HINTS Some things I learned in my first few rolls (burning up a LOT of film just to get one good shot):

-If shooting plan views (straight down) of a particular object, and you don't have a positioning person/spotter in the field, bracket-shoot several pix in a square pattern around your target, in addition to the one you think is "right on".   Back up, move forward, move left, move right.   You will NOT be getting your target in the first shot!   It's extremely difficult to judge distance when the line is a couple hundred feet out.   The camera is NOT pointed exactly where you think it is.   If you DO have a spotter, those Family Radio Service (FRS) radios are good to have- or you can just work out some hand signals with your spotter.

-If shooting a particular interesting object, the closer to it you are the better. With a normal P&S's 35mm lens, at 100' above an object, it's already turning into an unregognizable speck.   Altitude is for scenery, not shooting smallish objects (people) on the ground.

-If the camera is swaying from the wind, trigger the shutter during the period when it's almost stopped moving.   To gain additional shutter speed (to stop blur on windy days), set the P&S as if you had a higher shutter speed in the camera, (you may have to change the DX pattern on the side of the film cannister w/electrical tape if your camera self-determines the film speed).   Print film has about a 5 exposure stop latitide, meaning that you can be off by a couple stops and the printing machine can compensate to give you adequately exposed prints.   E.g. 100 ASA film, but set camera to 200 or 400 ASA to double or quadruple your shutter speed.

-After walking-down the kite to adjust the camera (or relaunching a downed kite 100' from the tie-off), don't just let the line go- the wind may deflate or otherwise destabilize the kite and cause it to drop out of the sky, or the camera rig will whip up, and create a 20 minute untangling job with a rat's nest made of your picavet and kite lines.   Walk it back up slowly.   Corollary: Never turn your back on the kite when your camera's attached.   Always keep an eye on it.

-If you've waited weeks for just the right conditions to shoot one particular, subject, bring an extra roll of film (and batteries for the R/C stuff and camera).

-If you have to drive to the End of the Earth for a shoot, bring spare picavet parts with you (discovered when my kids accidently sat on my balsa wood picavet cross in my kite bag; I didn't notice until NEXT time I went to use it).   Rebuilding on site is vastly preferrable to driving all the way back home to do it.   Also bring the picavet threading diagram! :-)

-If self-timers aren't what you want to use, don't waste your time inventing a remote control from cheap parts.   You can get a "real" remote control for $60 or less.