Notes on Kite Aerial Photography: Background

KAP Technique
Regarding Trees


With apologies to Joyce Kilmer, I have developed a kite flier’s wariness regarding trees. More and more I have been flying from confined spaces. While kite line can often kiss a building’s edge without consequence, trees seem to have an almost sinister capacity to grab anything associated with kites and hold fast. Such was the case yesterday.

Images illustrating the tree story recently posted in the discussion page, On the left you can see my flying site with the offending tree prominent in the lower left corner. On the right is one of the subsequent Claremont Hotel images --  a two image montage using PanoTools (S400 Digital Elph, August 2003)..
 

I was flying from a small lawn beside an elementary school. To the leeward were several Eucalyptus trees (a familiar nemesis) and beyond that an 800’ ridgeline. The winds were somewhat confused, perhaps due to the ridge, and punctuated by occasional thermals. It was during one of these thermals, encountered just after mounting the camera rig, that I got into trouble.

My nice red Rokkaku with its light carbon frame will positively leap for the zenith in a thermal. There, directly overhead, it waits the slightest provocation to exit upside down. In a reverse equilibrium it then flies with accelerating vigor toward the ground. There are two remedies for this. The first is to give it slack line as encouragement to “float” with the hope that the kite’s longitudinal axis will spin around to upright. The second is to inhaul line and try to “power’ the kite through a loop of sorts so that it exits right side up. Many a time, one or the other of these techniques has sorted things out.

I first tried the slack line approach. For a few seconds I spooled line out freely, perhaps 100 feet or so, with the camera rig just clearing the ground. No change in the kite’s attitude. I tried a variety of line tugs aimed at coaxing the kite to turn. No effect. I tried inhauling line to force a turn. The kite merely accelerated downward. I finally watched it disappear behind the Eucalyptus with the kite line crossing the tree’s crown 100’ feet above the ground.

The first order of business was recovering the camera rig. I walked down the line and removed this safely. This was followed by a series of wildly optimistic tugs as though kite and line would magically appear at my feet. Funny thing though, the line pulled back. After squinting through the trees I realized that the kite had righted itself and was flying in the lee of the grove. I let out more line. The kite ascended and was soon above the trees. The line would slip through the tree’s grip very slowly but slip it did. In effect the tree was flying the kite. Nevertheless, I kept slipping more and more line out with the thought of gaining higher altitude and fresher winds.

After 15 minutes or so the kite was a couple hundred feet above the trees and flying quite well. I set about trying to tug the line out of the tree’s grasp. When a gust would load the kite up I would run upwind tugging on the line. This put substantial strain on the line making me glad I had loaded a fresh spool of line just the week prior and that it is my usual 200# test. The tree seems fit and determined to hold onto the kite. I pull on the line lightly, I pull heavily, I pull from just below the tree, I pull from the far end of the field, I pull from the right, I pull from the left. Pulling from the left ended up winning the day. After 30 minutes of working the kite line came partially free after a vigorous tug and a minute later was totally free and clear. Whew!

With kite recovered and gear checked, I took a break. Then the kite went up again and I was able to get a nice set of shots as the day waned.

Simon Harbord has posted his own tree tale -- see why I cozy up with tree surgeons on every opportunity.



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All rights reserved. Revised: Friday, June 25, 2010


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