| Dove Release | Flyoff Supplies | Example Score Card |
The "Flyoff" represents the second half of a Release Duv contest. Birds are released in small kits of two to five birds. Contests are held in a well defined open area such as a high school football stadium or the baseball field of a public park that is surrounded by trees. This allows the judge of a contest to declare a kit to be in or out of the viewing area without much disagreement.
One goal of this breed of Release Duv is to maintain a flying quality in which the birds circle up in the area of the release, called the "Viewing Area", and then quickly leave the sky after leaving the viewing area.
Scoring is strictly a numerical calculation so that birds can be ranked without much disagreement. An ordinary wrist watch is used for timing so that multiple times can be written down, errors are more easily detected, and no one will make the mistake of pushing a stop or start button at the wrong time.
Each kit is given a designated start time. Typical start times are separated by ten minutes unless a preceding kit has an extended Sky Time.
Timing begins at the designated start time or at the first wing clap, which ever is later. One second is deducted from the Fly Time for each second the start is delayed.
Fly Time ends when one or more birds split from the kit or when the judge declares them to be out of the viewing area. The end of Fly Time is called Leave Time.
Sky Time ends when the judge can no longer find them in the sky. The end of Sky Time is called Clear Time.
The two places where the judge must use judgment is in declaring a kit to be out of the viewing area and out of the sky. A good judge will ask the score keeper to mark the time by saying "Mark" whenever the kit skirts near or over the edge of the viewing area and also when the judge loses sight of them in the sky. If the kit seems to be maintaining the goal of producing a bird that flies an extended time in the viewing area, the marked time will be ignored and a new "Leave Time" is marked later. However, if the kit seems to be drifting out of the viewing area and not heading straight home, the judge will ask the score keeper to use the "Marked" time for calculating the end of "Fly Time".
As a kit nears the horizon, it is common to lose sight of them momentarily. A good judge will "Mark" such moments. When the birds are once more seen, the marked time will be ignored and "Sky Time" will continue until a new "Clear Time" is marked.
If a kit is declared to be cleared, (i.e. the judge says they left the sky), but later they return to join a following kit, the Clear Time of the first kit will be extended to match the Clear Time of the second kit with whom they joined. The second kit will suffer from the influence of the previous inferior birds, but nothing can be done about it.
The judge must provide more separation, called "Sky Space" between kits when joins become a problem. Also, if a breeder has a history of joins, their kits should be scheduled later.
If a group of flyers has developed a history with each other, those with the best flying scores should be released first to avoid the problem of joins, to shorten Sky Space and to speed up competition. A good flyer will speak up when flying unproven birds so that proven birds can be flown first.
The basic calculation is simple. The Fly Time is squared and divided by the Sky Time. Scores are normalized so that the best score becomes 100% and all others are relative to that. Normalization allows a better comparison and accounts for flying conditions on that day.
Hold Cage - Where Release Duvs are kept until release time.
Release Cage - Where Release Duvs are released from.
Table - A place to write
Chair - for recorder
Clipboard, Pen, & Paper
Watch - An ordinary watch is preferable to a stop watch.
Binoculars - Useful for judging whether a kit has cleared.
Drinking Water
Sun Block
Hat
Sun Glasses - nearly essential
4X Binoculars are more useful than higher powers
Ceremony Dove is a trademark of Wynn Smith.
© Wynn Smith, 2005