MEANWHILE, IN UTAH...
Flight archery, while it operates under codified World Archery and national rules, is essentially a self-governing affair. The 'world championships', organised by the USA'S flight archery committee, is held yearly at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, a flat, dry-as-a-bone stretch of desert in the Southwestern USA best known for being the location for many of the world's record-breaking land speed record events. The space is so vast and deserted that the line can be set according to the weather, so a tailwind can be used to advantage. The championships are usually preceded by a smaller event, this year held in the even remoter location of a dry lake bed in Smith Creek, also in Utah, and most travelling flight archers pitch up for both competitions.
This year, because of the pandemic situation, it was a smaller and slightly more subdued affair, without a large international delegation and just a few dozen participants. The main organiser was keener that it should go ahead for the good of the sport – even if his decision wasn't universally welcomed by all the international fraternity, who were deeply frustrated that they couldn't go and shoot, with the USA remaining closed off to most visitors. In the end, the shoot saw new records in multiple classes including modern American longbow, primitive self bows, and unlimited footbow in the junior class. It also saw a further attempt on the ultimate flight record (see right). In a world where the skill of the bowyer can make all the difference, the maker of each bow is recorded along with the records; a remarkable synergy of the archer and their tools.
Pics courtesy of James Sanchez and Alan Case.
The all-time record with a conventional hand bow was set by Don Brown of the USA at Smith Creek in 1987, at 1,222 metres. But the absolute flight archery record was set with a footbow by bowyer and archer Harry Drake, perhaps the most legendary name in the sport. In 1971, on a dry desert lake bed in California, he shot an arrow over a mile: 1854 metres and 40cm, a record that has stood ever since.
Many flight archers have tried to best it, and it has obsessed archer and tournament organiser Alan Case for many years. This year, in Bonneville, he came tantalisingly close to the record with a distance of 1816 metres, using a foot bow of his own construction. (In these images it is being shot by junior archer Braylen Pawluk.)
Alan takes up the story. "This obsession to try to take this record has evolved in small increments since 2005. I figured at the time
THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE
of rockets, to javelins, to aircraft. I kept a detailed log of the performance of each arrow, and learned what characteristics to keep track of. For example, the entry angle of the arrow into the ground is an important indicator of whether the arrow design is the limit of how far it can travel. This drove changes in how I designed the arrows and suddenly distances started improving again."
Case added a tuning device which could be mounted onto the front of the bow, giving a 'paper tune' similar to that uses by target compounds, and the goal is the same: to get a perfect bullet hole. "As distances increased, the next barrier was being able to find the arrows. This required focus on accuracy. It is much easier to find an arrow that lands within a meter or two of the shooting direction, so I worked on techniques to aim and deliver that arrow as close to the line as possible."
"The next issue was durability. A bow that lasts only a few shots is impossible to tune, and not much fun. So I had to focus on optimizing the mix of materials in the limb and working out the best way to bond the materials together to get a bow that is both durable, and extremely efficient. This takes me to the present. What else have I learned? I learned to have a sense of humour about this pursuit. I enjoy the friends that I have made along the way, and have enjoyed constantly learning something new."
While the ultimate record remains intact, you sense that as long as it remains, Alan and others will keep searching forever for ways to beat it.
Targets have changed a lot throughout the history of archery. From birds to butts, from boards to bosses, archers everywhere have always proven very creative when it came to the question what to hit. Of course animals have been targets right from the beginning, and sadly, humans too. But for probably just as long, people have practiced one form of archery that doesn’t need any target at all.
Shooting for distance, or flight shooting, is not only one of the oldest forms of archery. It is also the most simple one – all you need is your bow, an arrow, and a bit of space. And it is a brutally honest discipline: When you loose an arrow at roughly 45° angle into the air, it will immediately and remorselessly betray a sloppy release, unmatched spine, unbalanced shaft, or any other shortcomings.
Shooting an extremely light arrow over the longest distance possible is also a good indicator to measure the performance of a bow. How much energy stored in the limbs is actually transferred to the projectile? Can the construction handle the stress of (repeatedly) performing a shot that is almost identical to dry-firing? Many traditional bowyers today enjoy the challenge flight shooting provides, and they like to test their materials and constructions to the max – particularly if trying to discover and recreate the secrets of famous flight shooting bows from the past like those of the Ottomans.
But let’s start at the beginning. When was the first ever flight shooting competition held? No one can say with any certainty, but it likely