the aerial eye

CRADLES & KITES

a quarterly publication of the aerial photography committeeof the American Kitefliers Associationvolume 3 / number 3 / summer 1997

32 the aerial eye

sourcesIf you can’t find what you’re lookingfor locally, try these:

Hobby Lobby International, Inc.5614 Franklin Pike CircleBrentwood, TN 37027Phone (615) 373-1444Fax (615) 377-6948

Geardrive motors & other hobbysupplies. Catalog.

Wolfgang Bieck (Europe)orBrooks Leffler (USA & Canada)For contact info see page 2.

PeKaBe miniatureball-bearing blocks.

Weber9, rue de PoitouBP 3121F-75124 Paris Cedex 03, FranceExport: attn: Yannick LeclercqPhone (+33) 1-46 72 34 00Fax (+33) 1-42 71 69 32

Carbon/epoxy laminates (called“stratifié aux fibres de carbone”) in thick-nesses of .5 - 4mm; cost FF 3,000 /kg (2mmthick weighs 3kg/m2). Other items of interest.

Kite Studio5555 Hamilton BoulevardWescosville, PA 18106Phone (800) 548-3991 (orders)

(610) 395-3960Fax: (610) 395-3960email: kbiferrl@fast.net

Kitemaking supplies. Catalog.

Perkins Park, Pacific Grove, by Brooks Leffler. Agfacolor 400, Yashica T-4, FF 30.

Kwinte IIon the

North Sea

by

Frank Louwers

US$4.00USA & CANADA

US$5.50overseas

2 the aerial eye

the aerial eyeThis newsletter is produced by the

Aerial Photography Committee of theAmerican Kitefliers Association. It isour goal to publish quarterly, in August,November, February, and May.

Single copies and subscriptions(including back issues) are available toAKA members and non-members alike,under the following fee schedule:

single 4 issuesAKA $3.00 $10.00overseas $4.50 $16.00

Non-AKA $4.00 $15.00overseas $5.50 $21.00

Domestic subscriptions will be mailedby first class mail; overseas subscrip-tions (i.e., outside North America) willbe mailed by air.

Advertising is available in modules of2.25 inches wide by 1.25 inches high, at$20.00 per module, payable in advance.Advertising in which aggressivelycompetitive pricing is featured will notbe accepted; call if you have questionsor need more info. Camera-ready copyis not necessary, but is acceptable if itmeets the above criteria. Copy deadlineis the first of the month of publication.Contact Brooks Leffler.

american kitefliers association aerial photography committeeSteve Eisenhauer, Chair Brooks Leffler, Editor

229 Lake Ave, Pitman, NJ 08071 PO Box 34, Pacific Grove, CA 93950(609) 589-2049 Fax (609) 785-1766 (408) 647-8363 Fax (408) 647-8483

ELXG19A@prodigy.com kyteman@aol.com

Wolfgang Bieck Craig WilsonAm Britzenberg 23 7210 Harvest Hill Road

29549 Bad Bevensen, Cermany Madison, WI 53717(+49) 5821 24 43 (608) 831-6770

WBieck@t-online.de kitecam@juno.com

it runneth overSince January, we've received more

articles than we have had room for.We've enlarged this issue to alleviatethe backlog, but still have some good-ies we're holding for next time. Yourarticles and especially aerial photos arealways welcome, however.

Text via Email or on 3.5" (9cm) high-density disk (Mac or IBM in ASCII textformat) is preferred, but typed text orhandwritten letters are welcome too.Likewise, diagrams in PICT, GIF, or TIFFformats are best, but pen drawings,preferably on white paper, will work aswell.

Photos may be sent as negatives,prints or slides, or by electronic trans-fer in JPEG, TIFF, or GIF formats. Wecan also read Kodak PhotoCD, or 3.5"high-density disks in the formats listedabove. We'll keep the prints unless youdirect otherwise, but return all nega-tives, disks, CDs, and slides—eventual-ly.

Send everything to Brooks Leffler atthe address below.

summer 1997 3

about the coverKwinte II on the North Sea, by Frank

Louwers. Frank describes the outing:

“The picture was taken with my sec-ond carbon rig [see page 22]. It was fromthis same yacht, a Swan 43, that I lostmy first carbon rig almost one year ear-lier. So I was a little bit nervous.

“There was very little wind, and toincrease apparent wind we had a littlebit of engine on. I assembled theCarlisle Rokkaku on the deck and sent

it up. I remember it flew verysmoothly.

“So I hung the pendulum rod & cam-era onto the line—without forgettingto attach both ends of the safety line—and let go. It rose quite nicely and wetook the self-portrait of the boat, andalso some views of the surroundings.

“We didn't venture too high or toolong given the very soft wind, and gath-ered quickly the line and hauled thekite in. Everything went very well, andall were happy, the more so after wesaw this particular picture!” •æ

Two unrelated welcome develop-ments: the number of KAPers using the“swingless pendulum” cradle systemhas doubled in the past few months;and this issue of the aerial eye is thefirst without a lengthy article by me.

The first development indicates thereis a movement away from the “Picavet”cradle suspension system. Until recent-ly, to my knowledge, I was the only“swingless pendulum” user.

For years I have withstood much criti-cism, particularly from Brooks Lefflerand Wolfgang Bieck, because of my re-luctance to switch to the supposedly-superior “Picavet” system. But lastmonth I was contacted by a highly-in-telligent individual who is happily usingthe “swingless pendulum”. Who knows

how many other closet users of thissystem are out there? There might betwo or three more, and that would rep-resent a 200 to 300 percent increase!

The second development is evenmore welcome. The current æ issue isthe longest—32 pages—that we haveyet published. Some of that is overflowfrom the last two issues, but there islots of new material as well.

The range of experiences and opin-ions, and the quality of the writing, isimpressive. I assure you that I’m stilltaking a lot of kite aerial photographs.But I also assure you that I’m learningmore now about KAP by reading æ thanI ever did before. Keep those com-ments, articles and photos coming.

