MISCELLANY
KITES AND CAMERAS
RIGS VIDEO SYSTEMS
PARAFOILS TRANSMITTERS
FILMVERTICALS ARCHAEOLOGY
SERVOS FAILURE DELTAS
KAPPERS
CONTROLS
A line pulled with tender urgency
ROUGH LANDINGS
SUNSET SKIES AND
FLYING FREE

Miscellany

A page of utter miscellany, most of it KAP related, just some stuff I had nowhere for, bits and pieces, stuff that couldn't make it to a web page on its own, but has been cluttering my mind and directories for some time... Make of it what you will.

First then:

This one had me squeaking when I discovered it on the web a few months ago: A product of the Alanis Morisette Lyric generator As the website says:

Don't you just love Alanis Morissette? Doesn't her music just set your heart afire with the passion of misspent youth? Don't you wish you could write catchy pop hits just like she does?

Well now you can.

Simply fill out the form on the page and the Alanis Morissette Random Lyric Generator will spill out a #1 hit song that you can ride all the way to the bank! Go on! Get miserable!

I tried the lyric generator out, it was real fun.
SO I fed it some KAP type words, this is what it gave me.......

"Will to Live"

I feel miserable
Dead transmitter batteries make me ill
I feel miserable
Cameras tear at my foundations
I feel miserable
Kites are dragging me down to the depths of misery
I want to die

Is it because of kite flying on windless days that I feel this way?
With the yellow and black rays of misery pounding on my brain?
Or am I lost in a page of Benton's website, adrift far from home
I don't think so, I don't think so.

Picavet Broke My Will to Live
Picavet Broke My Will to Live
Picavet Broke My Will to Live
I was getting better but then
Picavet Broke My Will to Live

I feel miserable
Tangled string rots the flesh from my bones
I feel miserable
Aerial photos defeat my purpose
I feel miserable
Trees that eat my kite are doing their best to impale my soul
I want to die

Is it because of kite flying on windless days that I feel this way?
With the yellow and black rays of misery pounding on my brain?
Am I lost in a page of Benton's website, adrift far from home
I don't think so, I don't think so.


Wonder if she'd record it for me ? I could get rich.

When are you going to write about rigs Harbord? When arte you going to fix that broken link?

People ask me when I'm going to put a page together on rigs.... Or finish the one I started....
The video viewfinder page took over a month, and at the end of it we have a typical Simon Harbord product, all wires, complexity and strange bits and pieces . Do you really want me to write about my rigs ?? Maybe when I run out of other things to say. I've some rig building to do soon, so who knows... You'll note I haven't finished my "build a basic rig" page....

Singing kitelines

Have you heard your kiteline sing in the wind? Try gripping it in your teeth or passing it over your fingertip pressed into your ear. (NB I take no responsibility blah blah blah) Or if you can't risk all that then, go to this page here and scroll down the page to the section "kite line tones" there are sound files of different kinds of kiteline in the wind. As each file downloaded onto my PC this familiar sound filled my room, a very strange and comforting sound like no other. On a loop tape it would be an ideal insomnia cure for kiteflyers. Tell me what the sounds evoke for you.
Here's a picture I did for a page on rigs, it is a picture of my Canon Ixus rig -a little used rig but one I enjoyed building - the batteries and receiver hide round the back making it look very tidy.

I used Bryce to compose the image. It shows very clearly how the hosepipe and dowel approach works for holding rigs on kitelines. Because the hosepipe sections are already passed over the kiteline and fit by friction onto the slightly tapered ends of the dowel there are no line kinks or stress on the line. Try it - it works. Those at KAPiCA in '02 can vouch for its simplicity and effectiveness. Love to say it's my idea, but it's not, I picked it up from Mark Cotterell's book on KAP about 15 years ago and have used it ever since.

Here's a picture of the real rig, the receiver and batteries go round the back. Note the ultra micro servos.

Ixus rig

Where do we get our bits and pieces from? NB this piece was the precursor to my shopping trip page...

I put this list together ages ago, and never did anything with it.

Garden shops

  • string
  • bamboo
  • hose reels that look made for kiteline - (anyone bought one? Did it work?)
  • strange plastic things for fastening plants together.(sort of reuseable tie wraps)

Hardware shops

  • materials - aluminium, wood, plastic, boxes etc
  • fixtures and fittings - nuts, bolts, washers, split pins, springs etc etc.
  • strange houshold appliances that might be useful -clockwork devices, egg timers, thermostats let your imagination run riot.

Model Shops

  • radio control gear tranmitters, receivers, servos, battery packs, motors.
  • tiny fittings - nuts and bolts, servo horns, grommets, hinges, pulleys etc
  • materials, balsa, hardwoods, plastic sheets
  • finishings - paints, transfers
  • boxes for putting things in

Outdoors shops

  • straps
  • line handling gear - carabiners, figure eights, pulleys, jumars
  • clips
  • pouches for equipment
  • fishing tackle - line, swivels, traces, fluorescent objects useful for aerial booms.
  • fluorescent paint

Electronics shops

  • connectors
  • multiway cable
  • solder
  • resistors - variable pots, trimmers, fixed etc.
  • other electronic components- capacitors, switches, relays, plugs, sockets, project boxes
  • timers, clocks

Jewellers shops

  • clockwork mechanisms
  • music boxes
  • magnifying lenses
  • Casio altimeter watches with memory (Yes!)

Toy shops

  • clockwork toys
  • motorised toys
  • microprocessor toys
  • Tomy toys - (inspirational)
  • TYCO video cameras

Computer stores

  • multiway leads and connectors
  • electronic notepads
  • digital cameras
  • photoediting software

Camera shops

  • cameras - still video, digital
  • film & processing
  • shutter release mechanisms
I've been known to rattle on a bit about Dan Leigh kites and how pleasant they are to fly. Well, I finally got round to putting a picture of one here, my favourite red delta. Looks pretty much like any other delta, wings pulled back in a strong breeze. All I can say is - buy one, and I defy you not to spend a lot of time flying it. A kite to uplift the spirits. In fact so much so that I wrote a very personal page on the healing nature of kiteflying, which has remained on the web for years for those that could find it, but not linked from this site, until now - here

Hidden treasures

??

The image above is an example of the hidden treasures to be found in KAP photos. Something I have always been pleasantly surprised at is the reaction of people to aerial photos of familiar territory. They pore over my "rejects" finding interest in the most mundane of details. Such detail may pass us by, or only become apparent once the disappointment of a missed shot passes away.

The pattern of red dots in the .gif file above shows a set of molehills in the field next to Corgarff Castle. Click here to see the original picture. From the ground it was just a load of molehills, but from the air, the structure and extent of the underground tunnels becomes apparent. To me looking at the picture the other day was a revelation, a complete new dimension to the photo. I had to go through all the prints again just to see if there were any better shots of the molehills.

Remember, for every subject there is someone somewhere who would be fascinated in an aspect of the picture that you hadn't thought of. Roofers like roof shots, tree surgeons like the tops of trees, golf greenkeepers love to see their work from the air.

A strange juxtaposition.
A while ago I took some aerials of a gasometer base in Aberdeen. Due to the innaccesibility of the site I took the photographs virtually blind - I could barely see my subject from where I was standing. No more than 20 metres from the gasometer base was a graveyard, which was also invisible from where I was standing holding the kiteline. Here are a couple of photographs taken moments apart at the spot. Click on the first photo to see the other one. I found the similarities of the two pictures just amazing.

Bizarre conversations

The scene - Simon, festooned with kite gear, reel in hand, camera in air above a big building.

So - that thing there, is it a helicopter? Pause
Is that a dragonfly, one of those dragonfly things? Pause
How does it hover there like that then? I finally answer
What kite?
String? what string? Pause
So - do you go up in it?
Radio control eh? So you talk to it then? Pause
Can you make it loop the loop? Pause
So you're with the wedding are you?
So, (long pause) you'll come down when you're finished?
Yes, I understand that, but what's that thing - not that, that thing up there, look its red and blue? (a kite)
Kite eh? When I was a lad we used to make kites out of brown paper and sticks and string....(long pause)
If you want a good picture of the wedding, you want to go in there...... they're all in there. (pointing to the building I am photographing)

Of course we have to remember that in an unfamiliar situation we all respond in classic formulaic style and KAP is one of those pursuits that bring out the same questions over and over. How many times have you found youself asking the questions that people have heard a thousand times before.
"Is this the ticket desk?"
"How do I start it? Oh that switch."
"Why did the screen go blank?"

Here's a picture of my Olympus Mju2 rig - lovely rig, don't know why I don't use it more. The yellow drum is a pet name tag thing with my name and address in. Luckily I've not had need for anyone to find and return the rig to me using it.

Back to home.

This page © 1999 finally updated and posted 2003

Simon Harbord