Pompey Mick

Here is a site devoted to distance flying, you'll find expat1 there. http://www.zyworld.com/themarathonpigeon/index.htm

That's all they got Vic, Go to the Racing Season 2007 section on the PIPA home page and you will find top hundred for Belgium & Holland and Top 50 for Germany plus a lot of info on the race.

This is from www.pipa.be http://www.pipa.be/results/2007/barcelona070707int100.txt The 1st hundred International

Hi Baz, Go to this site and try the worldwide websites at the bottom of the page: http://www.pipa.be/ also for information on the RPRA: http://www.rpra.org/

ETS is here to stay so it's a waste of time constantly arguing over the matter. What I wanted to know is that in the experience of Scottish fanciers where clubs have a mixture of ETS and Mechanical clocking systems has anyone dominated club racing by virtue of owning an ETS system. As for you Roland, giving up because of ETS, that's a pitiful reason. I would have thought time, money & birdage numbers have a far greater effect on a 'level playing field' then ETS ever does. In fact ETS probably helps level the playing field by letting me know how my birds return from training when I am at work.

I've rescued at least two of my own pigeons from chimneys by nailing a short piece of batten to a longer length to form a perch and feeding it down the chimney from above to get the pigeon to hop on. Whether this will work in your case I'm not sure.

It would seem that certain RPRA organisations are taking it upon themselves to impose time penalties on ETS users. Although the RPRA has a prescribed method of calculating velocities these Organisations are choosing to ignore ths and, in my mind illegally, impose time penalty onto ETS clockings. Now that ETS is generally in use in Scotland, what do you think the biggest advantages of ETS are? Has any one dominated in mixed-use Clubs by virtue of using ETS. What do the Scottish members think are the best attributes of ETS? Is it just the time gained by not having to remove a rubber?

I am a member of the Solent South Road federation down here on the South Coast. http://www.kdwebsolutions.com/solentfed/ It is a well established Fed with a recently purchased and paid for Geraldy Transporter & Trailer (£105,000) with 30 member clubs. We fly a mainly Channel race programme with Old Birds (12 Channel races) and a YB programme of West route & Guernseys. The 7day rule has hit the Fed very hard with birdages 50% down after the initial races. Also the increase of shorter distance National / Classic races is proving an attractive alternative to many fanciers. If they enter birds in these shorter races they cannot send them to the Fed race the previous week because of the 7day rule, so those birds are lost to the Fed for two weeks, and I am talking short distances here, up to 270mls. It is leading to Channel racing at Club level becoming financially unattractive and encouraging more members to finish with federation racing completely. Being on the Coast, now that Channel racing is suspended we will have the all too familar argument, which way now? We can go West to Sennen Cove 180-220 mls to most members, East to Ramsgate 120-150mls or North up tp 550 mls. Many members would like to see the federation adopt the North route to return to weekly, no strings attached, racing, leaving the South Route to the Specialist Clubs. I have raced North & South and see absolutely no problem in switching pigeons North to South to compete in the Channel races. Unfortunately there is a die hard core of influential members who are putting personal preference before the welfare of the Federation. I believe we could arrange a tie-up with the CSCFC to allow some prestigious Channel racing while the Federation concentrates on Inland racing only. Some hard thinking needs to be done.

The permit is for the Btitish Isles which includes the Republic of Ireland: ‘British Isles’ for the purposes of this licence means England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and the Isle of Man but it excludes the Channel Islands. How about a race from Portsmouth, I could go and watch the lib and post plenty of pictures. It's an excellent lib site.

Solent Fed up at 8.00 no wind at Yelverton

Portsmouth,07.30, bright blue sky, fresh westerly wind, moon visible, clear.

It seems that DEFRA have removed the Continental racing part of the permit ,only alllowing British Isles racing excluding the Channel Isles http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/disease/ai/keptbirds/genlicence.htm

Best Wishes Rose, Get well soon.

Derek Human still hanging in there, but the others are getting closer.

Solent Fed up at 9.45 at CHOLET , brought back from Saintes. Strong SW wind Frequent showers here on the coast withy bright periods between.

Try this for a quicker link http://www.nationalflyingclub.co.uk/ResultsForm.php

Anyone interested in the NFC Tarbes, this is updated as birds are verified http://www.nationalflyingclub.co.uk/Resret.php Click on 'Race Results' Bert Shepherd of Emsworth has just clocked

Derek Human has timed from Tarbes, 6.11 Drizzle here at the moment07.00

i remember getting one from Pau in torrential rain way back in 1965. it took me 25mins to get the bird into the loft ,he was like a drowned rat and just sat on the loft arriving at 6.00pm after at 6.00am lib It was very strong SW wind and I believe they clocked just after 4.00pm in the Weymouth area. But they were hitting the coast much earlier in the day and it would have been a lot brighter than it is now (19.30) It's very gloomy and still spitting with rain now, but you never know, you still have to be watching.

Portsmouth 13.00, steady persistent rain here, looks set to last for some time.

What is the future of Channel racing for South Coast clubs with the double whammy of the 7day rule and the ever increasing race programmes of the National/Specialist clubs. We are at Saintes with the Solent Fed and with the holdover birdage is predicted to be in excess of £3.00 per pigeon for a Club/Fed race. With the NFC, BBC,BICC & CSCFC South Coast fanciers have the opportunity of 16 races from 130mls up to 540mls. Many fanciers are forsaking Federation races for these races and who can blame them with spiralling birdage charges in the Federation Channel races. My federation, The Solent Fed, races weekly across the Channel and is badly feeling the pinch. A radical overhaul of future programmes will be needed to stop this once great Federation going into terminal decline. we have a state-of-the-Art Geraldy Transporter going across the Channel only 25% full, with a ferry charge of £2000 a go you can see how the birdage escalates. We have four Guernseys (112 ml)in our YB programme all with 7day restrictions, so the YB 's will have a stop-start flying season. Also the Ferry charges for Guernsey are well in excess of £2000, so it will not be cheap. For Federation Channel racing to continue in this part of the UK I think almalgamation is an option plus a more selective Channel programme rather than a weekly one.

Portsmouth 07.30, Bleak, Heavy cloud cover, recent drizzle, lt wind, worsening local forecast. Not very hopeful.

Solent Fed at Saintes, hope the weathet forecast is wrong or we're in for a long wait.

I've been told the BBC Palamos race has been moved to San Sebastion Here is the Email of the restricted zones in France

just had word from ths Solent Fed Sec last night. Our Picauville race sceduled for 7th July has been changed by the RPRA to Falaise. Saintes & Bergerac are OK up to now.