Kite Cam Down!!!!

On Saturday I went sailing with my father-in-law.  We had a pleasant sail with winds 5 - 12 knots and temps to 73 degrees.

Several weeks ago my dad suggested I should try sending my camcorder up on a Kite to get an aerial view of the boat sailing.  He saw videos of Kite Cams on YouTube and told me to give them a look.   I like the idea and made a bracket to hold the camcorder and bought a kite from the local hobby store.  My first attempt to get the camcorder airborne was a week ago in my back yard.  The winds were in the 10 knot range.  The weight of the camcorder and bracket were too heavy though and the kite was not able to get the camcorder more than a couple feet off the ground.

So I modified the bracket by punching several hole in it and was able to reduce the weight 58%.  It was 0.38 pounds and I got it down to 0.22 pounds.

On Saturday I tried flying my Kite Cam off the boat.  It got a little higher than it did last week in my back yard, but with the winds only about 12 knots and the camcorder and bracket still to heavy it did not quite work as I had hoped.

On my second attempt of the day it got up about 20 feet for a few seconds and then the kite did a nose dive into the lake…Kite Cam Down!  The line broke at the kite, but luckily the line held onto the camcorder and I was able to pull it back onboard.

 

Screen Capture from Kite Cam

 

Another Screen Capture from Kite Cam

I think my next kite needs to be bit bigger (more surface area) and I will see if I can reduce the weight of the bracket some more.

On Sunday, I went sailing with a friend.  There was a small craft advisory in effect with a forecast for winds of 15-20 knots and waves 2-4 feet building to 4-6 feet.  We didn’t venture too far from Waukegan in case things became uncomfortable.  As it turned out the waves were in the 2-4 foot range when we departed, but didn’t build at all and seemed to decline a bit.   Also, the winds didn’t get any higher than 12 knots.   The temperature got to 60 degrees and it was sunny, so the sail was a very enjoyable one.