Why I Built KITBOSS
One important reason I designed and built KITBOSS was because I kept having the same kind of conversations with flyers from all over the country. I’ve watched this play out for years, and it’s almost always the same pattern.
A hobbyist would be flying his birds regular. He’d be trying to do things the right way. He’d change the feed a little, move a few birds around, maybe split a kit, maybe give them a rest. Then a couple weeks go by and the kit isn’t acting the same. Breaks get smaller. The birds get looser. Some start landing early. The feel of the kit changes.
And sooner or later he’ll say, “I don’t know what changed.”
Most of the time, plenty changed. He just didn’t have a clean way to hold onto it.
A lot of times it’s not one thing. He changed the mix a little. He moved a couple birds. The weather turned. He flew them two extra days that week. Then two weeks later the kit feels different and he’s trying to pick the one cause out of four changes. Without a record, you can’t.
Rollers Tell the Truth, But They Don’t Repeat It
That’s the part I’ve always noticed about rollers. The birds will tell you the truth — they talk to you all the time — but they won’t tell it twice. If you don’t capture what you saw while it was happening, you end up guessing later. And the guessing is what wastes time and creates frustration.
I didn’t build KITBOSS to teach anybody how to fly rollers. I’m not interested in that kind of talk. Flying is learned in the air, and it’s learned slow. A man gets better because he’s under the kit, watching his own birds, season after season, and he’s willing to make changes and live with the results.
What I wanted was something that helped a flyer keep the facts straight. Not theory. Not opinion. Just what happened.
The One-Kit Problem
A theme I kept running into was that a lot of guys only flew out of one kit box. Over the years I’ve tried to explain why that usually turns into a dead end. Some understand it right away. Some don’t want to hear it. They want one box, one team, one routine, and they want it to work for every bird they own. It usually doesn’t — not if they’re trying to make real progress.
The Analogy That Makes It Click
That’s when I started using a simple analogy. I tell them to think about a high school sports program. A real program isn’t one team. It’s a pipeline. Freshmen, sophomores, junior varsity, varsity. The coach doesn’t throw them all together and hope for the best. He separates them, gives them the right work, and moves them up when they’ve earned it.
Rollers are the same way. A loft isn’t one kit. It’s a program, whether a man realizes it or not.
Protect the Benchmark Team
The top team has to stay protected. That’s the benchmark team. That’s the one you measure the rest against. If you keep contaminating that team with birds that aren’t ready, or birds that pull the kit apart, you don’t just lose one fly. You can lose a month before you know it.
Then you’re back to chasing your tail and wondering why you aren’t getting the same satisfaction you see other guys getting when their kit is right.
Why Team B Matters
A second team matters for the same reason. Some think the second team is where the leftovers go, but that’s not how it works if you’re serious. That second team is where a lot of good birds belong at different times. Some birds need rest. Some need to be flown on a different schedule. Some need a different mix. Some need to settle back down without wrecking the top team’s timing.
Having another team lets you make one clean change and actually see what it does without risking your benchmark kit. Some of my best birds have spent time in that second team when they needed to settle back down.
Young Birds Are Their Own Program
And young birds are their own deal altogether. They’re learning to kit, trap, handle pressure, and fly the pattern without panic. They don’t belong in with older birds that already have their habits. If you force young birds up too soon, you can ruin the young birds. And sometimes you can also mess up a good older team by letting bad habits leak upward. It doesn’t take much for that to happen.
The Problem With Paper and Memory
These are the kinds of things I’ve always tried to get across when I talk to flyers. Not because I’m trying to preach, but because I’ve watched guys struggle with the same avoidable problems for years.
The problem is, even when a guy understands the idea, he still has to manage it. He still has to remember what he did and when he did it. That’s where most systems fall apart. Paper is inconsistent. Memory is inconsistent. Notes get lost. And after a few weeks, you can’t remember what started the change or why you did what you did.
Where KITBOSS Came From
That’s where KITBOSS came from.
I wanted a simple place where a flyer could keep the story straight. What team he flew. What the weather was like. What the birds did. When the breaks happened. What he changed. Which birds were helping and which birds were pulling the team out of shape. And I wanted it to be quick enough that a man would actually use it, because anything that feels like paperwork won’t last.
One thing I added for my own flying — and for guys who like having a yardstick — was an 11-bird and 20-bird scoring system based on the same rules the clubs use. Not because everybody needs to compete, but because sometimes a feeling isn’t enough. It gives you a way to measure your own Team A against your Team B honestly, and it also gives you a clean comparison against published club fly results when you want a reality check. I’ve always liked anything that keeps us honest without turning this hobby into paperwork.
This all lives on your phone, so it’s there when you need it, right after the fly, when the details are still fresh.
For All Skill Levels
I also wanted it to work for all skill levels, because the same truth applies to everybody. A new flyer needs a record so he stops repeating the same mistakes. An experienced flyer needs a record so he can trust his decisions and not second-guess what he already knew at the time. A competition flyer needs a yardstick that holds up over time, not just a feeling he had under the kit on one good day.
None of this is meant to turn flying into homework. It’s the opposite. It’s meant to cut down the wasted time. When the record is there, a man stops guessing so much. He makes cleaner moves. He protects the top team. He builds the program instead of constantly starting over in his own head.
The Point of It All
That was an important motivation. I also wanted something that helped more flyers than just the people who buy birds from me. Something that respects the way rollermen actually fly and think, and helps keep the truth from slipping through the cracks.
If you’re serious about progress, start separating your birds by stage and keep a record you’ll actually use. If a tool can help a man see what’s really going on and keep his program straight, he’ll waste less time and enjoy his birds more. That was reason enough for me.