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Last year (2002), some freinds and I flew a kite
while we were at the beach. Nags Head N.C. is just
south of Kill Devil Hills, where the Wright
brothers flew the first airplane, and the winds
there are perfect for flying kites. We thought it
would be really cool to hang a camera from the kite.
Little did I know there are lots of folks out there
that do this all the time.
This summer (2003), I investigated the subject on
the web, studied what others had done, and built
my own rig. I bought a 9' delta
kite to lift it. After dropping the first kite in
the Atlantic, I bought a 7' delta to replace it.
I recovered the kite, but lost one spar and broke
two others.
At the beach, I got great shots from day one, like
these:
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Self portrait of the ground crew.
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High point of the first flight.
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The ground crew dwindles.
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Why am I not on the beach?
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Looking South
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Looking West
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Looking NorthWest
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Surf's Up
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A day at the beach.
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Camera motion can cause distortion.
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Beach and Sandbar
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Another Angle
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Thanks...
I'd like to thank everyone who helped, especially
Glenn who helped much with the design and parts, and
James who lent me the RC gear and good advice.
Thanks also to ground crew Glenn, Gordy, Howie,
James, John, both Steves, Vicky and anybody else who
helped roll up the string. And thanks to the whole
Jellyfest crowd for moral support.
About the Rig...
I used an AIPTek Mini PenCam, a 1.3 megapixel
digital camera. It's lightweight (70 grams with the
batteries), compact, and takes good looking pictures
in full sunlight. Although other KAP'ers mostly use
film, I'm more familiar with digital, and I didn't
want to deal with getting the film developed while
on vacation.
I controlled the camera's two buttons with a homemade
cam lever, driven by a RC servo. I added an RC
receiver and a battery, and bolted/tiewrapped/hot-glued
everything to a 5 1/4" drive blank, then hung that
from a yoke made of coat-hanger wire.
The rig then bolts on to the Picavet cross I made,
and the cross hangs from the kite string itself. The
Picavet cross is a self-leveling device. It's just
a little frame that hangs from a cats-cradle of
string. The string attaches to the kite line at two
points. As the angle of the kite string changes,
the string slides through the points where it
attaches to the cross, and the cross remains level.
The whole thing only weighs about 13 oz. (350 grams),
and I had little trouble lifting it with the 9'
delta, and only minor problems with the 7' delta.
[back to Bill's KAP Page]
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