What’s All This Ruckus About Flight? class "textbook"

BEFORE YOU GET ON A BROOM, YOU NEED TO REMEMBER TO SWEEP

S: Survey the environment
On the ground, don’t take off where it’s not too sturdy. In the air, don’t hit objects or get too close to the wildlife.

W: Watch for others
Watch out for other flyers. Watch out for muggles who can see you.

E: Examine broom
If anything about the broom seems off, take it to someone who knows broom maintenance.

E: Exhibit mindfulness
Don’t fly while under any influence, and don’t fly if you are not feeling confident enough. Get proper rest before taking off.

P: Prepare to Fly
Have the proper clothing, everything you need for your trip, your wand ready, sit on the broom correctly, and know where you’re going and what you’re doing.

The Four-Point Spell

a witch or wizard’s best tool for navigation; though it may be easier to simply attach a compass to your broom—you may lose your wand mid-flight

incantation: point me
wand movement: lay your wand flat in your palm

if cast successfully, the wand will spin and point north; if the wand doesn’t stop spinning, you’ve either cast it wrong or you are somewhere that doesn’t have north

How to Read a Map

What is a map? Maps are diagrams that show the scaled-down physical features of a certain location. Simple maps usually include a key, which denotes the symbols used in the diagram, and a scale, which shows the ratio between the real-world sizes and map sizes. Magical maps may contain more information: beings that are currently present at the location, secret passageways, where you are currently standing, how many steps are between you and your destination, etc. If a magical map is blank, it may not trust you yet!

Orient yourself: Locate north on the map, usually at the top of the page, but not always. Turn the map around so that it matches your current orientation; use surrounding landmarks and match them with their counterparts on the map.

Tips for locating north (no wand necessary):
Use the sun. It rises in the east and sets in the west. At roughly noon, your shadow will even point north.
Use the stars. The stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper point to the North Star, which is the end of the handle of the Little Dipper.
Use plants. Moss tends to grow thicker on the north side of trees (only works in the Northern Hemisphere).

Use the map to make a mental plan: For example, “I want to go to Hogsmeade, and my starting point is the Hogwarts Castle. Hogsmeade is northeast of the castle. I should fly away from the Great Lake, and the Forbidden Forest should remain on my left.” This is better than having to pull out your wand and/or map mid-flight.

Using the map’s scale: Get to know how your map’s scale compares to the real world. How many steps does it take to move from one landmark to the next? Note that this will feel much shorter when flying, especially at higher altitudes.

Quick Quidditch Guide:

There are seven positions:
The seeker looks for the snitch. They need to be quick, elusive, and sly. It helps if you have a good eye for shiny things.
The keeper guards the three goals. They should have excellent peripheral vision and long limbs—the ability to cover lots of ground helps, too.
The three chasers try to score goals. They need to change strategy quickly. These players should be in sync.
The two beaters try to bludgeon people. They need to be very strong and unafraid of heinous injury.

There are three balls:
The golden snitch has a mind of its own. It moves like a hummingbird and is difficult to see.
The two bludgers also have a mind of their own, albeit a more violent one. They pack a punch—they have been known to even break bones.
The quaffle is the most normal ball of the pack. It's aerodynamic. You throw it and hope it doesn’t miss.

There are two ways the game ends:
A seeker catches the snitch. This is worth 150 points, which adds to the total of the goals scored by the chasers, ten points each.
All seekers, including second string, are knocked out.
Most points win.

Beginner Moves:
Seeker
Search: Most of a seeker’s time will be spent doing this. For seekers, most matches happen all at once at the end.
Wronski Feint: Named after Polish seeker Josef Wronski, the seeker pretends to dive for the snitch to trick the other seeker, essentially distracting them from the actual search.

Keeper:
Block: The main defensive stance of the keeper. They need to follow the action and guess which of the three rings is best to guard.
Starfish: Most of the keeper’s limbs are off the broomstick, and they look like—you guessed it—a starfish. An adept keeper can almost cover all three rings this way.