•æ

our feature this issue:

camera cradles & kitesby STEVE EISENHAUER

4 the aerial eye

In September 1995 I was on a hamradio and SCUBA diving expedition toEaster Island. My job was to help pho-tograph the subtidal marine life of theeast side of the island.

On the expedition I brought an elec-tric-powered, radio-controlled modelairplane equipped with a still camera.Due to almost constant wind and rockyground, flying and landing conditionswere less than ideal. Even so, I did man-age to take some very interesting pho-tographs.

Easter Island lies approximately2300 miles west of Santiago, Chile, andits closest human neighbors are onPitcairn Island 1260 miles further west.Easter Island, New Zealand and the Ha-waiian Islands form the Polynesian tri-angle with Easter Island being the most

easterly outpost of the migratingPolynesian wayfarers.

Easter Island was discovered by theDutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen onEaster Sunday, 1722, hence the name.In ancient times the island was knownas “Te Pito o Te Henua”, navel at thecenter of the world. Today the islandersprefer Rapanui.

Shortly after returning from EasterIsland I learned about Kite Aerial Pho-tography. I decided if ever I returned toEaster Island it would be with camera,cradle, and kites. Fortunately my fian-cée agreed that Easter Island would bea wonderful place for a honeymoon,and KAP would be a fun and uniqueproject. We decided to go in October1996, early spring in the southernhemisphere, and a pleasant time of year

for Easter Island.

For our trip I built two rigs withremote pan, tilt, and shutter capabili-ties. One of the rigs was made for theYashica T4 camera that I used on mymodel airplane, and the other rig wasmade for a Canon Rebel XS with a 28mm lens.

The cradles were fashioned after adesign by Brooks Leffler (æ 1.1) ex-cept I used aircraft-grade plywood inplace of aluminum. The T4 rig (1 lb 3oz) used 3/32-inch plywood while theCanon Rebel rig (2 lb 7 oz) used 3/16-inch plywood. All the corners were

easter island revisitedtext by DON DVORAK, Santa Clara, California. photos by Don & Elaine Dvorak.

summer 1997 5

joined with triangular wood stock andcarpenter’s glue.

Futaba S133 and S3101 micro servoswere used on all rigs except a largerS148 servo was used for tilt on the Can-on rig (per Steve Eisenhauer, æ 1.4). Panwas accomplished using 32-pitch gears,providing nearly 360 degrees of pan.

Originally allcradles were out-fitted with NiCdbatteries. Later, onthe Canon rig, Ifound it more con-venient to usefour AAA alkalinebatteries and Ra-dio Shack batteryholders (per Rod-ney Thomsen, æ1.1). The YashicaT4 rig was com-pleted early andwe had ampletime to test andpractice with thisrig. The Canon rig was completed twoweeks before departure, and we madeonly one test flight.

At the last minute, I was asked by the1995 expedition leader to shoot aerialphotos using infrared film. I planned touse the Canon Rebel, but Elaine discov-ered that the camera uses an infraredemitter and detector, presumably tocount sprocket holes for auto film ad-vance, making infrared film unusable.With less than two weeks to go, I need-ed to find a used SLR that would workwith infrared, and build a cradle for it.

I found an older Minolta 7000 Maxx-um with a 35-70mm zoom lens. I built adual camera rig for the Minolta and theYashica T4 [below]. Both camera shut-ters are triggered simultaneously, pro-viding direct comparison of the samesubject on both infrared and standardcolor film. To simplify and reduce con-struction time I built it with preset pan,

but tilt and shut-ter are remotelycontrolled. I usedtwo Futaba S133micro-servos forshutter releaseand a Futaba S148standard servo fortilt. Completewith both cameras(3 lb 6 oz) it func-tioned perfectlyon the bench. Itwent aloft for thefirst time on Eas-ter Island.

Since we weregoing to the most

remote inhabited place on earth withthe closest hobby shop or kite shopmore than 2000 miles away, we had tobe prepared for any problems thatmight occur. We needed to bring sparesof just about everything. We had threekites, a 9-ft Delta Conyne, a 13-ft DeltaConyne and a FlowForm 16. We alsohad two four channel Futaba transmit-ters and three receivers.

Camera rigs included the three previ-ously mentioned plus a spare unassem-

Continued on page 28

6 the aerial eye

With many thanks to Brooks, theworld has gained a new and enthusias-tic KAPer and the national economy hasflourished. [Doug came for a visit in Janu-ary. –bgl]

The Apple QuickTake™ 150 digitalcamera ($785) will take to the sky andrecord our wonderful Alaskan scenery.Images will be downloaded to an ApplePowerBook™ 53OOcs ($2,750), andstored on Zip™ disks ($18) for later en-hancement and printing.

The radio used is the Futaba Skysport4 ($145) with three servos. The firstservo operates the camera switch; thesecond servo operates the tilt; and thethird servo was modified with gears tooperate the pan. The gears ($13) werefound in a hobby shop and were intend-ed for a model car.

Constructionof this rig wasmore expensivethan anticipat-ed. My grinderneeded newwheels ($25);the belt sanderwas not ade-quate and anew one waspurchased($11O); the drillpress was ajoke and it too

was replaced ($135), and they had somenifty sets of little screwdrivers onsale…so $15 later...!

Did I mention that a new pop rivettool ($20) and a nibbler ($15) wereneeded? Various nylon and steel boltswith nuts and washers and an antennarod + legs cost about ($25).

Can you explain why I used six feet ofchannel aluminum ($8) when all thatwas needed was 26 inches?

It was a great day for me and Visawhen I discovered the joy of kiting andkite aerial photography. Now all I needis a new kite ($BIG)...big enough to liftthis 2.5 lb. rig. Thanks again, Brooks!

