Hawaii Performing Roller Club
Kulia I Ka Nu'u - "Strive for the Highest"
"The most important thing no one should forget is that this is a hobby and a hobby should be for fun!" ~ Heine Bijker
2009 NBRC National Championship Fly
20 Bird Winner
Rodman Pasco
He likes his birds to fly high and fly long, usually one to two hours, and controls their height and time by feeding them mainly milo throught the week, and on the weekends he feeds 50/50 milo and chicken crumbles, which he likes for the vitamins and minerals they contain. He also like the crumbles because of their digestibility, and has gotten away from feeding hard-to-digest peas very much. When training his young birds he does not tolerate out birds, no matter how well they are spinning, and says that he is looking for strong flyers that can handle the roll and shoot right back to the kit after every performance. Rod says that he produces very few roll downs, though he gets a few bumpers in their first year, that usually mature out of the bad habit. Generally, he expects about 10 ft. of depth before the first molt. After the molt is complete, and in their second year, he tends to see an increase in depth, mostly to around 15-20 ft. with the occasional 30-footer.
Rodman's 2009 winning kit consisted of seven cocks and twelve hens. Most all were 2008 birds. Only three or four were 2009 birds, including the Easley's. His training regimen consists of ten days of hard flying in strong winds feeding mainly milo. Then they get two days of rest.l Afterward, they are flown for five days in the wind, feeding them 50-50 milo and chicken crumbles. On the last day of this segment (48 hours before the competition) he feeds them a racing pigeon mix with a lot of peas in the morning. They are rested the last day before the fly and are not fed anymore. He also uses a vitamin mix in their water, and on the rest day, he darkens the loft to keep them quiet.
"I was really lucky with the weather on Fly Day", says Rod. He had trained for the typical stiff winds, but was granted a calm day for his rollers to work in. He was a little concerned because he had planned for an early morning fly, but he didn't get his birds out until 2:00 pm, so his birds had gone 1 1/2 days without feed. But his worries were not necessary. His birds flew at about 150-200 feet for 20 minutes. Soon after the scoring was complete, they skied out and stayed there for an hour! "Rodman's kit was tuned just right; neither too strong or too weak. This team would pull in tight and then break with solid quality and depth on the breaks that were scored. This team also worked the entire time. It was a fine team of Birmingham Rollers," says Scott. And what was Rod's response to hearing what the judge had to say about his kit? "I really love my birds" was all he said.
From the Jan/Feb NBRC bulletin - by Cliff Ball
The 2009 NBRC 20-bird Champion is Rodman Pasco of Ma'ili, Hawaii. Rod has been a member of the Hawaii Performing Roller Club since 1997. He started breeding and flying his family of rollers in 1994. They consist mainly of Dave Henderson's family of rollers that were created from crossing OD Harris, Paul Bradford, Norm Reed and Arnold Jackson families of rollers according to Rod. About 4-5 months ago, Rod also picked up some rollers from Carlos Easley's well-known family. In fact he flew two of the Easley birds that were only 4-5 months old, in his winning kit. After flying the Easley's for two yeard, if they hold up, Rod intends to cross them into his existing family. He breeds out of only seven pair of birds that he flew out and selected from the air, and raises about 100 birds for himself each year, ultimately keeping about 50 to fly out. The others he gives to his friends, Most of his breeders flew in his 2005 World Cup team, and are predominantly recessive reds. In his family, he finds that the recessive reds are the most durable and the most reliable kit birds, a philosophy that seems to fly in the face of color-associated weaknesses that some fanciers believe to be inherent in recessive red rollers.
Rod Says that what he likes best about the birds that he flies is their style and quality, and that they are strong on the wing. He usually has to fly in 25-30 mph winds and says that weak families of birds just do not hold up. Sooner or later the weader rollers will come down early, landing in trees or wires.