The Walking Ridge KAP Project

As a very young youth I dreamed of flying a glider down the small hills where I lived.  Of course, as I got older, I realized that this kind of adventure could be very hazardous to one's health.  I also learned about physics, namely that the flights would be incredibly short unless there were favorable winds, BIG hills, and large sums of money were spent on high tech gliders and safety gear.

It was an easy transition to place the wonder of flight into the world if kiting.  Because they are tethered, kites remain in close proximity to the ground.  This gives a reference to the constant wonder of flight.  And the simple elegance of stick, line, and nature's forces never ceases to inspire me.  It is the same sense of wonder that I get from sailing. 

For the active mind, the next step is to actually do something with a kite.  Flying stunts and fighting with kites is one natural alternative.  Taking pictures with a camera is another.  Aerial photographs without the expense and noise and licensing of an aircraft.  The magic of tinkering in a workshop for a few hours and seeing your creation work.  I became hooked on the idea of taking aerial pictures using a kite and camera. 

My first KAP (Kite Aerial Photography) rig was a simple affair with a point and shoot 35 mm camera mounted on a platform made of light plywood from a hobby shop.  I rigged a servo from a R/C radio I had laying around to trigger the shutter.  It took some great pictures of a yard (my intent was to shoot the horizon, I missed by a few degrees) but I did get images.

And I realized that this was a unique form of photography.  Typically, you see what you want to photograph.  You compose the photograph and take the picture when you think the time is right.  However, when you hang a camera under a kite, you have little idea what it is going to look like.  The camera hanging from the kite string has a unique perspective that you do not.  The element of surprise in included, and when I used 35 mm film, I spent a good deal of money in the one hour development places to satisfy my curiosity at what I had caught.

I moved up to a 14 foot delta kite and a Pentax 35 mm camera.  I added R/C control for some panning to get more variety from a single flight.  Along the way I learned that deltas were much more stable for me than soft lifting kites.  I've had the soft parafoils auger in more than once, and I don't use them any more.

However, I also came to realize that big kites mean heavy gear to wind them in (I used an old wire spool/winder from some utility company I think) and on many days could not get the rig off the ground.  I also found that I was working pretty hard to fly the kite and operate the R/C rig at the same time.

So I came to the conclusion that to do more KAP, KAP had to be fun.  KAP had to be relatively easy.  The lighter and easier to haul and store and set up, the more likely you are to head out and take a few kite aerial pictures. 

So the latest rig, under development, is going to be as lightweight as possible.  I have been taking pictures with 5 megapixel point and shoot cameras and I have been very very happy with the results.  I think they are even better than the 35 mm pictures.  The sensitivity allows for faster shutter speeds, less blur, and you know right away if the camera that you were flying high overhead got any good shots!  I am using Pentax SV and 550 cameras with time interval shutters.  So a picture is taken every minute, and there is no need to reach down to trigger the shutter, you can just fly the kite.

The final element that I am incorporating into this year's rig is a very slow pulse width modulated servo that will turn the camera at around 1/10 RPM.  So that you can get a 360 degree pan.  This will mean much more variety from a single flight.  I also have a laptop now (IBM Thinkpads are great for this, and very reasonable used) and will be able to download the pictures, and send the camera back up!

So stay tuned.  I'll be headed to the Toledo R/C show to take advantage of their display of technology there, and turn it into the lightest panning KAP platform there is!  To see the KAP gallery at Walking Ridge, go to the Walking Ridge home page and follow the link to the Gallery.  From there, you will find a variety of photographic topics, including kite aerial photography.

May 3, 2007 update

Many thanks to Brooks and Brooxes.com for his advice on kites and development of great lightweight KAP gear.  Before I could complete my design, I found his and he had already worked the kinks out of it.  10oz all up weight with a camera, it rotates 30 degrees, takes a picture, rotates 30 degrees, and takes another picture.  Spectacular. 

I am now a lover of the Sutton Flowform kites.  The Flowform 16 was able to lift the camera from a spot with variable ground winds and was stable as a rock above 150 feet.  Predictable, compact.  I was able to try several times to get it above 100 feet when it would start to get clear air and start pulling.  Because they have no sticks, the "crashes" from the flights that did not get there were total non events. 

In addition, for less than an ounce, I added an altimeter.  This tiny little device was very cool, giving the peak altitude for each flight.  This was a bit of gear borrowed from the world of R/C airplane flight.  Winged Shadow Systems developed it, and it worked flawlessly on the KAP flights so far.