Arrivals with GPS Rings Sermaises 20/05/2023
Second week in a row of hard work for the pigeons…
Normally, the plan was to basket the pigeons at Vierzon.
Because the pigeons didn’t come home in the best shape last week, I didn’t dare to send them to Vierzon, as it would probably be the same story all over again.
I even considered sending them to Noyon instead of Sermaises…
My gut feeling was Noyon, but in the end I went for Sermaises… Good? Bad? No idea, but I was and still am not sure whether Bourges next week is a good idea. But the Agen team has to fly… to add-up kilometers and flying hours.
The Barcelona cocks stayed at home, but the hens went along (they are in the same loft as the Agen hens).
We are starting late again and with big gaps at the beginning, but that’s just the way it is…
Another yearling hen is on her way. It was again the same hen as last week that was first, 812, a pale hen from “De Vale” pigeon 1 – 3 – 7, her brothers/sisters.
“De Vale” himself is a good flyer and has been breeding since 2022, so the first offspring are directly from him in the racing loft. Hopefully, they will continue to perform when it matters.
Then the GPS rings.
This time, four pigeons were fitted with a GPS ring. All four arrived late, and we can definitely do better by racing Arras 🙂
Clock times of the GPS pigeons: 3:09 p.m. (green), 3:39 p.m. (red), 5:13 p.m. (blue), and 5:41 p.m. (yellow).
As you can see, yellow and blue have had a serious ride.
At the end, 15 km from home at 14:55, blue drifts all the way to Diest/Tessenderlo, flying hard against the wind when he was actually almost home.
In total, blue covers 519 km in 8:58 hours of flying, averaging 964 m/m (flight arrival speed 689 m/m).
Yellow goes very far with the NE wind 4bf and heads towards Calais. At 1:10 p.m., she stops for the first time at a marina in the Cleirmarais region.
She has been flying for just under 5 hours and has already covered 283 km at an average speed of 943 m/m, which is not fast but is against the wind.
She stays at the marina for 19 minutes and then takes off again for almost 3 hours of flying. In Brakel, she lands again, but not on a pond; she settles on a house.
At 4:19 p.m., she continues on to her home, where she arrives at 5:41 p.m. after a journey of 489 km, or 119 km too far. She flies 9 hours and 26 minutes at 863 m/m (arrival speed 654 m/m).
Drinking spot yellow:
Red had already raced several speed flights with a GPS ring and was now allowed to do one more.
In itself, she continues to follow her line quite well, given the strong NE wind. When she crosses the border in Wervik, she makes a better correction than Green.
Red will ultimately cover 418 km instead of 370 km and flies these 418 km at an average speed of 941 m/m (arrival speed flight 834 m/m).
Green, the last in line to discuss, was the first of the GPS pigeons to arrive home at 15:09.
It followed the same route as Red, but Red corrected better and Green continued on to almost Terneuzen before turning back home.
Green covered 414 km and flew at a speed of exactly 1000 m/m (arrival speed 894 m/m).
Some more figures from today:
After 30 minutes, 21% home.
After 45 minutes, 50% home.
After 60 minutes, 66% home.
GPS pigeons: 40th, 48th, 52nd, and 53rd home.
To conclude… a fancier from the club had asked to activate a GPS ring earlier to see what would be done along the way and what time they would arrive at the release site.
A GPS ring depends on GPS signals, and if the GPS ring is in a closed box (i.e., pigeon container), they will not receive any signals.
I had chosen to activate the ring on Friday morning at 10 a.m. to see where they would be. Since I also wanted some flight data from the pigeon itself, I didn’t start until 10 a.m.
It was striking that the GPS signal only came through once, at 7:48 p.m. at the release site in Sermaises itself.
This means that the doors of the trailer were not opened at any time between 10 a.m. and 7:48 p.m.
In my opinion, the pigeons will not drink on a dark truck.
Why were the doors only opened at 7:48 p.m. to provide better ventilation and give the pigeons light to drink?
We will never know.
For the sake of completeness, here is an overview of the arrivals:
