. Every few hun-dred feet I paused and secured the line toa screw-in dog stake to rest, observe lineangle, and to enjoy the view. Once againI congratulated my good luck on wind di-rection: No trees or power lines down-wind. Nothing but unplanted cornfields.

Eventually, all 1000 feet of line was out.Hmmm.....decision time. In the flight boxwas another 1000 foot spool of line thathad never been flown, and it was whisper-ing “fly me.” Well, why not. After somefiddling with swivels and knots, the newspool was attached and happily spinning

line into the sky.

Although the surface winds continuedto die, the winds aloft seemed as strongas ever. Finally I started reeling in, but af-ter only 50 yards or so I realized walkingdown was going to be a necessity. I be-gan to make the necessary arrangementsto anchor the line and reel, and that’swhen IT happened.

One second the reel was in my hands—and the next second it was gone!

The first lesson learned was immediate:next time I fly this kite the reel at mini-mum will be tied to me. The second les-son learned was that I couldn’t climb abarbed wire fence and run through a corn-field nearly fast enough to catch the rapid-ly disappearing reel. The third lesson was,always put my name on the kite.

At this point, I slowed to a walk andhoped I’d be able to keep the kite in sightuntil hopefully it snagged on something.Then I heard a car engine racing andlooked over to see my wife headed up thelane to the road, hoping to catch the reelas it crossed the road.

Unfortunately, the reel beat her to thecrossing point and went over anotherbarbed wire fence as it headed across theneighbor’s field. The last I saw, it hadbeen hitting ground about every 30 feetor so. As I stumbled up to the road, how-ever, it seemed the kite wasn’t driftingfurther away.

Hooray, it must be snagged! The ques-tion was, on what? As I looked towardsthe neighbor’s house 1/4 mile away, thefourth lesson of the day was learned. Justwhen I figured I had a relatively harmlesshobby, the realization hit me that the reel

watt happened!by TOM BURGENER, Freeport, Illinois

could easily have gone through their frontwindow.

Actually, it took awhile to determinewhere the kite was snagged. I couldclearly see the kite, but with 2000 feet ofline it was difficult to figure out where theend was. Although the reel was brightorange, the top of a 7200-volt power poledown a long country lane didn’t seem anormal place to look.

It was very tempting. The reel was notquite 20 feet above the ground with theline going over the top wire and the reelfetched up solid against the lower wire.From ground level it was impossible to tellhow it was snagged, but it gave the ap-pearance that a slight movement of thereel could release it to fly again. It couldbe easily reached by ladder, but…therewas that 7200 volt thing.

Now I’ve been known to attempt a fewdangerous things, but I respect 7200 volts,and I’ve heard too many stories aboutplastics conducting high voltage elec-tricity because of the moisture con-tent of the material.

Swallowing what little pride Ihad left, I called the power com-pany. The customer service op-erator wasn’t exactly sympa-thetic, and explained to methat they “don’t do kites.” Iexplained the situation.

“So, this is an adult kite?”she asked. Not wanting to hesitate toolong over an honest answer to that one, Isaid yes, it was an expensive kite. “Andyou’re saying that it poses an electrocu-tion hazard?” she queried. Well, no, Ihadn’t said that exactly, but I was begin-ning to get a feel for this game. “Well, thereel is right against the wire and it’s easilyreached from a ladder, so yes, I suppose itcould be considered an electrocution haz-

ard.” I didn’t add that the most likely per-son to get electrocuted was me. Eventu-ally she agreed to relay my call.

Over an hour passed with no word fromthe utility. I was getting desperate/frustrated and finally grabbed a rope andheaded back to the power pole. As Idrove down the road I saw a large dark sil-houette ahead of me with a spotlight—thecompany truck, finally.

I led him down the farmer’s lane to thepole and he shined his light up at the reel,looked back down at me and said“Where’s the kite?” “Up there,” says I.“Where?” says he. By now there was ab-solutely no surface wind, so I could under-stand his confusion. “Uh, about 2000 feetthat way,” I said pointing skyward.