Chaser:
Pass: The quaffle usually needs to move quickly between chasers. If it’s one of their arms for too long, they risk being targeted by other chasers or a bludger. Keeping an eye on other chasers and remaining open is essential.
Score: Get the quaffle through the ring. Chasers need excellent hand-eye coordination and a little cleverness to outwit the opposing keeper.
Hawkshead Formation: All three chasers band together in an arrowhead formation. They keep a close possession of the quaffle and possibly intimidate the other team.

Beater:
Bludger: Using their bats, the beater aims a bludger at an opposing player. You must hit the thing hard to get it to fly off its own course.
Bludger Backbeat: The beater hits the bludger behind them where they’re not looking. Easy to confuse the opposing team, but also easy to confuse your own team.

Act I—The Age of the Maker (1820–1925)

Before 1820, brooms were uncomfortable. Witches and wizards there were unable to utilise the floo network or portkeys would settle for broom travel. Brooms were charmed to fly at home, so the quality varied greatly. But one thing stayed the same: Sitting on a broomstick for more than twenty minutes hurt.

One young and skilled wizard changed this with the invention of the Cushioning Charm in 1820. Elliot Smethwyck changed broom travel forever. His charm could be easily applied to any type of broom without fail. Every broom rider would feel as if they were sitting on a wide, fluffy pillow. The spell travelled far and fast; broom flight became something people enjoyed.

Broom artisans soon appeared all over the UK. The Sweepwright Artistic Guild was formed in 1825. Skilled broommakers took on apprentices through the guild, and their talents were lauded by the general public.

Some of the brooms we still use today were made during this time. Note that we recognise the broommaker by their name. There were no broom companies during this period.

1879, Portsmouth, England: Elias Grimstone creates the Oakshaft 79
The Oakshaft is a one-of-a-kind broom that is excellent for long-distance flying. The “79” isn’t the model number; it’s just the year it was designed. It’s still excellent at flying today, but it lacks the quick-turning abilities needed for broom sports. Many collectors today covet a chance to obtain one. Grimstone mysteriously never created another broom.

>In 1935, fifty-six years after its creation, Jocunda Sykes used the Oakshaft 79 to cross the Atlantic Ocean. She was the first person to do so.

1880s, London, England: Leonard Jewkes creates the Silver Arrow
When Leonard Jewkes created the Silver Arrow, it was the fastest broom in existence. And it maintained this position for nearly half a century until the release of the Cleansweep series. These brooms are still popular today with broom racers because of their reliability at high speeds. When Jewkes couldn’t meet the demand by himself, he left the broom design profession and instead joined one of Britain’s first broom racing teams as a manager and coach.

1901, Wrexham, Wales: Gladys Boothby creates the Moontrimmer
Moontrimmers are particularly stable at great heights. Quidditch players still use them today, especially seekers who want an eagle-eye view of the pitch but the agility to dodge incoming bludgers. The Moontrimmer was ridiculously popular in its first decade. Boothby planned to make subsequent models, but she couldn’t keep up with demand for the first—this eventually sent her out of business and into despair.

Act II—The Age of the Firm (1926–1955)

Three brothers, Bob, Bill, and Barnaby Ollerton, were unsatisfied with their time spent in the Sweepwright Artistic Guild. They thought that most broom artisans were distracted by their own artistic peculiarities, and while beautiful brooms were being made, no one creator could keep up with the public’s demand for new broomsticks. The Ollerton brothers saw an opportunity to make money and lots of it.

They formed the Cleansweep Broom Company in 1926 and released the Cleansweep One. The broom was more successful than all previous brooms combined, particularly because the Ollerton brothers focused on mass production. The Cleansweep Broom Company hired a slew of factory floor workers to assemble Cleansweep Ones. They didn’t add all the fine details and advanced charmwork the broom artisans were known for. They kept the materials simple and ensured that the charms could be easily reproduced by anyone on their assembly line.

The effect was immediate. The Sweepwright Artistic Guild shut it doors only two years later. Broom artisans could not compete with the Cleansweep Broom Company; many moved on to other professions, some kept broom design as a hobby, and others went to work for Cleansweep.

Two entrepreneurial Quidditch players, Randolph Keitch and Basil Horton, provided some much-needed competition for Cleansweep in 1929 in the form of the Comet Trading Company. They released the Comet 140, which featured their patented charm, the Horton-Keitch Braking Charm, and quickly outsold the Cleansweep. The Comet 140 allowed Quidditch players stop more easily and make more complex movements.

