Posted by NateW on Thu, 10/05/2006 - 22:27
I have been taking Phoebe and Tangent to fly in a big indoor space again, we're back at the gymnasium at the Armory in Kent, Washington.
Phoebe got right back into the swing of things, flying laps around the building and (so far) always landing on me to catch her breath.
Tangent surprised me by doing recalls straight to me all the way across the building on the first day. We started with short hops, then flights of a few feet, then longer and longer until we were using the whole building. I could tell that he was having some trouble getting used to the higher speeds he was flying at, but he got a grip on the swoop-low-and-climb-to-stop technique pretty quickly.
He does seem to get 'lost' on his way to me if I call him from a place where he has to fly over a group of people to get to me. Occasionally he hovers over strangers (other club members) briefly and them starts wandering around looking for me. Twice now he's landed on a basketball hoop, looked around, found me, and flown to me. Not bad, I think he just needs practice flying in the bigger space and keeping track of where he is and where I am, and not getting so easily distracted. I have a feeling that won't take long.
At one point Tangent flow up in the rafters (way out of reach) and I got a little worried. Sometimes birds come down quickly, but occasionally (rarely) they stay up there way too long. Tangent only stayed about ten seconds before dropping down and flying a big half-circle to get to me. I couldn't have been more happy.
There's no fly day this weekend, but there will be one next weekend and I'll try to get some pictures. It's fun to be doing this stuff again.
If you're in the Seattle area and want to join us, join the mailing list first and say hello:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/NorthwestAvianFlyers/
We'll get you the rest of the information you need.
Phoebe got right back into the swing of things, flying laps around the building and (so far) always landing on me to catch her breath.
Tangent surprised me by doing recalls straight to me all the way across the building on the first day. We started with short hops, then flights of a few feet, then longer and longer until we were using the whole building. I could tell that he was having some trouble getting used to the higher speeds he was flying at, but he got a grip on the swoop-low-and-climb-to-stop technique pretty quickly.
He does seem to get 'lost' on his way to me if I call him from a place where he has to fly over a group of people to get to me. Occasionally he hovers over strangers (other club members) briefly and them starts wandering around looking for me. Twice now he's landed on a basketball hoop, looked around, found me, and flown to me. Not bad, I think he just needs practice flying in the bigger space and keeping track of where he is and where I am, and not getting so easily distracted. I have a feeling that won't take long.
At one point Tangent flow up in the rafters (way out of reach) and I got a little worried. Sometimes birds come down quickly, but occasionally (rarely) they stay up there way too long. Tangent only stayed about ten seconds before dropping down and flying a big half-circle to get to me. I couldn't have been more happy.
There's no fly day this weekend, but there will be one next weekend and I'll try to get some pictures. It's fun to be doing this stuff again.
If you're in the Seattle area and want to join us, join the mailing list first and say hello:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/NorthwestAvianFlyers/
We'll get you the rest of the information you need.