He shined the light back up, spotted thestring, and followed it until it disappearedinto the sky. Then he looked back down,shook his head, and with a comedian’s

sense of timing said “Didn’t your motherever tell you not to fly kites next to

power lines?”

Humiliated, positively humiliat-ed. But at least he was smiling,

and he admitted that callingthe power company was the

correct and socially respon-sible thing to do. So he

geared up and climbedinto the cherry picker.

Initially our plan wasto tie the rope to the reel for security, butonce up he determined the reel hadmade a couple loops and twists aroundthe lower wire and there was no way tountangle it with the rope attached. Imade sure to tell him to hang on to thereel for dear life, and he started untan-gling it. (Very frightening to watch himbracing his body against bare wire, evenwith the proper equipment!)


• æ

very special friend, this suspension sys-tem has “the spirit.” It has been ma-chined, shaped, touched, and blessed.

Once the Great Eagle perched upon thisSitka’s majestic branches; now the greatSitka has been given the gift and it toowill fly.

The rewards will be great. • æ

sitka • continued from page 5

raphy. I went to the storage binin my garage, passed over theplastic tubing, the aluminumstrapping, the small pieces ofclear maple, oak, and pine, and se-lected a ten-foot-long piece of Sit-ka spruce—a piece that was leftover from the construction of myfather’s airplane, a piece of woodthat I have been saving for almostfifteen years. A piece of woodthat, from the day it sproutedfrom the earth, was meant to fly.

I needed less than 16 inches ofthis wood, but the long piece ofSitka was the proper choice. Sitkais light, straight, rare and beautifuland it is the only wood to use ifyou are building a flying machine.The real beauty of this choice was that itmeant that I could add extra spirit usingmy old table saw and dado head, drill, tri-square, compass, block plane, sandpaper,jig saw, glue and clamps, and a ruler frommy grandfather to assemble the cross andto give it an airfoil profile.

With the addition of a beautiful set ofminiature blocks that were a gift from a

1918

the autostable kite of s. berthométext & drawings by GEORGES GREPIN, Aressy, Bizanos, France

I am extremely interested in sticklesskites for low speed wind, as I usually workin remote areas, swanps and wetlands,where it is sometimes difficultto use a large Rokka-ku or delta,

and there is a lack of wind at low altitude.

I have tested two models of sticklesskites (parafoil type) but I was not confi-

dent with these models as I experi-enced unexpected folding without

recovery in unstable winds.

I suppose the technology hasevolved now. One of the best soft kites Ihave tried was designed by a French engi-neer, Sylvain Berthomé, many yearsago.…It is based on an autostable NACAwing shape. The incidence of this wing

adapts to the wind speed and the liftand drag is reduced in comparisonwith a Rokkaku when the wind in-creases. The kite flies well overyour head and you need a tail tolower the angle. Due to the smallnumber of lines, it is extremelyeasy to handle and take off.

I had no chance to use it forKAP, but it’s designer had usedit for video. …I think that aninflatable tube inside thewing will avoid accidentalcollapse. I have no time tobuild and try this system,but I think it will workwell. Anybodyinterested?

• æ

KAP in the pressKite Aerial Photography has gotten an

unusual amount of attention in the printmedia since the first of the year.

Most lavish coverage has been given bySport & Design Drachen, published in Ger-many and distributed all over Europe.Last fall Wolfgang Bieck negotiated a reg-ular space for KAP in each issue of the bi-monthly magazine, and he is coordinatingthe series of articles. Two-page spreadshave been authored by many of our regu-lars: Craig Wilson, Steve Eisenhauer, Katsu-taka Murooka, and Brooks Leffler in addi-

tion to Wolfgang himself. The series con-tinues.

The Cerf-Volant Club de France devotednearly all of the January issue of their jour-nal Le Lucane to KAP, with many photos.

Air & Space, a monthly published bythe Smithsonian Institution, gave two pag-es to Craig Wilson in their March issue, in-cluding Craig’s very unusual image of theIwo Jima Memorial in Washington DC.

Steve Eisenhauer garnered seven (!)pages in the March/April issue of BirdWatcher’s Digest, from which we’vegained a couple of new adherents.


