Tag: wind

New Rev 1.5

After our trip to Sea World, we made our pilgrimage to the kite store. Having spoken with Dave earlier, I already knew that they had the final item needed for my collection – a Rev 1.5 SLE – a quadline stunt kite (they call it a “sportwing”) that is highly controllable. It’s truly a high-tech kite.

On Sunday (yesterday), my boy and I went back to Huntington Beach in order to launch it on its maiden voyage. We also launched another kite with some of our line laundry including a new giant frog! Oh, what fun! Unfortunately, the wind refused to cooperate again and, after flying the kite with the line laundry for awhile, we took it down in order to play with the Rev 1.5. As to be expected, I got to play with it for a few minutes and my boy spent most of the time with it while I helped retrieve it when it crashed. I managed to take the following video with my new cell phone (that I still don’t really know how to use yet) that shows my boy flying the kite. Not too bad for a beginner! Can’t wait until we get a day with more wind – we haven’t had a decent day in several weeks.

My New Rig with a KAP Feather


Rig with KAP Feather
Originally uploaded by Bassoon Man.

Well, it seems like it’s been weeks and weeks since we’ve had a bit of decent wind to fly (at least on the days that I’m able to get out and try). Today was supposed to have been extremely windy but it couldn’t have been any calmer. I even tried a large number of locations in search of some moving air but there simply wasn’t any to be found. 🙁

As can be seen in this photo, I’ve now added a “KAP Feather” to my rig which is supposed to stabilize the camera while its aloft thereby drastically increasing the number of potentially useable pictures. Of course, I haven’t been able to try it out due to the lack of wind. It’s almost unbelievable as to how calm things have been – certainly not something I would expect to happen so often during our so-called “winter.” Heck, we’ve hardly had any rain too.

At the moment, I can finally hear some wind outside but it’s late, very late (just after midnight). I can only hope that it’ll continue to blow for the rest of the day. Keeping my fingers crossed. . .

Gray day but lots of wind!


Kites and stuff
Originally uploaded by Bassoon Man.

Unlike yesterday, the clouds were rolling in accompanied by a lot of wind (it was blowing a steady 13-14 miles per hour). That meant that I could launch quite a few things including a Premier Parafoil 15 with a spinning basket tail, two twenty-foot tubes, a spiky ball, and a five-foot piranha. After getting all of that up in the air (I was at Doheny State Beach, adjacent to [south of] the Dana Point Harbor), I launched a Prism Stylus P.2 and flew that for, a few hours while listening to Beethoven Symphonies (6th and 7th). As it was a bit chilly, not many people were around which was just fine as I could really make the Stylus dance. I spent several hours there and only took the kites down as the sun was setting. In fact, it was dark before I was completely packed up.

I had a lot on my mind when I arrived (I’ve got a very busy and stressful week ahead) but flying helped to clear my mind of those things for awhile. As it’s raining now (we desperately need it), I’m kind of doubtful that I’ll be able to fly tomorrow.

Self-Portrait Panorama


Self-Portrait Panorama
Originally uploaded by Bassoon Man.

Well, I’m hooked! As evidenced by this photo, I had my first successful Aerial Kite Photography (KAP) flight. This is a self-portrait of me standing in Altisma Park, in Rancho Santa Margarita, flying my new Flow Form 16 kite with my revived KAP rig (which had a fatal accident just two days before).

In order to ensure that I had the best chance for success, I went to the park during a quiet time – almost no one was around. Fortunately, the wind also cooperated and so do my rig. I think it’s kind of cool that way I was able to stitch this photo together using Photo Shop Elements.