This started a fierce rivalry between Comet and Cleansweep. The Comet Trading Company focused on innovation and safety, while the Cleansweep Broom Company focused on speed and affordability. Both utilised many witches and wizards to mass produce brooms at a fast pace. The Cleansweep series was more popular with broom racers, while the Comet series was more popular with Quidditch players.

This left room in the market for another competitor. Bluebottle Brooms opened its doors in 1930 and primarily released brooms for families. These brooms could easily carry multiple passengers. They moved more slowly but were reliable for long-distance travel. Their advertising at the time said, “Every father may dream of speeding comets, but every mother knows the reality: Bluebottle will get you there.”

Cleansweep, Comet, and Bluebottle were collectively known as the Big Three.

Act III—The Age of Hubris (1955–1990)

Many broom companies tried to rival the Big Three for decades, and most failed. It was difficult to enter a field where firms had years of manufacturing experience. Universal Brooms Ltd. released the Shooting Star in 1955, and it finally seemed like the Big Three would become the Big Four. Unfortunately, Universal cut too many corners, and consumers found that the Shooting Star lost considerable height and speed after only five years of use.

Many smaller competitors attempted and failed to enter the market. And some of these failures were downright dangerous: Malfunctioning brooms were released onto the market all the time. Fatal accidents from using cheaper brooms were at an all-time high. The Ministry of Magic finally stepped in, releasing a series of regulations for broom manufacturing. This ensured witches and wizards could trust the broom they bought and that smaller companies would essentially be out of business. Only the Big Three could pass the safety standards and keep up with demand.

In 1967, one wizard would finally disrupt the market. Devlin Whitehorn was a champion broom racer with a keen eye for detail. He started the Nimbus Racing Broom Company. At first, many other broom industry professionals thought Nimbus was just another soon-to-fail pipedream. But then they rode the first prototype Nimbus 1000 and immediately ate their words.

Upon release, the Nimbus 1000 could reach speeds of 100 mph and could turn 360 degrees at a fixed point. Broom designers at the Big Three had previously thought these benchmarks were unreachable. Whitehorn was able to poach many of those designers to his company, quickly growing in personnel so that the Nimbus Racing Boom Company was able to keep up with the broom’s demand. Today, Nimbus brooms are still some of the best, and employees are tight-lipped about the secrets that go into their construction. Nimbus is the best-selling broom company in terms of all-time units sold.

Only one new company at this time had a memorable attempt to counter the Nimbus. Flyte and Barker released the Twigger 90, an expensive and flashy broom. But when it reached the same speeds as the Nimbus, which many people did not attempt immediately, the Twigger would warp along the handle, and its steering would no longer be reliable. It left the market as quickly as it arrived.

In response to the Nimbus’s dominance over the other brooms, witches and wizards once again became interested in the old brooms. The Oakshaft and the Moontrimmer in particular had a resurgence. Many fliers wanted to reject the new mass-produced, ubiquitous brooms and return to what they thought of as “an age where broom quality mattered.” Brooms made during the Age of the Maker were unique from each other—not every Moontrimmer had the same handle, and not every Oakshaft had the same brush. It was now considered “cool” to fly an old broom.

Act IV—The Age of the Global Brand (1993–)

One broommaker, Randolph Spudmore, saw the counterculture movement not as an annoyance but as an opportunity. In 1993, he released the Firebolt. Not only does the Firebolt fly faster and turn quicker than the Nimbus, but it has the appeal of hand craftmanship. Spudmore realised that there were many broom lovers who wanted to see the markers of a handmade broom. He figured out how to mass-produce a broom that looked like an Oakshaft or Moontrimmer, melding both markets into one. Each Firebolt has a hand-painted registration number that makes it unique—collectors seek to get their hands on brooms from a certain release batch.

Spudmore started the luxury broom market. Today, a luxury broom represents each major quidditch team in the World Cup. The Firebolt Supreme backs the UK teams, the Starsweeper XXI for North America, Yajirushi for Japan, and Varápidos for Brazil. While these brooms are not affordable for everyone, they are easily recognised by almost everyone and produce a lot of hype for the teams they sponsor.