grizzle09

That's the end of loch ness

Fort William

I think the race program will make for a hardier doo in years to come, I've marked the car park at ganavan sands beach for liberation, Picture taking in Fort Augustus when training, this is an example of all the scottish race points

Hi ovy, Ben Nevis being the highest at around 1300m the birds will face all levels of terrain on the line of flight but we expect the birds will follow the great glen from Fort William through to invernes-shire, opening them up to flatter ground, Another possible route is if they follow the river spey which cuts through the cairngorms as mine did in training.

Moray Firth Flying club, from 60 mile to 500 mile, will be very interesting to see how our birds perform this year! Obs Fort Augustus Fort William Oban Tarbert Campbeltown Omagh Fort Augustus Galway Fort Augustus Valentia island Ybs Fort Augustus Fort Augustus Fort William Fort William Oban Tarbert Campbeltown Omagh

Thanks cem, were upto 30 members as of yesterday with more still getting in touch, looking forward to getting started.

Evening lads, With memberships starting to come in I'd just like to update everyone planning on flying with the Moray Firth Flying Club for the 2021 season they can contact me either by call/text/pm to arrange payment of fees unless your club secretary is already dealing with it. I'm working on basketing facilities for fanciers facing difficulty in they're own clubs where basketing for MFFC race's might not be possible. I'd like to thank everyone for they're encouragement and support over the last few months and for showing your support by joining. Lee Barrie 07432855167

Quick update, Have sent information letters out to Mike Stephen (elgin) Carlton reid (inverness) and Ryan hay (banff) for anyone that wants to pick one up, Keith and Buckie have been sent out individually, More info will be made available in january when memberships have been taken. Lee

Hi mike, I'll be posting out invitation letters to everyone soon with as much information as I have upto now hopefully this will give everyone the chance and time to plan out next years race season. so far so good with everything going to plan, A constitution is being drafted and will be sent to shu before there agm to confirm the forming of the club, I'm looking into transport at the moment while waiting for quotes to come back for the making of crates and fitting of racking. Lee

Having the choice between both routes is what it's all about, This club has nothing to do with the north of scotland fed apart from offering it to members within the fed and definitely isn't designed to split it up but when racing only goes from worse to worse each year mainly for west section clubs and no hope of ever getting a farer race program passed the proposal stage then forming a new club to get this done was necessary, No wonder clubs in the west section dont support it like they used to! Upto now the only negative feedback I've had has been from fanciers that this either doesnt apply to or fanciers that are in good enough positions within the fed to win fed prizes, To them it does apply to I've had nothing but positive feedback for obvious reasons, that in itself tells a story! For the last 40+ year our fed has flown a east coast route that was all very well and good but in recent years its turned racing into a pointless chore to breed, rear and race birds year in year out just to loose 75% of them along with crap velocities, If changing routes completely will improve racing and get back the enjoyment then that is what we have to do and if it doesnt work as well as we hope then something else will have to be tried, Doing the same thing every year when it doesnt work is utter ridiculous like I said before if getting farer racing was even remotely possible with in the fed this club wouldn't be needed.

In my opinion, This club/race program is designed to benefit us in the west section the same way an east coast race program benefits fanciers in the east, Theres no enjoyment in racing west section birds down a east coast race program and there hasn't been for years, I offer this as an alternative to what we have now, Members will have the choice to join either one or both, Definitely not intended to split the fed Cheers lee

Without a doubt bops are everywhere, with my guess there are fewer of them down that area this is just one positive to this route, The idea is to give the birds the best possible advantage to get home in every race and get good velocities at that, Every race point was selected to give fanciers in the club from first drop to last the best over-fly from the fanciers before him to ensure a farer race for everyone in the club, With a bit of luck and support from the lads that this will benefit, we'll get an answer to whether it worked or not, we can only but try

Your right, I've been up and down that road to oban quite alot and only ever seen the odd buzzard, never had any indication from the birds returning from that area that they'd been hassled by bop either, Got to be worth a try! I will send out all the info I can/have upto now to club secretary's hopefully before everyone's AGM's so that fanciers that dont use PB are able to read for themselves. Lee

Spot on stan, will do

Cheers Phil, This will be arranged closer to race season as a pick up schedule will depend on where fanciers are joining from, As racing takes us down the west, pickups would start with members in the east being Banff area, Inverness area being last.

Thanks, I started training out to 30 mile (oldmerdrum) over 8 tosses with 48 and dropped 8 with 3 returning hawked, Sent 37 with the fed to brechin 66mile all being fit and healthy, dropped 20 only seeing 7 on the day all arriving spooked and flown out and the other 10 working in through the week, After 2 weeks of rest I started training them out to 30 mile (grantown on spey) over 6 tosses with 17 and hadn't lost a bird, Took them to Fort Augustus 70mile and lost 1, Birds doing 1750ypm with full returns within 1h 12mins then again out to Fort William 100mile having full returns within 2h 8mins doing 1350ypm, Instantly better! And definitely less BOP

Rough miles to us in Buckie, there is the option to get over 500 mile if we wanted Fort Augustus 73 Fort William 99 Oban 128 Tarbert 158 Campbeltown 185 Maghera 241 Mullingar 331 Mallow 442

The forming of the Moray Firth Flying Club, Over the last few months I've been talking with fanciers along the Moray Firth gauging interest in a west coast race program and the feed back up to now has been very positive in that fanciers would very much like to try something new, Too many losses, slow returns, slow velocities, too many birds being hawked are just some of the reasons that has sickened just about everyone I've talked to. Therefore, I've decided to form a club with interest already from over 30 fanciers that would offer those from Inverness through to Banff the opportunity to race down the west coast of Scotland and into Ireland, having trained and partly raced my own birds down this route already this year to test whether this was feasible or not, I found it was 100% better than conventional east coast racing, Birds were returning in bigger batch's than usual something that hasn't been seen for years (for us anyway), birds returning relaxed and not flown out with no dramatic weight loss unlike from races of similar distance and weather conditions down the east, velocities were also considerably faster and steadier. This for me was enough to realise that these birds weren't being harassed by bop every five mile, along with no other clubs/feds flying in the area (Scotland) it means the only obstacles the birds were facing was the terrain and with the west coast being probably the hardest terrain in the country to fly through I found that my birds definitely didn't find it a problem proved by velocities and return. A little about how this club will work, ⦠The Moray Firth Flying Club will operate in the same way a Fed or National club works in that the club will provide a race program, an open result and transport for fanciers wanting to compete within it. ⦠Each individual/partnership joining the club will already be a member of they're local club where they will have paid their SHU membership through, To ensure membership wont be taking away from said club and so that fanciers will keep the use of they're local club facilities in order to create club results, basket birds for race's and so on. ⦠Each race held by the Moray Firth Flying Club is designed so that each club has weekly club racing as well as having an open result between all members participating , All race results will be made at local club level and forwarded to MFFC race result convener so a open result can be made. ⦠The Moray Firth Flying Club will operate a full west coast of Scotland/Ireland race program for the 2021 race season for OBS and YBS, Offering racing from roughly 70mile-450mile (Program listed below with a start date yet to be decided) ⦠Price of membership to be fixed at £** per person/partnership to be payed before the 1st of February each year, Birdage to be fixed at £** per bird for Scottish race points and £** per bird for Irish, ⦠OBS ⦠Fort Augustus ⦠Fort William ⦠Oban ⦠Tarbert ⦠Campbeltown ⦠Maghera / Ireland ⦠Fort Augustus ⦠Mullingar / Ireland ⦠Fort Augustus ⦠Mallow / Ireland ⦠YBS ⦠Fort Augustus ⦠Fort Augustus ⦠Fort William ⦠Fort William ⦠Oban ⦠Tarbert ⦠Campbeltown ⦠Maghera / Ireland I will post more information in the months leading up to racing keeping everyone informed best i can but If anyone has any questions regarding this I'm happy to answer either by pm, call or text 07432855167. Yours in sport Lee Barrie

well done Roddy on winning the last race of the season, its been a tough one. SEDGEFIELD RESULT 30-08-20.pdf

well done once again to Rod Bain on winning the race. AUCHENDINNY RESULT 23-08-20.pdf

well done to Neil Christie on winning the race. DUNFERMLINE 15-08-20.pdf

well done to Rod Bain on winning the race also well done to Alex Hutchison on winning the bag of food donated by Gavin Russel. very poor returns at clock opening. DUNFERMLINE RESULT 08-08-20.pdf

Mine were the same Phil, most came home looking like they had flown 600 mile not 60, 7/35 on the day and the rest through the week even getting birds back today, the time and effort going into ybs each year only to pointlessly lose most of the team due to bad decisions, some members had good returns mostly east section members but clearly there birds wasnt in the batch that decided to stay in the brechin area most likely due to rain/bop on route which has turned them back??? Considering friday was the best day to race we decided to delay till the Sunday with decisions like that who needs bop!! Of course this is only my opinion

Exactly right, bad races after bad races and nothing is said or done to improve things, the birds "not being good enough" isn't a good enough reason for the amount of losses were getting each week, but then again it seems if one club gets a good race then it must've been a good race for everyone!! racing is becoming pointless at this point and border line cruelty!

Have had birds reported all week hawked and flown out in Montrose, Laurencekirk, Brechin, Aberdeen just shows that quite a few of them didnt leave the area for what ever reason! 16/35 home is ridiculous from a 65 mile race, have spoken to other lads reporting same losses