Littlehampton 19th August 2023

[Andy]

When you look at the fed sheet you can see even top flyers struggle with the winds, Templar, Wilcox, Rogers even Booth and Roper, the maps do show the hard work the birds have to put in hopefully the winds will drop or change for the better

The velocities drop off quickly. The winning velocity is the combine was 1479. The 50th was 1255. Our club winning velocity was 1169!!
The forecast for next weekend at the moment is for a light NW wind. Should keep them down our way better. We’re back to Stoney Stoke just 34 miles for me.

It is funny that the velocities drop off like that, they do in our Fed and club too, it just shows how for some reason the birds get split up very early in the race with some birds getting ahead very quickly !!! It is often the topic of conversation down our club with everyone having their own idea on why this happening that's why I love this sport lol

For us I think it’s because of the different distances between the North and South fanciers. 40 miles difference. If the birds get dragged north it is a long way to come back against the wind. Even if the split those more southerly would have a much harder fly than those northerly ones.

[Buster121]

Basically a double distance for them with the drag and then to get back on line

[Trev]

The velocities drop off quickly. The winning velocity is the combine was 1479. The 50th was 1255. Our club winning velocity was 1169!!
The forecast for next weekend at the moment is for a light NW wind. Should keep them down our way better. We’re back to Stoney Stoke just 34 miles for me.

It is funny that the velocities drop off like that, they do in our Fed and club too, it just shows how for some reason the birds get split up very early in the race with some birds getting ahead very quickly !!! It is often the topic of conversation down our club with everyone having their own idea on why this happening that's why I love this sport lol

For us I think it’s because of the different distances between the North and South fanciers. 40 miles difference. If the birds get dragged north it is a long way to come back against the wind. Even if the split those more southerly would have a much harder fly than those northerly ones.

Ours is the same Andy, although from the liberation site from most race points there is only around 20 miles difference between our longest fliers in Eastbourne and the shortest fliers like me, if the birds did get dragged/blown down to Eastbourne they would have another 30 miles to fly back along the coast into a head wind, which would in real terms add 50 miles of dead time onto their overall journey !!!

[Trev]

I do think if you want to win young bird races that this is where training youngsters hard does pay off, the members in our club who have done a lot of training and are still training a couple of times a week aren't getting dragged too far off line and are getting their birds arrive closer together. You've only got to look at our results and although we have had a different winner each week one name stands out every week and that's our youngest and keenest member Danny Porter who I would say has been the most consistent flier all year.