Once Alder was jumping to me regularly from the length of the short leash, it was time to start increasing the distance. I switched to using a creance (long leash) so that we could slowly start increasing the distance she would have to fly to my glove. The creance I made is about 250 feet of 1/8″ braided 500 lb Dacron line in hunter orange, coiled around a piece of PVC pipe that has copper bbs inside for weight.

First Creance Flight (Blooper)

At first, I set the perch up and uncoiled about 10 feet of line from the creance and clipped it to Alder’s jesses. I tied the rest of the creance to my belt so she couldn’t take off with it. I set Alder on the perch, and walked away. Before I could even get a tidbit onto my glove and get my glove up, Alder was ready and flew to my shoulder! I had to laugh, and it made me happy that she was so eager to come to me even before offering a reward.

A Little Further

Over the next couple of days, I asked her to fly longer distances. We started flying along the driveway, 20 feet, then 40 feet, then 60 feet. Shawn came out with me and was able to capture some better video footage of her flying. It was awesome getting different filming angles because I got to play with making clips and merging them into a more interesting video. So much fun!

Even Further

When my sponsor Kris came to watch Alder flying, we were at about 75 feet. Unfortunately, Alder wasn’t as motivated at one point and decided she’d rather go sit up in a tree and hang out. Doh. Lesson learned, and we moved out to the pasture. Here she is flying about 150 feet!