Now where did I place that little setscrew for the gears?

digiKAP from the frozen northby DOUG DAVLIN, Anchorage, Alaska

•æ

Right side view; antenna boom points forward.

summer 1997 7

It isn’t really fuzzy; it’s simply a rein-forced length of ripstop nylon fringe,which is very light but provides plentyof drag. Many KAPers use it in prefer-ence to a drogue, windsock, or tubeto stabilize kite designssuch as the MultiFlare orthe FlowForm, which bene-fit from a tail in all but thelightest breezes; and deltasand delta-Conynes whichtend to overfly (i.e. glidetowards you when the winddies, dropping the cameralike a rock).

If you're new to kitemak-ing, making a fuzzy tail is agood way to learn aboutworking with ripstop. It's avery easy project, whichwill reveal most of the char-acteristics of nylon whileyou discover that a sewingmachine is much less scaryto use than you thought.

Nylon is best cut with ahot knife—a pencil-pointsoldering iron of 25-30 watts—becausethe heat seals the edge of the fabric,making it less likely to fray. Your cut-ting surface should be smooth andheat-resistant; I use Formica® plasticlaminate, but plywood, masonite, orplate glass, or even a thick pad of news-paper will work in a pinch.

CAUTION! Nylon and other synthet-ics give off noxious fumes when heated,so it is essential that you buy and weara respirator designed to keep out paint

fumes and the like. See your localpaint or hardware store.

To make your fuzzy tail,first cut a strip of nylon fivefeet long by 8 - 10" wide(1.5m x 20cm). Cut a pieceof 1/2" (1cm) twill tape orgrosgrain nylon ribbonabout 4" (10cm) longer thanthe nylon strip, and usingthe largest zigzag stitch,sew the tape down the cen-ter of the strip. Sew a loopin the long end of the rib-bon with plenty of overlapand lots of stitches.

Lay the strip on your cut-ting surface, and with thehot knife, slit the cloth fromthe tape to the edge every3 - 4 inches, as shown inthe illustration.

Just like that, your fuzzytail is complete. Connect the loop toyour kite directly, or with a 2-leg V-bridle and snap swivels if necessary. Ifyou want a tail of adjustable length,make two or three of the above andjoin them with Velcro®. I use aboutten feet of fuzzy tail with a FlowForm16, more with a FF30.

nylon 101: making a fuzzy tailby BROOKS LEFFLER

•æ

8 the aerial eye

My first attempt at KAP was with aninexpensive P&S autowinding camera.The poor picture quality (image smearcombined with a poor lens) convincedme I needed higher shutter speeds andbetter optics.

I had a good small rangefinder cam-era: an Olympus 35RC, but it had manu-al film advance (the usual thumb leveroften found on older SLRs). This is awell made camera, about 20 years old,with a good lens: 42 mm f/2.8, 1/500fastest shutter speed, and both manualand automatic (shutter priority) modes.

To use this camera for KAP, I built atwo channel rig with one servo used towind the camera and trigger the shut-ter, and the second servo to pan thecamera.

FILM ADVANCE & SHUTTER RELEASE

For film advance/shutter release, aplywood bracket positions the servo toone side of the camera body. An X-shaped servo arm was used, with thedownward-pointing arm of the X linkedto the camera’s thumb lever with ashort length of dacron line and a bentwire hooked to a small hole drilled inthe thumb lever.

The thumb lever is ratcheted (likemost SLR’s) so that the film can be ad-vanced by repeated small motions aswell as a single full stroke. For this rig,it takes 4 or 5 servo activations to com-plete the advance. I use 6 strokes to besure; extra strokes do no harm .

To release the shutter, the servo armfacing the camera pushes upward onone end of a lever (a piece of plywoodpivoting on brass tubing secured in analuminum bracket). The other end ofthe plywood lever presses the shutterbutton.

So, six quick upward pushes of thejoystick, followed by one downwardpush, advances the film and takes thepicture.

r/c and the manual cameraby PHIL MARINO, Rochester, New York

summer 1997 9

PANNING CONTROL

The second servo pans the rig with apawl which engages the notches in a 10cm plywood disk. The disk is attacheddirectly to the Picavet suspension andthe entire rig (including the panningservo) is mounted to an aluminum tubewhich fits through a bushing in thedisk. The clamping collar at the top ofthe tube has a single cloth pad whichbears on the top surface of the disk andprovides friction to prevent the rig fromrotating on its own due to wind.

The pawl is a piece of thin (0.5 mm)aluminum sheet bent into a U-shapedchannel. One end has a small holedrilled through both sides of the chan-nel, and a pin fits through these holesand a hole in the servo arm. A rubberband keeps the pawl lightly pressedagainst the disk and the sides of thechannel fit above and below the disk tokeep it in place.

There are 24 notches in the disk, soeach servo stroke (one transmitter levermotion) rotates the rig 15 degrees. Bycounting the steps, the direction of therig is always known.

MANUAL TILT & BALANCE

Tilt is manually set with a screw andwing nut between a plywood fittingglued to the lower end of the aluminumtube and the lower plywood frame.The pivot hole in the wood fitting isoffset from the tube axis by 3 mm tocompensate for the off-center weight ofthe panning servo. The tilt pivot is atthe CG of the lower assembly (whichincludes the batteries, the receiver, and

the film advance servo) so the rig iswell balanced at all tilt and pan angles.

I’ve only used this rig once since I’veadded the panning control (we’ve had awintery “spring” in northern New York)but so far it has been reliable and easyto use. Both servos are “at rest” exceptwhen actually panning or shooting, sobattery drain is minimized.

The construction is almost complete-ly of plywood (4 and 6 mm thick),which I find easy to work with, and theentire rig (including one pound for thecamera) weighs 2.0 lbs. I was happy tobe able to “recycle” a good, older cam-era and at the same time keep the costdown. If only my old Minolta SLR’sweren’t so heavy!

•æ

10 the aerial eye

Among the famous pyramids in Egypt,the three great pyramids in Giza of Khufu,Khefre, and Menkaure are the mostmagnificent of all. For over ten years, Iwas longing to visit Egypt for takingpictures of them with my kite. On March1, 1997, finally the dream came true.

On the day the sky was crystal clear. Itook a taxi to Giza; it took me ten min-utes, but it looked like more than that.As I bought a ticket and entered the re-serve of the pyramid, I was on the pla-teau of Giza which was nothing but asmall part of Sahara Desert. Pointed peaksof pyramid scraped the blue sky.

As I approached them, rocks piled upone after the other came into my view.Millions of square rocks. How magnifi-cent! The one for Khufu towers up to 147meters high.

The wind was just right for kite—theNile was sending it for me. The gap be-tween the Pyramid of Khufu and Khefrewas the way for the wind to go through.This is the place.

The taxi driver was curious as to whatI was trying to do; I asked him to give mea hand. I got a FlowForm kite out of mybag. It went up without an effort. Camelriders looking on us came close and be-gan talking about the kite.

The line on the kite went out for about30 meters. A camera rig with Picavet washooked on it, Nikon Mini with 28mm lensis on the rig. Thin lines on Picavet ab-

sorb vibration. The pictures must becrisp.

Off goes the line. The camera looks atthe Khefre’s pyramid. After 20 minutes, Itook the camera down. This is it. Thedream I kept in my mind for 10 years hasended—

“Oh, my God!”

The timer attached to the camera wasnot working! How come? The battery wasdown. It’s not possible. What did I comehere for?

I took the film out of the camera. Nosecond film went in to the camera. I hadto go back to my hotel feeling I like I wasa very small boy. My schedule did not al-low me to go back there. I am on an edu-cational tour for the students I teach ar-chitecture in Tokyo. How depressing.

Back in Japan, I got all of the films sentout to the photo shop for developing andprinting. The film I used for pyramid wassupposed to be transparent when it cameback, but no—it was not! I got the pic-tures of the pyramid! How fantastic! It isimpossible!

I was dancing like a five year old boy inmy room! Nothing but joy went throughmy body. I knew I could not go back toEgypt very easily when I left there, buthere it was in front of me—the picturesof the pyramid taken from the air.

These pictures are some of my mostmemorable and valuable.

pyramid dreams—lost & foundby KATSUTAKA MUROOKA, President, JKAPA, Tokyo, Japan

•æ

summer 1997 11

12 the aerial eye

Thanks to the experi-mental work of HenryJebe (æ 2.1) in the use ofmusic box movements inKAP rigs I was able todevelop this unit [right]providing automatic ex-posure and rotation bymechanical means with astripped down Sanyo mu-sic box movement pro-viding the power.

To achieve the rota-tion, the 1/8 in. auxiliaryshaft of the movementwas fitted with a TeamLosi 16-tooth 48-pitchpinion driving a TeamLosi 86-tooth 48-pitchspur gear. The windingkey is fitted with a 6-spoke spider wheel setwith 2/56 machine screwswhich depress the triggerarm as it unwinds [right].After each exposure thetrigger arm is forced upby the spring in the cam-era’s finger button.

With the present gear-ing setup, the rig produc-es 12 exposures per revo-lution and on a test runwith a full winding it acti-vated the shutter 17times.

two new rigs from rodneyby RODNEY THOMSEN, Eureka, California

summer 1997 13

The rig is set in motion by the KSBdethermalizing timer which whentripped releases the brake on thegovernor [bottom].

Suspension is a pendulum type withthe swing dampened by adjusting thenylon lock nut. The down angle is setprior to flight and is limited to about15 degrees. I have not had it aloft yet;that trial comes with the first break inthe weather.

The other just-completed rig[left]uses two microservos to providethree functions with the shutter servobeing used to start/stop a 1.5 volt gear-box motor providing rotation. A singleAAA battery powers the gearmotor,with 4.5 volts from three more AAAsbeing used to power the receiver andservos. This rig weighs 20.4 oz (578g)ready to fly.

The motor/gearbox [left] is made inEngland by MFA/Como Drills [The Mill,Mill Lane, Worth, Deal, Kent CT14 OPA;phone (+44) 1304 612132]. It is sup-plied in the USA by Hobby Lobby as

their #HLH79l7 [seeSources, page 32]. It’sa neat little unit thatprovides ratios from4:1 up to 4000:1 byadding or removinggears. It seems to bea great option forKAPers trying to max-imize the capabilitiesof 2-channel R/C gearby adding rotation,even if it is in onedirection only. •æ

14 the aerial eye

two tidy HoVers from italyby ANDREA CASALBONI, Villanova di Bagnacavallo, & ALBERTO BONATI, Imola

summer 1997 15

The drawings on this page were excerpted from twofull-size A4 pages sent to us by Alberto many weeks ago.There's newer stuff from both KAPers on the Web, and wehighly recommend that you check it out! —bgl

Two of our readers in Italy have recently joined forces tocreate an excellent KAP site on the World Wide Web athttp://lochnet.com/kap_it/index.htm

Here are some samples of their quality work. On thispage, Andrea's design; opposite, Alberto's.

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16 the aerial eye

�Reed Boat, Easter Island, by Don Dvorak. ��Canoe, Alaska, by Peter Essick

Mansion under Construction, Delray Beach, Florida by Bob Pebly �

���������Duelling Dinos, by Randy Bollinger

Mussel Farm, France, by Wolfgang Bieck

Santa Cruz Surf, by Cris Benton �

summer 1997 17

aerial gallery

18 the aerial eye

the maxi-doperoby RALF BEUTNAGEL, Braunschweig, Germany

summer 1997 19

The Maxi-Dopero is simply a in-creased Dopero as shown in the æ vol-ume 1/number 3/summer 1995/page 23.I changed the keels, however. I used acombination between normal and openkeels. Ron Moulton called this designthe “OVK” (Open-Vertical Keel) whendescribing the kites made by Tom VanSant.

The Maxi-Dopero is flying just a littlebit more motionless than my normalone because of the bigger size and thenew keels. [I can attest that the normalone flies very steadily indeed, and in quitelight air. —bgl] I tested it up to 4 bftand it is flying tailless very well even instronger winds. The practise, the useand the launch is very easy and similarto my earlier kites.

You can change the pull on the lineby changing the bridle! Enough pull inlighter winds but not too much instronger ones. But attention please: theMaxi-Dopero is no toy!

Because of the the shape and thegreat wingspan it looks very big but ithas only 6.5 m2 area.

I used glassfiber-tubes for the frame.The longerons [verticals] and the upperhorizontal are 14 mm GFK tube (theblue ones in Germany) and the lowerhorizontal is 12 mm GFK tube (the yel-low one). 3 tubes of 125 cm each makeup a horizontal strut; 2 tubes of 125 cmeach are used for each longeron strut,so the kite is 2.5 m high (8 ft+) with a3.75 m wingspan (12 ft+).

•æ

20 the aerial eye

The last issue of the aerial eye in-cluded excerpts of my letters to BrooksLeffler describing my experiences flyingkites for my research on penguins atPalmer Station, Antarctica. Palmer Sta-tion is a U.S. research facility located onthe Antarctic Peninsula four days byship south of Punta Arenas, Chile.

In this article I would like to explainwhy I am using KAP and how I plan touse the photos for my research.

I am investi-gating the re-productive suc-cess of Adeliepenguins to de-termine whyparticular colo-nies of thesepenguins consis-tently producemore youngbirds per nestthan other colo-nies. Adelie pen-guins are impor-tant indicatorsof how thewhole Antarcticecosystem is functioning, so under-standing the natural variation in theirpopulations is essential to track chang-es to this dynamic environment. Howpenguin colonies are situated in thelandscape and their shape and densitymay be a big reason for the differences

between colonies. Therefore I need tohave good maps of the colonies and thetopography around them, somethingthat is quite difficult to come by on theAntarctic Peninsula, but essential to myresearch.

I was scratching my head trying tofigure out how I was going to accom-plish this project when KAP came to therescue. My father knew of my predica-ment and he mentioned an article he

had seen [in BirdWatchers Digestby Steve Eisen-hauer] describ-ing KAP for envi-ronmental mon-itoring. Afterreading the arti-cle, I contactedBrooks Leffler,who was men-tioned as asource of infor-mation. Brookslistened to myproblem andsuggested a so-lution, and with

the approval of my advisor, proceededto build me a KAP rig.

Brooks provided me with a blueFlowForm 16 with a 2-channel gearmo-tor rig on a Picavet suspension. Then itwas off to Antarctica to take pictures ofpenguin colonies.

the penguin papersby JOHN CARLSON, Bozeman, Montana

summer 1997 21

Kite flying at Palmer Station provedto be an interesting experience. Thepenguin colonies are situated on smallislands around the station and require ashort trip in a Zodiac [inflatable boat]to reach each one. The penguins didnot react to the kite once it was over-head but they were a bit nervous if welaunched the kite near them, so we hadto dodge the loafing elephant sealsnearby to launch the kite.

The other scientists and support staffwere a bit dubious of the whole adven-ture until I developed the photos. Theywere impressed but not as much as Iwas—the photos were all that I hadhoped for and more. It was interestingto see the regularspacing of the birdsthrough the colony.

The photosproved to be imme-diately useful. I wasable to locate theindividual nests thatwe were monitoringin each colony andmap them on thephotos for futurereference. We werealso able to countthe number of pen-guins in some large colonies that aretoo big to count accurately from theground. I was able to obtain a series ofphotos for a few colonies that trackedhow snow surrounding the coloniesinfluenced the colony shape.

One of the photos I took of the sta-tion was used to determine the loca-

tion of underwater rocks near the pierthat were causing problems for a newship planning to dock at Palmer.

Kite flying was not all fun and gamesthough. It was quite frustrating to havegood wind and not be able to fly be-cause of other work commitments oreven worse to have good wind go badjust as I got the kite in the air. I foundthat I had an uncanny ability to calmeven 15-knot winds as soon as I landedon an island. These frustrations are notlimited to Antarctica I am sure.

I plan to use the photos to developcomputerized maps with the aid of Glo-bal Positioning System (GPS) data for

each photograph.The maps will bepart of a Geograph-ical InformationSystem (GIS) thatwill enable me tolink informationabout the repro-ductive success ofthe penguins in aparticular colony tophysical and envi-ronmental at-tributes of the col-ony, such as slope,aspect, amount of

surrounding snow, number of predatorsnear the colony, and number of touristsnearby. I plan to use the photos to fol-low the fate of every nest in one colonyas well.

KAP has provided me with an inex-pensive, efficient alternative for record-

Continued on page 25

22 the aerial eye summer 1997 23

After having built 2 rigs—one a fullyautomatic (non R/C) rotating rig, andone a 4-channel R/C rig of aluminium—Iwanted to make a very lightweight yetsturdy rig that I would use with my Mi-nolta 7000 autofocus reflex camera.

I had just discovered Weber, a shopin Paris that sells carbon-reinforced ep-oxy laminates in varying thickness [seeSources, p. 32]. The material is extreme-ly light, extremely strong, and extreme-ly expensive. However I needed only avery small quantity and decided to gofor it.

I built the rig and came out with atotal weight (camera, rig, and pendu-lum suspension) of 1230 grams! Thatwas not bad at all and I liked the rigand its functionality.

Then I took it with me on our fami-ly’s sailboat on a trip to Scotland. I real-ly wanted an aerial picture of us lost inthe middle of a sun-drenched NorthSea.

I checked all the gear & launched thekite. It flew perfectly! So I hooked therig onto the line, attached my safetylineto the kiteline (I always fly with a safetyline although I had never had a prob-lem) and let it out.

I took some pictures of the shipreaching under sails, maybe evencaught a glimpse of the porpoises thatwere playing near the bow!

Well, all of a sudden the rig and thecamera just fell off, dropping in morethan 100m of water... I then realisedthat in all the excitement of taking myfirst shots off a sailboat I had forgottento hook the bottom end of my safety-line to the camera!

I lost my trusty camera, a beautifullens, a nice carbon rig, and about ten ofthe best aerial pictures I ever took!

NEVER GIVE UP

But one shouldn’t give up! So I start-ing thinking about a new rig, and I waswondering if I could get a rig weighingless than 1000 grams, including an SLRcamera...

I wanted to remain with Minolta, as Iwas very pleased with the performance,I had a 28 mm/f2.8 lens, which I hadbought second-hand but which gaveexcellent results, so that would be thenew aerial lens.

I bought a 2xi body. It has the advan-tage of being good value for money, itis light, has also speed and aperturepriority modes, and has a maximumshutter speed of 1/2000th. My experi-ence is that aerial pictures are muchbetter with speeds over 1/750th.

The disadvantage is there is no long-er an electrical contact for remote shut-ter release. Instead, for that trigger Iepoxied Futaba’s smallest servo (S-143)on one end of a strip of 4mm thick car-

my second carbon rig (…SeCaRi?)

text & photos by FRANK LOUWERS, Sleidinge, Belgium 72361.2161@compuserve.com

bon. On the other end I fixed a flashfoot. The whole slides in the flash shoeon the camera. [see closeup below]

WEIGHT & BALANCE

Now I could start on the rig proper. Ifyou determine very carefully the centerof gravity of the part a servo has tomove, and put the axis so that it goesthrough thiscenter, you cantake very lightservos to dothe job, as theywon’t have toexert any seri-ous force.

For the bot-tom plate Itook a strip of2mm carbon,200mm x45mm.. It hasan oblong cut-out for the cam-era retainingscrew. This waythe center ofgravity of thecamera plus lenscan be made tocoincide withthe axis of theinclination ser-vo. With a heavi-er lens, slide the whole a bit backwardsbefore tightening the screw and viceversa. I also glued a bit of shock-ab-sorbing foam on this ground plate, toeliminate the transmission of vibra-tions.

The two vertical brackets are madeof 1.5mm carbon, and are fixed to thegroundplate with 2 short lengths of asmall aluminium corner profile. Thoseare screwed to the carbon strips. Thismakes for light yet stiff corner connec-tions. I put a small drop of epoxy on allthe nuts once assembly is final. I havenever had a nut that came loose.

To this bot-tom U-frame Inow fixed thecamera with allits accoutre-ments and—with the lensslid out to itsinfinity focuspoint—I nowdetermine theexact height ofthe center ofgravity. Thisheight is thentransferred tothe two sidebrackets, andthat is wherethe holes aredrilled for theaxis.

I use a directlink for the in-clination: theservo is at-

tached right onto the turning point,without any additional gearing.

In a similar manner I assembled thetop U-frame. The inclination servo is a

Continued on page 24

24 the aerial eye summer 1997 25

ing information about Adelie penguincolonies that would have otherwisebeen logistically and financially diffi-cult, if not impossible.

My research is sponsored by a Na-tional Science Foundation grant to mymajor advisor, Dr. William R. Fraser. Iwould like to thank my field help EricHolm, Sharron Delsack, and PeteDooley for their assistance with my KAPexperiment at Palmer and especiallyBrooks Leffler for all of his help gettingme going and answering lots of ques-tions. •æ

•æ

berck, briefly

•æ

The annual Easter-week kite festivalat Berck-sur-mer, France, attractsKAPers from all over Europe. Thisyear's turnout included eye-fliers JoséWallois, Wolfgang Bieck, and AndreaCasalboni, among others.

Wolfgang sent the photo below,with these comments:

Andrea Casalboni came with the Ital-ian team “Il Forno” to show replicas ofhistoric kites and cameras used for kiteaerial photography…by Eddy, Hargrave,Chardon and Lecornu. As we know, akite shows its character only in flight.Andrea and I cooperated harmoniously;he handled the kite to the right height,and I took aerial photos. The result ofour cooperation documents a Lecornuin flight.

Continued from page 21

Futaba S3002 and it islodged in a cut-out inthe side bracket. Afterthose two U-framesare assembled, Inow determinedthe center of gravi-ty of the whole todetermine where thepanning axis shouldcome. This is a bittricky, as you have to fix(temporarily) to the top plate also thereceiver, the panning servo with itsgear assembly, and the battery.

The better all this is done, the lessthe servo will have to work afterwards,and the smoother everything will workonce in the air.

A hole is then drilled through the topplate where the panning axis will come.I mount everything under the top plate,as it looks neater and is also better pro-tected. The 4mm stainless steel axisgoes through a Teflon bushing about35mm high, giving ample sideways (al-most frictionless) support.

The bottom end of the axis receives a10-tooth gear wheel. Just above it are 2Teflon spacers, that together with thebottom of the bushing take care of theupward thrust with almost no friction.The servo (again a small Futaba S3002)hangs under the top plate and on itsdisk a 48-tooth gear wheel is fixed. Youneed this almost 1:5 ratio in order toget a full 360 on the panning axis.

The rig is now almost complete: Iplaced an on/off switch (with a charging

connector) in a cut-outin the top plate.The small receivergets squeezed nextto the panning servoand the small NiCadsfind their place on theopposite side.

The NiCads I useare very small. Nor-

mally I use a 110 mAhset that weighs 32 g,

but in very light weather Ican also use a tiny pack that gives 55mAh and weighs just 17 g! It lasts with-out a problem through a 36-exposureroll of film (provided you shoot that inless than an hour of flight).

As a pendulum I use 2 lengths of Eas-ton rod, carbon over aluminium, outerdiameter 6.5 mm, total length 1800mm. I like long pendulums so that theswinging amplitude is real slow.

About two years ago I experimentedwith a Picavet suspension and built onefor this rig, convinced by an article writ-ten by Wolfgang Bieck. It really is super,but weighs almost double of the rodsuspension: 120 grams versus 66 grams(including everything, even the safetyline, which I now attach religiously onboth ends!)

I have flown now with this rig for al-most 3 years, and it performs very well.I usually fly it from an excellent 7.5-footRokkaku specially built for me by KevinShannon of Carlisle Kiteworks, or froma 35 sqft or 22 sqft parafoil built for meby the late Doug Hagaman, two of thelast ones he so superbly built.

