Birmingham Rollers Discussion

[TAWhatley]

The Birmingham Rollers discussion thread is now open. Many thanks to bigislerollers for this fine article and for having it ready early! I'll be back with a question or two in just a bit. Gotta go put the pics in the Gallery right now!

You can read the article here:

Birmingham Rollers

Terry

[TAWhatley]

Hi Dexter,

I'm curious .. how come it takes so long for these "flys" to be judged? Is it the same "judge" going to all these fancier's places and watching and scoring the birds?

Terry

[bigislerollers]

Aloha Terry,
Yes, the finals is judged by one judge.
The fly is first broken down to regions. The regions have their qualifying fly and the winner then flys in the finals. With the competitions getting more competitors every year it is getting harder to get a judge that can take off for 8 to 10 weeks to do the judging.
One more thing about flying rollers. The judge comes to you to judge, you fly your birds at your home. That is what makes it a fun but also a logistic nightmare.

[Skyeking]

Hi Dexter,

You did an incredible job on the breed of the week Birmingham Rollers. It is very thorough-with all the links and information, and I especially enjoyed all the pictures.

Thank you for all the time spent on this, what a wonderful addition to the Breed of the Week forum.

[TAWhatley]

Originally Posted by bigislerollers

Aloha Terry,
Yes, the finals is judged by one judge.
The fly is first broken down to regions. The regions have their qualifying fly and the winner then flys in the finals. With the competitions getting more competitors every year it is getting harder to get a judge that can take off for 8 to 10 weeks to do the judging.
One more thing about flying rollers. The judge comes to you to judge, you fly your birds at your home. That is what makes it a fun but also a logistic nightmare.

Thanks for the reply, Dexter. I can well imagine the difficulty in finding qualified people to be judges and who can also give that much of their time. They must be very dedicated to the Roller fancy.

Terry

[bigislerollers]

Originally Posted by Trees Gray

Hi Dexter,

You did an incredible job on the breed of the week Birmingham Rollers. It is very thorough-with all the links and information, and I especially enjoyed all the pictures.

Thank you for all the time spent on this, what a wonderful addition to the Breed of the Week forum.

Thank you Treesa,
I really enjoyed doing this and I even learned a few things while doing the research.

Terry,
It has become a problem that has really shown itself this past year when the person who judged the World Cup Fly in the spring was the go to guy again for the NBRC Fall Fly. That judge, Eldon Cheney, spent 18 weeks on the road this past year just judging the two finals. This doesn't include the numerous regional and club flys that he judged.
The honor of judging the finals in each of the major flys usually goes to the winner of the fly the year before. That really was the most important part of winning the fly, an expense paid trip around the nation or the world and to meet all the fanciers involved in this great sport, next to the "Bragging rights". With the length of the judging assignment now it's not something that most people can afford to do.
There is some discussion going on now about adressing this problem before it gets worse.

[pattersonk2002]

You have put together a very informitive article. I like your work on the kit box, It looks like you have spent a lot of time on your hobbie. I do have a couple of questions though.
Richard hayes had a score of 1950.72, how exactly are the points accumulated. I also seen that one of the birds in your first picture seems to have a pink colored marking, how would somthing like that be used.
I was also wondering what type of predatory animals do you have to watch for while flying your kits. >Kevin

[Lovebirds]

Dexter.......very well done. So, the judge gets to travel with expenses paid? By who? Do you have to pay to enter your birds in the competition, sort of like we pay to enter racers in a futurity or one loft race? That's very interesting. Something that I didn't know. Cool stuff.......wish I didn't have so darn many trees around.....maybe I'd get some Rollers just for fun...........

[j_birds]

Thanks for taking time to do this thread bigisleroller. Shows you spent lots of time to do. Enjoyed it very much. So many thanks......GOOD JOB

[Avion]

Outstanding job and very informative to the novice (me). I know it took a lot of your time and energy and it is well appreciated by all that viewed the article. You are a credit to the roller society.

George

[bigislerollers]

Thanks for all of the wonderful comments.

Kevin,
The score is accumulated by the amount of scorable breaks and the amount of birds rolling in each break. A break or turn as some call it, is when 5 or more birds roll simultaneously for a minimum of 10 feet.

The scoring is as follows:
5-9 birds on a break = 1 point per bird
10-14 birds = 2 points per bird
15-19 birds = 3 points per bird
all 20 birds = 200 points

You can see that the more your birds work as a team the higher your score.
ie. 2-5 bird breaks = 10 pts. 1-10 bird break = 20 pts.

Then the judge gives a depth multiplier, between 1.0 to 2.0, which is his estimate of the average depth of the kit.
Next he gives the quality multiplier, between 1.0 to 2.0, which is his estimate of the average quality of the kit.

Add up the points for the birds and this is the raw score. Multiply the quality and depth multiplier together and multiply this to the raw score to get the final score.

This is the breakdown of Richard's kit.

Richard Hayes North Rocky Mountain Region
1st 5 minutes 12,12,15,14,12,12,9,16,13,9,6,10
2nd Five minutes 10,9,12,5,11,10,12,5,12
3rd five minutes 10,16,19,19,6,9,6,6,7,9,6
4th five minutes 5,12,5,13,8,9,5,14,8,6,7,10,6,8
Quality multiplyer 1.6
Depth multiplyer 1.6
Final score 1950.72

The pink coloring on the bird is halloween hair spray. I mark my birds with it so I can identify each individual bird. I'll spray one bird on the right wing, next bird left, next bird both ect.. That way I can evaluate their performance and move them around the different kits to get the best team together.

We have a local Hawaiian Hawk called the I'o. Which is really no problem for the pigeons. But we have had migratory falcons reported in the islands that have taken their share of pigeons.

Renee,
The organization be it the World Cup or the NBRC, charges a fee for each kit entered, which is around $25-$30. Added to this is the fee each region charges its members to transport and house the judge when he is in their region. We try to keep the costs down by housing the judge in our homes and taking care of all the meals and transportation.
The World Cup/NBRC arranges and pays for all airline flights and if the region requests, housing.

[pattersonk2002]

Thank you Bigislerollers for answering my questions, I think that covers all that I need to know on your hobby, I can see how one could enjoy the sport. It sounds like it could take a lot of your time flying your birds in preperation for competition, but what else would you do with all that exstra time I think that things will be looking up for you in the new year >Kevin

[bigislerollers]

Originally Posted by pattersonk2002

Thank you Bigislerollers for answering my questions, I think that covers all that I need to know on your hobby, I can see how one could enjoy the sport. It sounds like it could take a lot of your time flying your birds in preperation for competition, but what else would you do with all that exstra time I think that things will be looking up for you in the new year >Kevin

Thanks Kevin,
It does take some dedication to prep a kit for competition but then again it's not all work. You got to remember that most flyers only fly the two comps during the year. The other 363 days of the year they fly for fun.
You can't beat watching a kit work in the early morning with a cup of java. Makes going to work that much easier.

[TerriB]

Thanks for including the video - the birds are spectacular!!!

[amoonswirl]

Thanks for putting this together Dexter!
Very informative.

One thing I can't agree with you more about is the importance of visiting local Roller fanciers, watching their birds, and asking lots of questions -if you are interested in starting with Rollers. I have learned so much more from attending the flys and talking to local Roller people, than I ever could learn from reading articles. Although there is no local "club" that meets on a regular basis, the folks in my region have a great network. I was so pleased that during the Fall Fly, a few of the gang even made a side trip over to my backyard to see my new young birds, loft & kit box - they've all gone out of their way to help me get started in the sport.

I am hoping that sometime soon I'll have a competition kit ready. When I first got interested in Rollers I never planned to compete. But after attending the World Cup and the Fall Fly I've pretty much changed my mind. Looking forward to Spring and the 2009 World Cup!