Hello. Although i was aware you guys were here, my schedule unfortunately hasn't allowed me time to explore the discussions. plus, i didn't see an emergency to participate because there are so many excellent, knowledgeable people here who understand and are addressing the importance of flight in the home (my personal area of interest).
I have read Raz's blog in the past, but wasn't following it recently. had stumbled onto her account of Carly Lu the other day because i am doing an article about flight. similarly, i was visiting here for the same reason and noticed this discussion.
given that the experts are posting, i don't have a lot to add. however, i just wanted to clear up a few misconceptions that no one has yet addressed.
* Domestication -- i have read (both here and other places) where domestication is given as the distinctive factor between training capabilities of parrots vs. cats and dogs. and yet, all examples of training then talk about dogs. i would challenge the average person to show me that a domestic cat is *typically* more responsive to training than a parrot.
also, scientists are fairly convinced now that dogs probably self-domesticated because they *wanted* to be around humans. well, parrots are very similar. I would imagine you guys have seen the videos of the wild parrots in Australia swarming around people and landing on their arms, heads, and shoulders. what do you think the chance of a wild bird from the northern hemisphere--let alone flocks of them--doing that? parrots do tend to self-domesticate--some have said that was one of the downfalls of the Carolina parakeet--curiosity killed the birdie. in fact, a feral cat can often be more skittish and elusive than a wild bird.
for concrete evidence that it isn't domestication, but training... just check the craigslist lost and found in the major cities (NY, LA, Chicago, etc) on any given day--there are *hundreds* of lost dogs and cats listed across the country. their domestication doesn't keep them by their human--proper training does. no diff than a bird.
so, yes...training parrots to come/heel/recall really is just like properly training your dog. the reason it's so difficult for us and that we freak out about it so much is because with birds, it happens in 3 dimensions--where we humans are unable to function...and because birds are prey--unlike dogs and cats. that is the REAL distinction and that is the major difference in how a species *may* need to be addressed when training--but not necessarily.
* Dangers of freeflight - while i don't personally regularly freefly outside, i have flown my birds outside a few times without any incident. the only time i have had an issue was when my indoor flyer that was NOT trained for outdoor flight got outside. similar to what others have said...now that i am training as if my guys are going to fly outdoors, they are much safer.
even tho i personally don't freefly much, i work with people who freefly and i spend a lot of time helping people recover lost birds--both outdoor flyers and esp those that never go outside. while i don't have independent statistics, i can tell you from extensive personal experience that given how often freeflyers fly outside, there are very few losses compared to other birds (including flighted and non-flighted).
please note -- based on my experience, the losses that are most preventable are the birds that are flighted in the home but have no recall training. those are the birds who have the skill and strength to get themselves high or far...but not the training to come down or to respond to their human.
some of you questioned why Raz focused on a human taking Carly initially...well, it's a fact that the biggest danger to outdoor flyers is humans. outdoor flyers tend to be far more confident and social than the average pet parrot...so will frequently go visit with humans. remember...outdoor flyers are drilled to come to a human--that is the core of their training, and what they consider to be a fun game. the vast majority of freeflyers go missing because a human takes them. so, that is one of the biggest challenges that people who freeflyer outdoors face--trying to figure out how to prevent their birds from landing on someone.
* Harnesses - you were talking about harnesses. i won't go into it here, but i posted a whole explanation on my youtube channel about the dangers of using the flight suit. after stepping up my training to make our guys outside-ready (esp flying down from height), the flight suit tether failed and our grey ended up on a 40-foot tree. having been trained to recall and desensitized to the outdoors, once she saw us, she thought it was a cool game and spent the next hour or so whistling and calling 'hello' to passersby. we were freaking out, but she flew down.
those of you familiar with shanlung are probably aware that he unfortunately discovered how harnesses can also be unreliable. he had 2 flyoffs of birds who were harnessed at the time.
* Overview - while some of you have issues with the people who freefly outdoors...there are still so many who feel that in-home flight is very dangerous and not worth the 'risk.' they feel that clipping is best for the birds in almost all cases. as some here have pointed out...there are many still who feel that indoor flight is totally irresponsible. that is what my article is about, so this is a very interesting discussion.
There have been some fabulous replies made here by other members! 
