My own loft (04-10-22)
Michel B has become interested in the flight routes that pigeons travel from the release point to the home loft.
If you're a bit handy, no big problem anymore with those GPS rings that are currently available. The routes that pigeons take are so-called 'tracks'. Michel requested many tracks from sports friends and made interesting observations.
MORE
Those tracks provide more information than the course that pigeons flew. Also the speed over the entire flight path, the altitude, any breaks, how many kilometers more they flew than the straight line, where pigeons went wrong, where they corrected their course again and so on.
For example, it is amazing how the heights at which the pigeons fly can differ. Especially with tail winds.
I believe (but that does not mean that it is the case) that healthy pigeons, under the same conditions, fly equally fast over not too long distances.
Lead wins that are repeatedly won seem to belie that. These seem to indicate that certain pigeons (can) fly faster. But if so, why don't they do that every flight?
Take also the national winner of Argenton of more than 17,000 pigeons with a lead of 16 minutes. Had it flown so much faster than other pigeons?
I don't believe any of it.
I do believe in different speed when birds race under different circumstances, read at a different height than other pigeons so that they were favored by the wind.
After all, if this Argenton could fly faster than why then only this day?
Contrary to what you would expect, you rarely see those lead victories against the wind. Because then the pigeons all fly the same high.
Or better, just as low.
Simple lofts but not simple pigeons
ALWAYS SLOWER
Those GPS rings not only tell you about the course and the height at which pigeons fly, but also about the speed on each part of the flight path. And what can you conclude from that?
On the last part of the flight trajectory pigeons fly considerably slower than a short time after the release. The differences are sometimes so great that you wonder how the furthest distances can still get on the result sheet.
The answer seems simple: The disadvantage that pigeons have by having to exert themselves more physically, which is at the expense of speed, is compensated by other things.
After all, a simple calculation shows that every loss of time is in favor of the overflight (the long end). You can think of a bad start after release or deviating from the straight course home.
Of the tracks Michel published, I didn't see any where the pigeon headed straight home like a laser beam or a fired rocket.
In other words, each pigeon deviates more or less from its assumed straight course. Sometimes very little, sometimes very much. And every loss of time due to every deviation is in favor of the overflight. So pigeons at the furthest distances have an advantage every week.
EASY TO SEE
How many pigeons can deviate is shown every flying day when you see pigeons coming over from a race. You usually see them in smaller or larger groups. And 90% of the pigeons in such a group are wrong. Or it should be that all lofts where they belong are in line with each other, which of course is not the case. After all, is there no location that favors you? It is definitely there: In the middle of the Combine/Province.
After all, immediately after release all pigeons set course for that middle and immediately the pigeons that belong on the far right or left are wrong. And they will have to correct their course. The later that happens, the greater the curvature will be and the more miles they are wrong. Or lose time.
I seldom race long distance. But in 2014 I did with 3 or 4 birds. 006 won 1st National zone. Provincial (Antwerp) it had a lead of no less than 10 minutes at the greatest distance in hard weather.
NOT TO SEE
The fact that you can't see that on the results is because of that disadvantage that they also have: They fly more slowly.
Do the advantages and disadvantages outweigh each other? In other words, is it better for a pigeon fancier to live in the overflight or better at the shortest distance. Opinions differ. Fanciers who race at the shortest location will say it is the further distances are advantaged.
Fanciers who play at the greatest distances believe that the short end is favored.
ORIENTATE
If I'm right and successful pigeon sport is indeed mainly a matter or orienteering you have no choice but to select and link with the results in hand. After all, results would then show which pigeons are the best.
I have never done otherwise, after the season I only looked at results if there was a selection.
Because I always was a good young bird racer, this meant that a few years ago youngsters had to be culled with eight prizes. Fellow fanciers often did not have such birds but I was ruthless in it.
Also youngsters from the best parents if they disappointed could go.
“Perhaps there will come a time when I will be happy with such again,” I once wrote. Because maybe those people were right who claimed that I could make big mistakes with this method. What they meant was of course culling good pigeons. Perhaps the Verkerk method (keep them all) is more like playing it safe. But my problem is I like pigeons but I hate to have MANY pigeons.
AND THEN
My partner gets older, he does not train the birds with the result that in 2021 I did not even have one bird that stood out.
So, for 2022, I raced youngsters from 2021 that would not have been good enough in previous years.
Now the 2022 season is over. And although championships are not really of much interest, (not champions sometimes play better than champions) I became KING in the combine called ZAV with yearlings with 1st, 2nd and 4th Ace pigeon.
Were those men who claimed that my method was wrong after all right? Perhaps. On the other hand, that I am a bungler in pigeon sport does not seem likely after half a century of dominating the middle distance races. First in Holland, then in Belgium.
I have better racers than 727, but it is a fantastic breeder.