• æ

measuring kites • from page 4


forces exerted by the ball anemometer onthe weight and kite line can be included inthe tension calculations.

To obtain meaningful data several con-ditions must be satisfied. The air flowmust be relatively stable. The horizonmust be visible. The kite should be astable flyer. The kite should fly well at analtitude such that the required elementscan be readily distinguished in photo-graphs, and all should appear in the samephotograph.

In my early experiments my require-ments were basic: a kite, kite line, thelightweight anemometer, the weight-string tensiometer, and a good camera inthe field; a pair of drafting triangles, a goodscale and/or balance, a protractor, a calcu-lator, paper, and pencil.

Before going to the field one weighedthe kite, the weight, and the ball. In thefield, one person flew the kite and anotherphotographed it. The only skill requiredwas to be at the proper position so thatangles were not unduly distorted by paral-lax and to click the shutter while condi-tions were stable. As a check on the lattercondition several pictures were taken afew seconds apart so that it could be es-tablished that conditions were not chang-ing too fast; that is, the kite was not climb-ing, falling, yawing, etc.

When photographs were printed theywere ready for measurement. Paper andphotograph were firmly attached together,or to a table, while the measurementswere being made. Using triangles and par-allel rules, lines parallel to the horizon, kitekeel, ball line, and the two segments ofkite line on either side of the weight weremade on a piece of paper. Angles weremeasured with a large protractor toachieve as much accuracy as practicable.

be much less than it is 50 or 100 feet up.Therefore the anemometer should be verylight and remote-reading. An anemometerusing a ping pong ball was developedsome years ago*.

The ball, supported on a fine monofila-ment line, is blown by the wind until theline is at a certain angle from the horizon.The angle depends on the aerodynamicdrag and the weight of the ball. If the an-gle can be measured the wind speed canbe calculated. A ping pong ball is not verylarge, and the short string length on theping pong ball might make reading the an-gle from the horizon very difficult.

Styrofoam spheres hollowed out may beused as a substitute for the ping pong ball.The equations for the larger sphere can bederived from those of the ping pong ballanemometer. The length of the line sup-porting the ball can be increased greatly solong as its weight and drag are negligible.

Many years ago I reinvented a methodof measuring the tension in a kite line.When a known weight hangs from a lineunder tension the line is bent. If the anglesof the ascending line and of the descend-ing line relative to the horizon are meas-ured, the tension in each line may be cal-culated.

The essential elements are thus availa-ble. To apply them is rather easy. A rubber-jawed clamp may be attached to the kiteline about 10 feet below the kite. Theknown weight may be attached to theclamp and the ball line attached to thebottom of the weight. If there is no swivelat the kite and care is taken in launching,there should be no twisting or fouling. The

* see “The Amateur Scientist, Experi-ments with Wind: a Pendulum Anemome-ter and Miniature Tornadoes” by C. L.Strong, Scientific American, October 1971.

in the winter issue:

KAP ElectronicsNow is the time to report on

your electronic solution

to a KAP problem.

AD & COPY DEADLINE

NOVEMBER 1, 1996

side pine tree, and my expensive camerasubmerged.

Inexplicably, the canoe slowed down,and stopped. My eyes, previously fixatedon a falling camera, glanced downward tosee a wonderfully-thick mass of blackrush: a plant that grows only in very shal-low water.

I cranked the camera all the way downwithout mishap, unhooked it from thekiteline, pushed my canoe paddle deepinto the lakebed mud, and tied the imbed-ded paddle to the canoe. With the kitestill flying (safely now) at 200 feet, Ipaused with my kids and we paid hom-age to the good luck angels.

After a few minutes, the camera wentback up and I got my photographs. Theonly witnesses to my folly were my kids,and they're so accustomed to my mis-haps they often don't tell anyone aboutthem. Now I only have to deal with my im-age with the 200 subscribers to æ. Butthen you're scattered over 18 countriesthroughout the globe. I probably won'trun into any of you downtown next weekwhen I pick up groceries, and a boat an-chor.

As the wind pulled my canoe across thelake I muttered: “This isn't what Iplanned!”

