A new hobby

I had a milestone birthday at the end of last year and decided that it was time for (another) new hobby. I've always enjoyed flying kites (current kite count 5) but liked the idea of using them for photography. This meant a move away from the delta stunt kite in exchange for a single line lifter - introducing the 2m Mega Sled...

 

The first time I flew this I slightly terrified myself (I should add that we do live in a very windy place) - think one way trip to the next village. I struggled to stay on the ground and had to yell for assistance to recover it.

 



 

I already had an old FUJI Finepix F10) camera (which I had already dropped but worked well enough with some well placed masking tape). I wasn't overly worried about the camera dropping out of the sky, the sled can easily lift it's weight (and mine!).

I got a picavet from the KAP shop for Christmas to attach camera to the kite and after figuring out how on Earth to string it I was ready to go after engineering a Heat Robinson (bead/rubber band) arrangement for triggering the camera while aloft. Lessons learned by this stage were:

1. WEAR GLOVES - that kite line burns!
2. USE GROUND HOOKS - you can screw them into the ground and when it all gets too much for you, clip the kite onto them - really useful for lone working and recovering the kite.
3. ANOTHER HOBBY - may have been easier