Memory Lane

[NeilA]

Thanks Neil

I chose those 4 sheets (with some randomness) but as it happens they demonstrate a variation of wind perfectly

You've got a Southerly, a NNE, a Westerly and an ESE wind

Of those you'd only say we were favourites on the ESE wind as our Club is the furthest in the West

So, my point is, you CAN beat the wind

It's just that you gotta have something vastly superior to those birds who are in "pole position" that day - and that's not always easy

You are so right there, that has been proven each week down here in our Federation this season, the wind really hasn't dictated the results, the top fliers have been there or there abouts regardless of the wind direction or strength !!
It obviously helps dictate their speed but not the direction they fly !!

Is the drag / weight of entries against the wind direction

[MIL]

In a lot of the Federations I've flown in, 9/10 you can predict pretty accurately where you'd expect to find the Fed winner

For instance, in our Federation, when there's East in the wind the lads in Rugeley will win the Federation 99 times out of 100

It'd be a real anomaly for it to be otherwise

That's because, on the day, those boys have "the edge" (most Westerly lofts by some distance) and if you've got "the edge" and you're good enough to use it, then you should exploit it

Dont; get me wrong though there's plenty of lofts in Rugeley that haven't won the Federation when they've had the "edge"

At the end of the day, you've still got to have the pigeon on the day - there's no getting around that


Sometimes, and only sometimes, you can upset the applr cart if you're better than the rest - but it's not achieved easily

[MIL]

In direct answer to your question Neil

The Rugeley lads send in the Hill Ridware Club. On a good day they might send say 250?

The Fed would typically send anywhere from 1200-2000 + (Last week saw 1201 birds go in the Fed and 100 from the Ridware Club)

So, as a rule, there's at least 1,000 birds (sometimes 1500+) flying anything from 9 miles East of them

[NeilA]

[Trev]

You know the old adage as well as I do Trevor I'm sure

"Leading birds don't get pulled"

[Trev]

Thanks Neil

I chose those 4 sheets (with some randomness) but as it happens they demonstrate a variation of wind perfectly

You've got a Southerly, a NNE, a Westerly and an ESE wind

Of those you'd only say we were favourites on the ESE wind as our Club is the furthest in the West

So, my point is, you CAN beat the wind

It's just that you gotta have something vastly superior to those birds who are in "pole position" that day - and that's not always easy

You are so right there, that has been proven each week down here in our Federation this season, the wind really hasn't dictated the results, the top fliers have been there or there abouts regardless of the wind direction or strength !!
It obviously helps dictate their speed but not the direction they fly !!

Is the drag / weight of entries against the wind direction

Last week for example from Kelso, app 340miles, there was a westerly wind all the way day, not necessarily a strong one but you would still expect the most easterly members of our Federation to have the advantage. However when you look at the combine result the birds clearly split regardless of the wind and made it into both ends of the combine at pretty much the same time, and remember that the combine has a spread of some 100+ miles from East to west so neither the wind or drag played a part in this result.

This result does only have the first 5 birds from each federation in the result.

[MIL]

I can see the Federation birdage Trevor, how many typically go in the Combine ?

[Trev]

This was the birdage in the combine last week mate, it's not massive but a fair turn out, we only fly as a combine for our longest 3 old bird races and our longest youngbird race, couldn't afford to go much over 200 miles otherwise.
We have our last old bird race from Crieff next week, about 410 miles to me.

[NeilA]

Nice to look back. Funnily enough couple of week back an ex club member of ours had posted some old bhw and results through a mates door. Hadn't looked at them to Monday first one I picked up was a combine result from 2007, when we were lucky to win it, 278 miles, being 1st,2nd,7th,9th,14th and 21st. Birdage was 2931. Best thing about that race we actually bred the pigeon that was 4th Combine too. Soon as I seen the result could remember it like it was yesterday.

That’s a lovely result
Stick it on here Goose be good to see

[goose1]

Nice to look back. Funnily enough couple of week back an ex club member of ours had posted some old bhw and results through a mates door. Hadn't looked at them to Monday first one I picked up was a combine result from 2007, when we were lucky to win it, 278 miles, being 1st,2nd,7th,9th,14th and 21st. Birdage was 2931. Best thing about that race we actually bred the pigeon that was 4th Combine too. Soon as I seen the result could remember it like it was yesterday.

That’s a lovely result
Stick it on here Goose be good to see

Not into doing stuff like that only mentioned it cos we were down memory lane and I'd literally been looking at the result 2 days earlier:lol: First 2 came together we clocked them 1 second apart on the old T3. We stopped clocking after the 6th pigeon who had been a very good racer and actually only died 2 years ago aged 20. Had it been now on ets we'd have had a fair few more on result that day. Can remember the season well the week before we were actually beaten for the fed on 3rd decimal from 414miles!