Continued from page 23 Ah, and were my objectives met?Well, with the larger battery pack andthe rod suspension the whole (abso-lutely everything included) tips thescale at— 998 grams!! and with the Pi-cavet suspension that is 1052 grams.

Well, having attended the FLiBB ’96meeting in Bad Bevensen [see æ 3.1], Iknow I can knock 50 grams off a newPicavet suspension, maybe even 52grams... Wolfgang has those really light-weight blocks! [see Sources, p. 32]

So what is next? Maybe I will build acompact rig, with the choice of land-scape/portrait, and a SUMIPI [see æ 3.1,p. 9] and this nice german compactcamera, all under 750 grams? Maybe,maybe not. Anyhow, I hope that youcould find something interesting, anidea perhaps for a next rig. Experiment-ing is a great part of the fun and shar-ing it with others gives me great satis-faction, so if you have any questions,just let me know!

26 the aerial eye

It happens sometimes that wind isvery light, so light that the kite cannotlift heavy KAP equipment. For theseoccasions, I use a very light cradle [witha camera modified for electric shutterrelease], and remote control of thecamera is done with a release cord.

The photo of the Dieppe festival[below] was taken last September withthis rig. As you will see, there was notmuch wind and only a few kites wereflying at that time.

On the pendulum’s supporting barattached to the kite line, there is asmall switch which is activated whenpulling the cord, triggering the electricshutter release [see diagram].

For a while, I used fishing line whichwas 0.2 mm diameter. It is verylight, but the inconvenience isthat on the field you can hardlysee it. Also it is quite elastic,and with 50 meters of lengthyou have to pull 2 or 3 meters tobe sure you have activated theshutter.

Now I use colored sewingthread, which is easier to seeand has little stretch.

pulling stringsby CHRISTIAN BECOT, Tourlaville, France

•æ

When you let the kite fly away andthe cradle is ascending, you have totake care to keep the release cord free.

For safety, a short cord is attached atthe top end of the release cord, with abreaking strength less than the releasecord. In case of emergency, a strongpull will break it and it is then possibleto bring back the equipment as usual.

Never attach the release cord directlyto the pendulum or on a Picavet crossbar, as you would shake the camera ateach shot.

For reference, the total weight of thecradle with stabilizing bow, pendulum,and M1 Olympus [Stylus] camera is340g. What could be better with effi-cient remote control?

summer 1997 27

rig number four: ultra-smallby HARALD PRINZLER, Schlangen, Germany

This rig with radio-controlled func-tions was build as small as possible forthe Ricoh FF10. It can also be used forthe Ricoh FF9.

My earlier rig with remote control(number 2) was too big, because of theuniversal design to accommodate acompact camera, SLR, or video-camera.To realize this small rig (overall: 15cm x17cm x 4cm) the camera is mountedupside down [see rear view, below].

For all rigs with radio-control I usemy system Graupner 314. For fastchanging the receiver all needed signals

are wired to a Sub-D9-connector (seenfrom Peter Bults in æ 3.1).

The horizontal direction is set by amodified servo (standard size) withendless turning. The vertical directionis set by an unmodified standard servowith a push rod. So the camera canlook from straight down (-90 degrees)to nearly +10 degrees to the horizon.

The shutter release is activated by anelectronic switch in SMD-technology.The size of the circuit with the Sub-D9connector for the receiver and the con-nectors for the two servos has the size4cm x 2cm x 1cm. Power-on is done byconnecting the battery (4.8V, 300mAh).

For the first time, I took the weightof my rig. This rig with suspension andcamera weighs about 640g.

The maiden flight of this rig was suc-cessfully done in the beginning ofMarch. •æ

in the fall issue:

GADGETS & GIMMICKSWe'll look again at

all those little inventions & devices

that solve your KAP problems.

AD & COPY DEADLINE:August 1, 1997

28 the aerial eye

bled T4 rig. We used two different-sized Rendsburg Picavet suspensionsystems (æ 1.4) and Brooxes Hangups™(æ 1.4). Both systems used screw eye-lets in place of pulleys. For the largersystem the hangups were scaled up25%.

Kite line included 500 feet of 200#dacron line, 500 feet of 250# dacronline on hoop winders and 500 feet of500# dacron line on a Windbreaker™winder. Elaine made three 10-ft sec-tions of frilly rip-stop nylon tails thatcould be clipped together into one 30-ft tail.

Electricity on Easter Island is 220volts, so I brought a transformer tocharge my transmitter and receiver bat-tery packs. Not leaving anything tochance, I carried an assortment of resis-tors, potentiometers and a digital mul-timeter in case I needed to charge bat-teries from a 12v car battery.

The 25 or so rolls of film we usedincluded: ASA 200 and 400 color print,ASA 200 and 400 color slide, ASA 125and 400 B/W and Kodak EktachromeInfrared. Since there is no processingon Easter Island we brought a Kodakhobby pac™ Color Slide Kit to processE6 slide film and chemicals to processB/W film. This way we could determineif our cameras were operating and get asneak preview.

Dr. Georgia Lee, an archaeologistwho has been studying rock art of Eas-ter Island for many years, asked us totake aerial photos for mapping purpos-es of a site known as “the petroglyph

panel”. It is a lava block 39 feet across,containing over 100 carvings (below).

Easter Island is literally covered withhundreds of archaeological sites. Manyof the sites contain the large stone stat-ues (moai) for which Easter Island isbest known. The moai were erected onstone platforms called ahu. It is be-lieved that the moai were toppled bywarring clans until none was left stand-ing. On the south coast are many exam-ples of moai knocked from their plat-forms, lying face down [see pic, p. 4].

The largest moai ever erected is 33feet tall and is located on the northcoast at Ahu Te Peto Kura [same pic].Twoahu stand on the beach of Anakena, ,one with seven moai, and one with justone, re-erected in 1960 during ThorHeyerdahl’s first visit to Easter Island.While we were at Anakena, an expedi-tion had started construction of a 50-ftreed boat with the intent to sail it toTahiti and beyond. When we left onlythe hull was complete [see page 16].