The wind was strong. Ten minutes earli-er I paddled the green 16-foot Old Townecanoe into lowgrowing reeds and onto asubmerged log. The canoe seemed secureso I didn't bother to tie it to a nearbybush.

My two kids were in the canoe’s front.They knew their role: dangle hands andfeet in the shallow water, pull out a lilypad or two, just stay occupied until Dad'sfinished flying his kite and getting his aeri-al photos. It should take about 20 min-utes.

The 4l-square-foot Marshall delta-Conyne went up quickly: I only had tostand briefly to launch it. At 200 feet ele-vation I hooked on the 2-channel cameracradle and sent it up 100 feet.

Everything looked fine. Just send thecamera up 200 more feet and get someaerial lake photographs. But suddenly alengthy squeak came from the bottom ofthe canoe: the unmistakable sound of aRoyalex-plastic canoe rubbing across alog. A gust of wind had caught the kiteand lifted me and the canoe off the logand into deeper water.

I looked back at my kids, hoping toblame someone else for this situation. Butthey stared at me with innocence andamusement: “Dad, we're moving.”

The kite was pulling hard. The canoewas sailing along. The camera was drop-ping. I was reeling in line like a madman.But the other side of the lake was draw-ing near. I imagined my trusty delta-Conyne entangled in a 60-foot-high lake-

sweat the detailsby STEVE EISENHAUER

2120


Kite Keel

AKd

ABdAFd

String Ball Marker

Photo Axis

True HorizonH or A, + or -

Anemometer Ball

Lead Weight

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Fig. 2CoordinateMeasurements

measuring kites • from page 20 coordinates of nine points oneach usable photograph wererecorded by hand and en-tered as data to a revision ofthe computer program, Figure2. The program computed theangle of the string segmentsand the kite keel to the hori-zon. It then calculated theforces and ratios as before.

A typical photograph isshown below. It has beenmarked to show the pointsmeasured on the digital im-age. The defined lines couldalso be transferred and meas-ured to obtain the desired angles. The ac-tual coordinates are measurable to about1 pixel.

Two difficulties were encountered. Apoint (“4” in Fig. 2) on the kite line about 20feet below the kite was marked by a ballabout one inch in diameter. This indicatedthe direction of the weight to flier line. Theball was extremely hard to find in theprints and even more difficult in the digitalimage. The red ball was easier to see butwas still too small. The solution to thisproblem is use of a larger marker paintedblack. Since it is to be located at the lowerend of the string segment leading ground-ward from the weight,it will have no effect onthe kite measurements.

The major remainingproblem is positioningthe camera so that theproper view is obtained.This is obviously a prob-lem that may be solvedby using more observ-ers and/or more sophis-ticated rigging.

In summary, at thepresent time several ex-

peditions have been made to obtain data.Record reading and data processing havebeen accomplished. The instrumentationhas performed well considering the envi-ronment and abuse it has endured.

How good is the system? Probably asgood as the wind conditions under whichthe tests were made. There seems to be adirect correlation of the consistency ofdata with the wind conditions for a seriesof pictures. Kite height is the second im-portant condition. More data will help inevaluating this technique that does meas-ure the performance of real kites in openair.

22 23

a neat little bookIf you find Bob Price’s article intriguing,

you may wish to read a new book byDutch kitemaker Harm van Veen calledThe Tao of Kiteflying, published by AeolusPress, who produce Kite Lines Magazine.Only 56 small pages long, it is packed withkite theory and Harm’s wise and whimsi-cal illustrations, and serves as an excellentplain-english discussion of kite stabilityand how to achieve it. It’s $12.95 pluspostage. See Sources, page 28, for order-ing info.

The resulting numbers were used as in-put to a home-brew computer program toobtain aerodynamic lift (the total of thekite weight and vertical string pull at thekite) and wind speed. The results wereplotted. Within the scatter of the data itwas possible to detect the wind speed atwhich the kite would fall and the lift atsome standard speed. The latter value, af-ter combination with the kite weight toobtain an L/W figure, could be used tocompare two kites.

