Flutterby™! : KAP

KAP

2005-12-13 23:45:32.478722+00 by ebradway 7 comments

While Charles Benton in Berkeley is probably the leading US guru for Kite Aerial Photography (KAP) and Dr. James Aber is the leading guru for scientific applications, Yvan van Hoorickx wins hands down for artistry! His site is absolutely amazing!

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2005-12-14 00:22:01.126365+00 by: ebradway [edit history]

I hate to leave people out. There are many, many others, like Scott Haefner, Brooks Leffler, Peter Bults and David Hunt.

Personally, I entered the fray this weekend when I launched my new Sutton Flowform 30 over Coolidge Park. My rig was fastened to the line and the images were blurry. I also fastened the rig assuming steady tension in the line. Never assume anything... Now I know that the Olympus Stylus 410 can't survive a fall from 300ft...

My new Olympus Stylus 800 arrives from Amazon tomorrow...

#Comment Re: made: 2005-12-14 00:35:34.951643+00 by: ebradway [edit history]

#Comment Re: made: 2005-12-14 00:59:44.816449+00 by: Dan Lyke

So at least the media survived...

It seems like it might be worth a few oz to put a small 'chute on your camera, don't know if you can pack it in such a way that it'd be sheltered in normal flight but flop free on release... Or maybe this is a place to involve a solid state accelerometer, a microcontroller, and a small deployment charge: a second of zero g (16 feet) and you explosively deploy a recovery chute.

Charles Benton has some great shots of Marin... I could spend some time here.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-12-14 14:16:30.553849+00 by: Hanan Cohen

The KAP of Timo Noko from Helsinki, Finland is a must see!

http://flickr.com/photos/timonoko/sets/137298/

#Comment Re: made: 2005-12-14 15:52:24.433317+00 by: ebradway

On chutes and charges: I've been seriously considering a chute rig - but I think a healthy dose of double-checking and anticipating Murphy's Law would be more advisable. The way I had the rig attached to the line was just plain stupid. Just as stupid as my using an $8 piece of nylon to tether my balloon when it floated away - along with by NIR camera rig. The line actually melted! Now I use $40 worth of 200lb Dacron from Into the Wind.

A promise I made myself when I ordered the nicer camera was that I would slow down a little and try to double-check everything. I also promised my self to start flying more often...

The rig I use with my video downlink is an enclosure made of plexiglas. It's amazing how much energy plexigas can absorb. The camera probably would have fared much better in that rig rather than the exposed aluminum bracket I used here.

#Comment Re: made: 2005-12-14 17:11:52.041613+00 by: meuon

Eric, what about RC planes/helicopter? Too much vibration?

#Comment Re: made: 2005-12-14 21:58:22.198478+00 by: ebradway

meuon: everybody asks that question. And there are four problems.

First: vibration, as you mentioned Second: weight, most RC systems don't have alot of room for lifting a pound or two Third: cost, RC planes and helicopters are expensive, especially if big enough to compensate for the second problem Fourth: Ever try to fly an RC helicopter or plane? It's non-trivial. And when you've got a couple $Gs in the platform and another $500 in the camera, you don't want to experience a crash.

But yes... You can buy nicely configured rigs for about $10,000. For about $150,000, you can buy a UAV that flies itself. My goal is to put together a system that can be built for under $1000 and flown for less than $100/flight and can integrate into GIS for analyzing geographic change.