Continued from page 5

summer 1997 29

During the 1995 expedition the par-ticipants camped for three weeks at thepicturesque La Perouse Bay [below]. Thisis one of only a few recreational placeswhere one can safely enter the water.The Chilean government has proposedto convert this area to a shipping portand container storage site.

There are many archaeological sitesaround La Perouse which would be de-stroyed if the port is ever built. We feelthat La Perouse is a very special placeand it would be a great loss to the RapaNui people.

Feeling as we do, we decided to useKAP to document La Perouse and thearchaeological sites that surround it.

One of the most impressive sites isAhu Tongariki, with15 giant moai, thelargest being 27 feet tall including top-

knot and weighing over 25 tons. Thissite was perfect for KAP, with the oceanin the background [bottom].

Without a doubt Easter Island ranksvery high among our all-time best ad-ventures. Not only did we do KAP,which I believe is the first time it hasbeen done there, we made friends withmany of the locals. After we flew ourkites a few times, especially the 13-ftrainbow DC, the whole island knew ofour presence and what we were up to.Often, passing locals would give us“thumbs-up”.

On one occasion, we went KAPing atAhu Tongariki. Shortly after launchingthe large DC and rig we were joined bytwo visiting videographers and a RapaNui man, then by a local rancher/fisher-man on horseback. By the end of ourthird roll, the wind had increased, andthe fellow on horseback offered to pullthe kite in for us. We certainly didn’trefuse his offer. Tugging on the kite linehe humorously exclaimed, “Como ungrande atùn!”: this is one big tuna fish!

We would like to thank Brooks Lefflerfor publishing the aerial eye, and all ofyou who contribute to it, to whom weowe much of our KAP success on EasterIsland. We will return again. •æ

30 the aerial eye

TICKLING THE KAPPETITE

I received all my issues of AE in goodorder. I’m afraid that 240 pages of KAPinfo all at once will spoil me. When thesummer issue comes out it will seem tome meager fare, information anemia, amere tickling of my “KAPpetite.”

I must say that the pictures in theSpring issue have to be some of thebest I’ve seen. In particular PatrickMorin’s picture in the gallery is ex-tremely thought provoking—Where isthat kite going? Did that truck run overit when they passed? Did a spar break?Did the rip stop tear? Was there a tailbefore they passed? Maybe that truckhas ten flat tires or a busted wind-shield. Is the flier of this kite inebriat-ed? (he is flying down the middle of theroad) And who is that following be-hind—better try to shake them!

David HuntJohnson City, Tennessee

HEAVY DUDE

Got the package of backissues last night and aftermuch prodding from thewife put them down andwent to bed. Man, what astore house of information!It will take me some time toget through all the articlesbut the ones I’ve picked outto read so far have been

nothing short of first class, and the pic-tures are flat outstanding…

I took a roll this weekend with my“heavy” rig. It is a Canon AE-1p withwinder and 28mm lens that weighs inat 2 lbs 5.5 ozs, plus the cradle and ser-vos another pound, so there is almost3.5 lbs. I flew it on two 8' DC’s separat-ed by 100' and in the 15++ wind it allworked OK.…

James LoftonClovis, New Mexico

KAP SHOWS BIG IN ST. LOUIS

I would like to thank all KAPers fortheir efforts in making it possible for usto have the [WKM/AKA Traveling KAP]Exhibit at the St. Louis Science CenterApril 5-6 [below]. In viewing the imag-es, it has inspired me even more tokeep shooting from above.

…I was a little disappointed with nothaving all the media coverage as prom-ised, although the exhibit did get excel-lent viewing.

It was placed just outside the lobbyarea of the Omnimax Theater. Theshow at the Omnimax that weekend

summer 1997 31

was Special Effects, in the making ofmovies. Some 300+ that waited be-tween shows every [90 min] venturedby for a look at KAP Special Effects withdelighted amazement. Even the scien-tist and staff at the Center wereamazed.

All the handouts went fast, as did thevoice of repeated explanations. Specialthanks goes to Ron & Charm Lindnerand David Schenkan for helping in theexhibit.

Randy BollingerFerguson, Missouri

KAPING WITH BLACK BATS

A few years ago on a hot summer'sday in a very light breeze I flew mysmall black “bat” single-line kite on 60metres of line. After about 10 minutesof vigorous audible wing-flapping, I no-ticed in the far distance three large uni-dentifiable birds similar to eagles inoutline. They flew closer and one byone became more and more inquisitiveuntil all three dived and hoveredaround the “bat” with great enthusi-asm. I stood watching fascinated forquite a while, unaware of the smallcrowd of onlookers.

Since then I have attempted to repeatthe event without success. It has sincelong been a dream that this techniqueof decoying bird shapes could be cou-pled with KAP equipment and a suit-ably-placed feeding table could be setup at a preset in-focus distance, theshutter being tripped as the bird takesfood or by remote radio control whilstthe bird is still in flight, or just about totouch down with wings full span. •æ

Is this just a dream or have any oth-er KAPers had similar experiences? Ifso I would like to hear of them. Doesanyone think my theories are feasible?Surely KAPing is only limited by humanimagination.

Rob GreenNewbury, Berks., England

MAX KOPFRAUM?

…Monday’s mail brought the AE. Thephoto and story by Wolfgang [is VICORIvictory?, æ 3.2] had me laughing so hardI thought I might wet my pants. Canyou imagine the reaction to seeing himin action with that thing on his head?There was a [U.S.]comic character andTV series a few years back, Max Head-room, about a guy that transmittted allthat he saw back to some computer tohelp him understand his world. On theedge, all right.…

Craig WilsonMadison, Wisconsin

NEW WEB ADDRESS

Thank you for listing mine and otherKAP www sites in your spring issue.Late last year I changed servers and thenew/current address is below:

http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/jmaxworthy/kap1.htm

Please accept my congratulations oneveryone's work on the aerial eye. It isone of the finest speciality journalspublished.

John MaxworthyLong Island, New York

aerialetters