1. AU American Champion
    All Distance and Long Distance Awards

    The American Champion All Distance and Long Distance awards are loft performance awards. These awards honor fanciers who have achieved outstanding success over a continuous five-year period of time such as 1951-1955 or 1999-2003.
  2. Twenty-five races are used for the All Distance Award. Ten races are used for the Long Distance award.
  3. Both awards are given in ten levels of loft competition: 5-10, 11-15, 16-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-65, 66-80, 81-95 and 96 lofts and over.
  4. Each race that is submitted for the Long Distance award must be greater than 375 actual airline miles. Races submitted for the All Distance award can be from any distance greater than 75 actual airline miles. Races may be submitted from either the young bird or old bird series.
  5. Race positions submitted must be won by birds banded in accordance with AU Race Rule 7.09.
  6. Records submitted must be flown at the same organizational level of competition. Mixing of club and combine is not allowed. Mixing of two or more clubs or two or more combines within the same series is not allowed. You may submit a club or combine application, or both.
  7. The most common method of competing lofts per application will determine loft category. Example: 15, 16, 25, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38, 39, and 210 lofts results in the 31-40 loft category. In the event of a tie, the average number of lofts is used.
  8. Special races will be accepted. However, the race must be released separately to qualify. Special races may be used at any loft category level but will not be used to determine loft category. The loft counts of each Special race will be limited to no more than the maximum for the loft category as determined using regular races only.
  9. When a fancier scores high enough to enter the top 10 positions of a loft category, he will remain in that position until another loft scores higher. As a result, this award becomes historical in nature; listing the top ten all time highest scoring fanciers in each loft category. Fanciers may be listed in multiple loft categories but are limited to only one position in any single loft category. Certificates will be awarded to each loft entering the Top Ten of a loft category for the first time.
  10. The formula is the same for both the All Distance and Long Distance awards. The only difference is in the averaging of the number of races required for the submission, i.e., 25 races for All Distance and 10 races for Long Distance. Scores are calculated using the following factors:
    a.Speed Factor: The ratio of the loft’s best speed in a race divided by the winning speed, then averaged over the number of races required; 25 races for All Distance and 10 races for Long Distance.
    b.Loft Factor: A weighting factor equal to 0.01 multiplied by the difference of the fourth root of 300 (4.1618) and the fourth root of the average number of lofts for the races submitted. For loft averages fewer than 300 lofts, the loft factor is negative and is subtracted. For loft averages over 300 lofts, the loft factor is positive and is added.
    c.Distance Factor: A weighting factor equal to 0.00003 multiplied by the difference of the average distances of the races submitted and 300 miles. For average distances less than 300 miles, the distance factor is negative and is subtracted. For average distances over 300 miles the distance factor is positive and is added. Actual airline miles are used.
    d.The total score is calculated by combining the speed, loft and distance factors outlined above.

    Deadline:
    At this time, only paper applications will be considered. Applications must be postmarked on or before September 1 of each year.