Some thought about dark flying
(Internet Published) Nov 2001
In my time I have known Tippler men who for one reason or another did not
train their kits to fly into darkness. They placed themselves at a
disadvantage in some cases.
First of all they could not achieve a winning time because they had to start
to make efforts to get their birds down and inside of the loft before the
daylight became too poor. Of course, as soon as they started to make those
efforts the time came to a complete stop. Extra time flown between that
moment and the actual drop of the first bird could not be added to the
declared time. It is impossible to train pigeons to fly and to drop in just
poor light because poor light sometimes very quickly becomes darkness,
especially where a loft is hemmed in by trees or in some way screened from
diffused street or house lighting. This gives an unfair advantage to the
fanciers who happen to live in the best of residential areas.
No contest Tippler man is allowed to place lighting on his loft top until he
declares his intention to attempt to drop his kit. Personally I would have
no objections to a fancier having a light which lights up the yard. This
would probably even things up a little between the two situations.
However, in my own experience, pigeons that have not been trained to
navigate very locally and maintain a certain magnetism towards the loft in
near dark conditions are at serious risk from 'brinksmanship' testing in
near to dark conditions.
I place emphasis on the degree of darkness. It is extremely rare that I find
absolute darkness. There is always some kind of light but in some areas due
to trees and buildings the situation could be a lot worse. I find that
pigeons that are not trained or accustomed to very bad light will become
unpredictable or stupefied if by some misfortune they are caused to fly in
poor light. In fact on those very cloudy mornings, we may have difficulty in
getting such kits started, so this is another disadvantage to the fancier
who doesn't train to darkness. However, sometimes a fancier will beat other
fanciers simply because he has not risked flying into darkness. All too
often this 'brinksmanship' misfires and some excellent times have ended in
failure and disqualification. At best dark flying is a very tricky game but
essential if an attempt at a record is in mind. Otherwise, such contests are
on a friendly basis and for the love of flying only.
Well, what is wrong with that? Must we all go to the extremes? I'd reckon
that the extremists ruin everything eventually and yet I do deplore apathy,
disorder and the 'couldn't care less' attitude that prevails today.