ENTER KAP

After early experiments, I concludedthat data should be obtained at higher alti-tudes than were possible using a ground-based camera. The kite height was limitedby the requirement to see the horizon andresolve the ball, weight, and string in thesame photograph. A telephoto lens wouldpermit observation of the kite and instru-mentation but the horizon would be be-low the field of view.

The ability to use a camera supportedby a kite has made it possible to obtaingood records of kite performance at high-er altitude, and still satisfy all the condi-tions. Camera and subject kite can be wellabove the ground, the horizon can be visi-ble, and the camera and subject kite canbe close enough together to obtain ade-quate resolution. It is easier said thandone but it has been done.

Three expeditions were fielded to Re-hoboth Beach, Delaware, and on the thirdattempt nine usable pictures were ob-tained out of twelve attempted. Aboutnine usable photographs were obtainedwith the camera on the ground.

A new approach to record reading wasused on these photographs. Though thefilms were processed as usual to obtainprints, they were also digitized and the im-ages stored as files on floppy disc. The X-Y

• æ

vertical verseKind of a new perspective Intensive Type of new photo Evolutionary

And cool too Extrodinarily exciting Right in every way Interesting Awesome Lights up the sky PeacefulHeck of a new style Outrageous Takes us everywhere Out of this world Great and cool Really real At the click of the shutter... Photos are taken above ground Heights are unbeliveable You should try it soon

Casey WilsonMadison, Wisconsin


air. The box section makes a DC relativelysluggish and stable, and provides a lot oflift; the delta section facilitates launchingin light winds. Launching can be the mostenjoyable aspect of kiteflying; I love toshow off for onlookers: rapidly letting out200' of line with the kite less than 20' up,the drogue or streamer tails occasionallytouching the ground, and then brakingthe line and watching as the kite rocketsin a smooth arc upward to near vertical.

I’m a big hulk of a guy, 6'2" tall and 210Ibs., but I always strive to appear as agraceful kite aerial photographer. It maybe an unreachable goal: no one has everused that word to describe me. But per-haps, as I grow older, less-frequently fre-netic and more experienced, the ascen-sion and flight of my wonderful DCs mayhelp transform my KAP style.

The end result may never be graceful.More graceful may be all there is for me,and I’ll just have to live with that.

Kitefliers are concerned with havingclear land below their kite in flight. Withan expensive camera aloft, I'm more con-cerned with having clear land behind me.Although I don't run when sending kiteand camera aloft, I often walk quicklybackward to increase the relative windspeed. Walking backward with the windbehind you is a great way to launch yourkite when the wind is weak near theground, or to keep your camera aloftwhen the wind is intermittent. I like tothink I’m too sophisticated to run, butwhen my $1,500 video camera is aloft in-stead of my $300 35mm camera, runningis immediately added to my repertoire offlying methods.

Solo launching of DCs is easy: the boxsection helps hold the delta section up-right on the ground; with a little line ten-sion and a light breeze I can walk 100 to500' away and long-line the kite into the

kites & flight • from page 3

• æ

summer sleddingby PAUL FIEBER, Madison Wisconsin

It was hard to tell who was havingmore fun — parents and kids buildingkites, teacher/organizer Jeff Kataoka ofthe Kite Society of Wisconsin or Craig Wil-son, coaxing his pendulum-hung Pentaxabove dozens of little sled kites flutteringin a gentle breeze over Milwaukee’s LakeMichigan shoreline.

The Friday evening before, Craig hadgiven an inspiring talk and slide presenta-tion to a small but enthusiastic group atan exhibition entitled “Play Per View”sponsored by the Milwaukee Art Museum,the Kite Society of Wisconsin and Gift ofWings, a local kite shop.

Seeing Craig’s slides and prints firsthand was a treat. As a fellow Madisonian,I was familiar with many of his subjects,but the views from above were amazingand almost unimaginable. In his responseto questions about technique and equip-ment, Craig’s simple philosophy was evi-dent — that passion and commitment areusually more important than the stuffthat gets hung in the sky, or how it hap-pens to get up there.

But back to Saturday! By mid-morning adiverse group of parents, kidsand older folks were in fullswing at the lakefront Art Mu-seum, designing and buildingdozens of small sled kitesabout 28 inches high.

