A really handy feature of the soda bottle camera rig is that it is somewhat rainproof. Rainy days are generally not good times for balloon or kite mapping, but last week I had one brief window to map some study plots while intermittent rain showers were passing through. Conditions for kite mapping were otherwise good, but I was using my dual camera KAP rig that leaves the cameras and electronics exposed to the elements. It was too risky to get caught by a shower with the NIR/visible cameras way up in the air – a light shower could have destroyed the cameras and controller before I could reel the kite back in. Fortunately, one of the many plastic bags in my pack was just the right size to make a rain hat for the rig. I now call this high-tech device the ShowerKAP. It flew for an hour and forty minutes without incident. That is, I didn’t really test the ShowerKAP because it never rained. But it has the potential to keep the equipment dry while it is reeled in after a shower starts. The ShowerKAP will be a permanent addition to my KAP mapping kit.
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