Adelaide CBD (East Parklands)

KAP Report

Weather

A bit of a walk was necessary to get into position. Hence, the small but rather heavy yellow chair I use for multi-image panoramas had been left at home. However, one of the first flights recorded several images from just above the grass. One of these images was cropped down a bit to give an indication of the view from the launch point.

An online weather site had shown light winds gusting up 18 kph just before I left for the half-hour trip to the city. Maximum temperature was to be 17 degrees C. In fact, on the return trip (just after midday) the car's outside temperature reading showed 18 degrees—and climbing.

Boisterous gusts whipping across the grass led me to initially try the Fresh Wind Sled. But it turned out to just be the passing of moderately strong thermals. The average wind strength definitely suited the big Multi-Dowel Sled kite, a light-wind design.

A quick check with the wind meter revealed a gust to 17.4 kph. Perhaps gusts were reaching the low 20's higher up. There was certainly plenty of leaf noise in the tall trees of the area.

With no clouds obscuring the sun, the weather was quite consistent the whole time. If anything, the thermal activity got a little stronger as time wore on and the ground heated up further.

The longer patches of grass were still liberally covered in wetness. This felt a bit strange on such a sunny day!

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KAP Equipment

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Images

These images are samples of what the city of Adelaide looks like from between 200 and 300 feet over the eastern parklands.

Click on the thumbnail images below to see them much larger:

 

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Flight Report

As already mentioned, the Fresh Wind Sled was the first kite up. The reason being that once up high, it might encounter just enough average breeze strength to sustain a long flight. Unfortunately, this did not work out. The camera managed a few shots from just off the grass, but soon both camera and kite were back on the ground.

Most photos were closeups of the green grass as the cradle just stood on the ground. One image even featured a glorious portrait of my casual shoes. A fat magpie stood just meters away, poked its beak skywards and studied the low-flying sled for a moment before deciding to fly away.

A second attempt was made with the Fresh Wind Sled. This time at least half the shots were aerial. However, there just wasn't enough wind for the big blue kite. So, it was time to put up an even bigger sail. The light-wind Multi-Dowel Sled was fetched and unfurled.

This had turned into a slightly awkward situation. Only the bigger kite would easily launch and gain height in the low average wind-speed. But some of the gusts were quite strong which would make the huge sled pull like a bull! Still, there wasn't any other option if any decent KAP was going to happen.

As expected, getting the bigger kite to full height was easy. At this point the flying line was anchored to a small tree. Also as expected, the kite went very steep and cranked up the tension in the line.

While getting the kite down for a second photo sequence, the carabiner ran hot as I ran it along the line toward the kite. On my way back, with the second photo sequence primed to go off, the line pulled so hard that I felt my weight on the ground decrease momentarily! A short detour let me pick up the Fresh Wind Sled off the grass before taking it back to the tree-trunk tether point. No trees were harmed in the process of doing this KAP shoot :-)

With the camera dangling around 300 feet up and doing its thing, it was time to grab a few relaxing minutes. It was an opportunity to munch a banana, observe the aerial action, and text my wife to pop outside her office block to try and spot the kite!

Finally, it was time to bring the KAP rig down once again. This done, a few turns of line around a foot enabled me to photograph the still-flying sled a few times. After this, it was just a matter of making sure nothing was left behind on the field before returning home.

 

 

 

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