After a hour of cutting,drawing, gluing and affixingline, kids and adults liftedtheir kites amid the laughterof children, the quiet clicks ofrollerbladers easing their wayalong a nearby lakefront path

and the energizing sounds of great classi-cal compositions rolling from huge speak-ers. What a blast!!

In between all those tiny sleds I had myfirst experience of flying my new D.C. in acrowd, even though my KAP stuff isn’tquite ready for the line. It was a bit scarywith all that traffic, but it turns out therereally is a lot of room up there. And Jeffwas good enough to point out the fewplastic kites to avoid because of their nas-ty lines.

The Art Museum Kite Fly lifted spirits aswell as kites. Several adults I spoke withseemed as delighted as the kids, amazedat how much fun they were having andhow relaxing it was to build and fly a kite.

And it is quite likely that Craig inspiredat least one inner city kid to somedayhang a camera in the sky.

It might also be a good idea to keep aneye on Craig. I thought I overheard himsaying something about picking up a pairof rollerblades for some reason or an-other. I couldn’t help wondering if he willlace them on before or after his big deltais up. • æ

CRA

IG W

ILSON

watt happened! • from page 17

2524

Sure enough, the winds aloft were fear-some and he nearly lost it when the lastwrap came off. From the look on his faceI’d say he gained a new respect for thepulling power of a 12-foot delta. As weparted I thanked him for coming out atnight, and my wife thanked him for nothaving to listen to me grumble for aweek.

I spent the next 1-1/2 hours walking upand down lanes, the road, and the corn-fields in the dark dragging that thing outof the sky. At 500 feet the pull was great-ly less, and at about 100 feet my kite final-ly gave up and fluttered down.

The fifth thing I learned is that 2000feet isn’t much across open and smoothground, but it’s a different thing altogeth-er in the dark over cornfields that just re-

ceived 2 inches of rain. At 11:00 I stag-gered back into the house, culminatingmy 5-hour “fun fly".

Three weeks after the event I receiveda call from a company conducting a cus-tomer satisfaction survey for the powercompany. My name had been fed to thepollster “as a person who had some inter-action with the utility in the last severalweeks.”

The power company is generally held inlow regard due to their outrageous prices,but it’s hard to be critical when one’s 12-foot delta and tails with 2000 feet of lineand reel attached were rescued at nocharge at 9:00 at night by a lineman whowas more amused than irritated.

I hope my answers don’t skew the re-sults too much.

• æ


CAVEAT BUILDOR

Today I found the weakest link in mysystem. It was a BROOXES HANGUP™ [æ 1.4]. Iwas flying a FlowForm 30 because thewind was blowing much more than thedelta-train likes. As usual I fixed the cradlewith two hangups to the kiteline. Sudden-ly one of them failed. The “side-plate” ofthe part where the line is looped aroundcame off in such a way that the hangupjumped off the line. Since I use a Picavetsuspension there was a second hangupthat kept the camera in the sky, so no realharm done.

The reasons for this problem are in myopinion: a) the material I used isn't strongenough; I used plastic from a cuttingboard, but I'm not sure it is UHMW. b)The pinching forces of the loop in the kite-line are huge. c) The pushing forces oftwo pieces of line trying to pass in thesame gap are important.

Anyhow, I think it is good to thinkabout the hangups if you use a strongpulling kite. Either you use a stronger ma-terial (aluminium) or heavy duty hangups.My suggestion for the latter is to use twoextra metal side-plates (big washers) andfix them to the standard hangup bymeans of a bolt and nut. The addedweight won't be a problem in those condi-tions.

Peter BultsHolthees, Netherlands

[This is the first failure of a hangup thatI’ve heard about. I created the device foruse with my gear, namely rigs weighingless than 2 pounds (900g) and kites whichare comfortable on 220# (100kg) line. I

wouldn’t use a FF30 in the conditions Pe-ter cites, I’d use my FF16, but if you don'thave that option, you have to make dowith the kites in your bag. If you’re usinghangups with heavier rigs or line or instrong winds, be prepared! —bgl]

KIND WORDS

I've received the first six issues of theaerial eye and am delighted with thetreasure trove of information on KAP. Con-gratulations on a stunning mag!

