Kite Aerial Photography At Wrightsville Beach, NC

During a visit to Wrightsville Beach in March, 2006 I tried using my RC camera hanging from a kite instead of attached to a plane. I built a rig to hold the camera called a picavet suspension that helps hold the camera level and prevents it from twisting around in the wing. The kite was a 9.5 ft Delta Conyne I bought in Wilmington. It easily lifted the 1 lb camera rig off the ground in 10 mph winds. I had 500 feet of 150 lb line and I estimated the kite was about 350 feet high for these photos. It doesn't take long to get the kite up, but bringing it down in windy conditions can take awhile!

Unfortunately when recently taking some photos from a farm just north of Durham, NC some gusty wind conditions caused the tie points on the kite to fail and it's now sitting up in a big tree! The camera rig fell about 50 feet but was unharmed. I'm hoping the kite will blow down on of these days...

Click on any of the following photos to pull up a larger version:


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