KAP 2011-17 – Blockhouse Island, Brockville, Ontario – October 31, 2011

Aerial photograph - Marina at Blockhouse Island, Brockville, Ontario.

During this session my Levi Light tasted the St. Lawrence River.

I was in Brockville, Ontario for a few hours of KAP at Blockhouse Island. There was virtually zero wind when I arrived, so after deciding on my best launch location should the wind pick up, I went for a walk to check out nearby Hardy Park. When I came back the wind seemed sufficient for autokap so I launched my Levi Light. I stood for about 5 minutes with the kite at about 200′ to see if the wind was going to be stable and continual. It seemed strong enough to hang the rig but I was concerned the kite was angling to the left pointing to about 11:00 o’clock. It seemed stable otherwise but I thought it best to bring it down to check it. As I was bringing it down with still about 100′ of line out it suddenly arched from angling left to a right hand turn and straight down into a vertical dive. Normally there would be ample time to recover by letting line out but no luck with that. Straight down it went into the river and I would guess it continued to fly to about 30′ depth under water. People arriving then would have thought I was fishing for sturgeon considering the amount of pull on the line from a large kite flying underwater in one of the largest rivers in the world. Fortunately no camera was involved in the swimming exercise.

I eventually retrieved the kite and checked it out and it seemed fine. So it is a mystery to me and all I can think is obnoxious wind. However, I immediately put my FLED on and it flew fine with autokap and after a 1/2 hour I switched to my remote rig. In the end I obtained a few decent shots.

These images were taken with a remote controlled camera suspended below a kite line. (Kite Aerial Photography – KAP)

Aerial photograph - Saint Lawrence River at Blockhouse Island, Brockville, Ontario.

Aerial photograph - Marina at Blockhouse Island, Brockville, Ontario.

Aerial photograph straight down abstract view of the Blockhouse Island Parkway, Brockville, Ontario.

Aerial photograph - The Boardwalk condominium block , the being built Tall Ships Landing waterfront condominiums and the site of the future Maritime Discovery Centre. The Marina at Blockhouse Island, Brockville, Ontario.