So I have been pricing unikon timers, thats what the local club uses,( mind you I have hounds and know that electronics are not cheap), I was thinking 300.00 or so, Cant even touch a used one for much less than 700.00!!!!! Ouch, that is pretty spendy in these troubled economic times. Maybe I will scratch the racing and stick to recreational flying.
Man I feel your pain, I just finished my first young bird season and although I had a blast and it made flying so much more fun, there is a lot of things no one tells you, like you have to pay up front for "ALL" the young birds races on the schedule, so you pay even if you are not able to race in any given week, I always thought that I would pay for what I ship but it seems you pay for the max birds "20" even if you only ship 6, and I found out quickly even though I started out with a 20 bird team by the forth race my team got cut down to half! So I can see why the sport is dieing a slow death! The club I'm with uses both etc's and manual clocks which is great so I went and got a benzing manual clock about $175 dollars, our race secretary is really great, the club uses the tarus etc's and many are not pleased with them so we asked if we could get the benzing etc's in conjunction with the etc's now being used and he said sure why not it's not that much more work than he was doing right now and the added benefit of getting another club system with the purchase of five units is a definite plus, so I think an upgrade is in the future for me, I've noticed that my birds later in the season started to get trap shy knowing they were going to be caught for the racing rubber on their leg, so the ETC's solve that problem, but there is so much bickering at the club about races and how to make it a more even playing field for one, and that the combine dictates to the club as to the races and many are afraid to change and question things being done!, some talk about the birdage if they drop from the combine, well big deal with this combine 36 lofts 4 clubs a typical race would involve maybe 500 birds the very first race and then fall off to around 365 by the end of the season, that doesn't seem like much of a combine race, so the sport must be slowly falling apart, I feel a combine should be 1000 plus birds and a club race should be 300 to 500 birds by itself alone or am I missing something? It's no wonder the birds are more valued in Belgium, flying against 10, 15, or even 20,000 birds, of note this coming weekend we'll see the first live auction of 41 birds from "Gerard Koopman" November 14, 2009 Hosted by "The Mid Florida Combine" I bet these birds will be out of reach by the average flier, please check the birds out for yourself, some beautiful birds to say the least! OK better go check my sugar I've said way too much so it must be shot time, later all, have a good day and God Bless!
