Heeeelp, My stupid bird wont race!!!!

I've tried calibrating my wiimote and restarting this section 4 times now and my bird stops "flapping" and sinks into the clouds every time I start the "wing ceremony" race. I just want to play this game and I can't get past this! I even went back to when I first got my bird out and did the "practice" flying again and my wiimote is fine, but once the race starts he just flops there until he sinks into the clouds and I can't see him unless I "boost". ARG! Has anyone else ran into this!? Any advice?

Edit! I put it down without turning it off and when I came back it wanted me to put the wiimote on a flat surface to re calibrate. That seems to have worked! So if anyone else gets this problem, dont calibrate with the arrow pad, wait til your controller turns off and let it auto calibrate. Thanks for the answers guys :)