I originally planned to do some kite aerial videography in the middle of one of the local fields. Now the fields have turned golden and the farmers are out harvesting. This makes for some really interesting scenery dying to be photographed from up above. So I drove off to one of the local fields, grabbed the gear and started walking to the middle of it and found myself a nice little place where I could launch and tether my kite.

The winds that looked very good when I left my house turned out to be of the more interesting sort. The field was surrounded by tall trees and despite keeping them at a very good distance, they managed to create quite a bit of turbulence. The sun was also beating down and I suspected it to make sort of a thermal despite the current winds.

However, I decided to give it a go. I finally got a Rok’ up there but it was kind of dancing around. I decided to use a much longer line so that I could get the Rok’ even higher in the sky in an attempt to avoid the turbulence closer to the ground. It kind of worked and I hooked the KAP-gear onto the flying line.

But no. The combination of the weight of the gear and the tricky wind conditions was not a good one. Both the kite and the rig bounced all over the place and after the rig took a rather hard hit down onto the ground I decided to take it all down and go to another place to fly. Another place where the wind was coming in, pretty undisturbed, from the sea.

I packed all the stuff into the car and headed for the coast and did find some steady, onshore winds. I ended up by this seaside hotel, situated literally on the beach. I walked onto one of the piers and checked out the flying conditions. it seemed really good and it didn’t take long before I had a Rokkaku sitting up there with no need for a drone!

Stable winds and strong enough to lift the rig, the gimbal and the camera. So up it all went, and here’s the video to prove it!