I have a simple Pentax PC-500 point-&-shoot camera, and have set up a cradlesimilar to [brooxes better brownie box, æ1.1] with panning servo and shutter re-lease servo. I am currently flying it with adouble delta-Conyne from Into The Windin a ten foot span; it seems quite stableand lifts the load easily. Hope to get somefilm in the camera on the next outing, andwill let you know if good results begin tooccur.

Bob EskridgeMiami, Florida

PETER’S PROGRESS

I own both a Sutton FlowForm 30 and aFlowForm 60. I've had the most luck withthe 30 using a donut [Halo hoop winder]and 250lb. line. It has taken some time tomove up the learning curve but this com-bination is what I'm feeling the most com-fortable with right now. I've flown theFF60 a couple of times with 500 lb. linebut could only fit about 300 feet of it on a9 inch donut. Also, it can be very hard tohandle the line in any kind of a wind.

I've had the idea of eventually purchas-ing a Strato-Spool winder with a brake.This wouldn't be very portable but couldbe a way to maintain some control….

I hope to keep working out the bugswith the goal of getting some publishable

aerialetters KAP photos for [National Geographic Mag-azine] and, of course, the æ in the future.…

It has been hard to experiment whileon assignment. I prefer to have my techni-cal house in order before I leave home,but I guess I just sound like I'm makingexcuses. Perhaps KAP can be both fulfill-ing and humbling at the same time. Ametaphor for life.

Peter EssickBrooklyn, NY

WINDMILLS AUF DEUTSCH

In the last issue of the aerial eye I readabout the windmill-style camera stationof Katsutaka Murooka and got a smile onmy face.

Four weeks ago I have finished thework on my newest camera-rig, whichtakes 8 photos in 360 degrees horizontallike the system from Katsutaka. The hori-zontal angle is changed by a modified ser-vo which works without limits.

To start the working of the rig, I have topush a switch. Then I have about 45 sec-onds to get the camera station stable onthe altitude. The servomotor gets startedfrom an electronic circuit to leave the stopswitch. After that, it will work on until itarrives at the stop switch again. Then ithas completed a horizontal movement of360 degrees. To start the work again, Ihave to push the start switch once more.

Last Friday, I had the system the firsttime in the air. Unfortunately, it was aclouded late afternoon and the wind wasvery slow. I have no results yet, becausethe film is not full (Waiting for the nextevent).…

If I have time, I will work out more in-formation about the system (pictures,electronic plans, results...)

Harald PrinzlerSchlangen, Germany

[Harald sent us tech specs, but we’llwait until we have pix to accompanythem. We look forward to a complete re-port. —bgl]

MORE KAP ON THE WEB

I am a new subscriber to the aerial eyeand have just received the first issue re-view. It's very nice! You can find some-thing about my KAP works at

http://users.iol.it/annagalletti/

Alberto BonatiImola, Bologna, Italy

These days I am absorbed in making ahome page for the Internet. The pagecontains JKPA members’ KAP photos andtheir information. You will see strangeletters on the screen (as the text is writ-ten in Japanese), but you will surely enjoythe photos. The home page is expectedto develop in future, with more and morephotos. You can access the page at:

http://www.cc.rim.or.jp/~nakajima

Masami NakajimaNarashino-chiChiba, Japan

[Eye-flier John Maxworthy of North Mer-rick, New York, also had a page severalmonths ago, but I can’t find it now.

Cris Benton’s venerable KAPage, if youhaven’t seen it, is at:

http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/~cris/kap/

We’re indebted to Cris’s Web site forabout half of our subscriber list, and you’llsee why. If there are other KAP sites outthere that we’ve missed, let us know! —bgl]

2726

• æ

Documents

the aerial eye v2 n4 - members.kite.org eye 2.4.pdf · The world’s largest selection of kite-related books. Catalog. Kite Studio 5555 Hamilton Boulevard Wescosville, PA 18106 Phone