Well, with a couple of hours on my hand I was out to find out! And I had browsed Goggle maps for a suitable flying area based on both the wind direction and some cool surroundings to film from my KAP-rig. I found a place close to a tiny peninsula called Sjuskjær that looked promising. OK, offshore winds but judging from the satellite view on Google maps the surroundings looked good!
I got there and I quickly found the winds being very gusty down close to the ground. But normally – as your kite climbs higher – the winds are getting smoother, so I hoped that by flying the kite up high things would improve. So with an optimistic mind, I started to walk the path from the parking down towards the beach where I planned to fly.
It was still pretty turbulent down on the beach and the wind was howling. But I found me a nice wind shelter behind a giant rock where I established my “Base Camp”. There was no wind at all in the shelter of this rock and a perfect place to sort out the required gear, kite, flying lines, carabine hooks, KAP-rig, camera and all those bits and pieces.
Finally, I had all things sorted out and I brought all the stuff out into the wind and started to lay out a significant length of flying line, fixed it to a large rock upwind and hooked the kite on the line downwind, and up she went!
I had to let out more line to get the kite even higher to find some stability. Not perfect but much better than down on the ground. So with the kite – Power Sled – sitting high up there, it was time to rig the KAP stuff. First I hooked two carabine hooks on to the line and then I fixed the KAP-rig to the hooks. Hmm… Things didn’t look too stable. Hopefully, it would be better with the kite and all the stuff hanging from the line even higher up.
And I guess it got a little better, but the footage wasn’t too stable. But that’s one good thing about shooting video; you can always freeze a good looking frame!
So that’s what I’ve done in the video below. Rather than having you all seasick by taking you on that bumpy ride, I’ll give you a bunch of stills instead. I hope you’ll like it!
All right, roll film!
2 responses
The barren tidal seabed makes me think of a moon landscape (but with wind and blue skies… 🙂 ). The music in the video further accentuates that impression.
Is launching a SLK that is already attached to the anchor and with the line fully out the normal way to launch? (Nope I don’t do SLKing, so this is an honest question. Last time was when I as a child had a small plastic kite…)
Here’s more lunar landscape!
Normal way to launch an SLK…? Well, I guess it depends. On the wind conditions, (type and) size and pull of the kite, your flying area and maybe other parameters too.
In this case I had enough ground to roll out a long stretch of line. The wind was strong and gusty and that power sled pulls like an ox. So for safety reasons I launched it this way.
This way also allow you to fix the two carabineer hooks (for attaching the KAP-rig) to the flying line while the line is slack. This can quickly become a hassle if the kite’s bouncing around up there while you’re trying to get those hooks on to a very tight flying line.
However, in lighter and smoother winds, it’s no problems to launch the kite and then giving line out allowing for the kite to rise.
One rule of thumbs… Safety first!
…and always use gloves when playing with kites of a certain size (and pull). That flying line can do a lot of damage!