New Universal Disc Flight Rating System & Graphic Flight Charts

[inbounds]

Introducing

Howdy DGCR! We've been on here for a little while promoting our tournaments all the while we've been working hard on our latest project. Given all the recent chatter about flight charts and flight ratings, we're proud to announce the launch of our new disc golf resource: the inFlight Guide.

inFlight Guide
or
inflightguide.net


The inFlight Guide is the Rosetta Stone of flight charts. Disc flight data contained in the guide comes from a total of 15 different flight charts and rating systems with as many as six different sources being applied to any one disc. Using multiple data sources has a smoothing effect on a disc flight path and eliminates outlier values caused by unnecessary bias, flight testing extremes, and minor rating errors, creating the most reliable flight data available as the "Relative Stability Scale".

Unlike other flight charts that utilize an arbitrary integer or manufacturer-based numbering system to describe different aspects of a disc's flight, the Relative Stability Scale shows flight characteristics relative to the expected minimum and maximum range of values for all discs and are displayed as a percentage. This flight ratings scale is the easiest to understand and is very simple for players both new and old to apply to the discs in their bag and to aid in disc purchasing decisions. We believe that the exploding population of new and amateur players will find this guide to be the most beneficial disc resource available.

inFlight Guide is available online and in a paperback book and features:

• Simple, easy to understand flight ratings
• Graphic flight charts for over 385 discs by more than 30 manufacturers
• Includes both current and OOP molds
• PDGA specs for all approved discs in the guide
• Overview and description of the most common factors influencing disc flight (important for new players)


Online features:

• Compare up to three discs, side-by-side
• View flight paths based on throwing style (RHBH/LHFH or LHBH/RHFH)
• Individual pop-up window to view all flight ratings and PDGA specs for the approved discs in the guide
• Share your flight charts via social media


Book features:

• Over 110 pages of flight charts and disc data
• Disc flight data table


Please keep in mind that all these flight ratings and graphic flight charts are subjective and disc flight paths will be influenced by a range of variables. When considering the discs in the inFlight Guide, we had to make certain assumptions to account for as many of these variables as possible and these assumptions are detailed in our "Overview" section. We've done our best to document as many of the variables that influence the flight of a disc in a separate section titled "Factors Affecting Disc Flight". This section in particular is crucial for people to read and understand to be able to fully interpret the flight charts and how those charts may changed based on their own throwing style and other environmental factors.

We've already received a lot of positive feedback from retailers that are looking for an independent (instead of from a manufacturer or competing retailer) flight rating system to use on their websites and from disc manufacturers that want a consistent way to characterize the flight of their discs. Brian Graham at the PDGA also agreed that an independent, consolidated flight rating system was the way to go as it smooths the variances caused manufacturer bias and player skill differences and the International Disc Golf Center pro shop will be stocking the 2012 inFlight Guide book.


In addition to our 2012 inFlight Guide book, we also have two styles of dri-fit Ts (and more on the way) at LOW prices in the inbounds Disc Golf Store and we're currently offering FREE SHIPPING for the month of September:

http://inboundsdiscgolf.storenvy.com


Like us on facebook for inbounds updates and for special offers and discounts:

facebook.com/inboundsdiscgolf

 

[B3NDER]

Awesome documentary here Congrats on all the work, and the new site banner at the top.

 

[inbounds]

Ha ha, thanks B3NDER Here's the yellow & black-striped version...

Visit:

inFlight Guide
or
inflightguide.net

 

[maansmit]

That is pretty cool. Looks like a ton of work went into this. Good luck.

 

[jcrab66]

nice work

 

[bholy08]

Will be taking a close look at this for sure. But in advance, thanks for the effort you put in.

 

[iacas]

Suggestion: Charge $5 per year or something like that ($2 a quarter?) and email an updated flight chart (not the graphics, just the chart) as a PDF (so it's searchable) to "subscribers."

The paper book will be out of date quickly and the on-site chart is not as easy to use as a PDF you can just quickly search for and look at the columns.

Also, subscriptions are where it's at.

 

[inbounds]

Suggestion: Charge $5 per year or something like that ($2 a quarter?) and email an updated flight chart (not the graphics, just the chart) as a PDF (so it's searchable) to "subscribers."

The paper book will be out of date quickly and the on-site chart is not as easy to use as a PDF you can just quickly search for and look at the columns.

Also, subscriptions are where it's at.

Suggestions are encouraged and welcome, so thanks for the feedback. At some point we are going to consider a subscription-based service for personalized flight charts or for a dynamic app.

We're currently testing the paper book to see if there is still a market for it. We recognize that print books as a communication medium is a dying industry, but we also believe that there are still enough folks that don't use technology to the fullest extent of its capabilities and that the inFlight Guide book will be right in their wheel house.

To search the disc list (as long as you're using a browser that is > IE 7), there should be a text box above the disc name where you can search for a disc based on all or part of that disc's name. If you're not on a mobile browser, Ctrl + F should also do the trick.

 

[iacas]

Suggestions are encouraged and welcome, so thanks for the feedback. At some point we are going to consider a subscription-based service for personalized flight charts or for a dynamic app.

Now that you said it, uhh, an App (iOS, Android) would be great.

We're currently testing the paper book to see if there is still a market for it. We recognize that print books as a communication medium is a dying industry, but we also believe that there are still enough folks that don't use technology to the fullest extent of its capabilities and that the inFlight Guide book will be right in their wheel house.

I could see them being used in stores as quick reference guides. Or players could bookmark the pages for the discs they own on the course (I'm still new enough that I'm not absolutely certain of the characteristics of each disc).

To search the disc list (as long as you're using a browser that is > IE 7), there should be a text box above the disc name where you can search for a disc based on all or part of that disc's name. If you're not on a mobile browser, Ctrl + F should also do the trick.

That's nice. I missed that before. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[Jimb]

Very interesting. I'll have to check this out when I'm not on the laptop... or maybe adjust the font size settings. Or maybe I just need some magnifiers and don't want to admit it! :doh:

Thanks for posting and for the obvious time and effort that went into this.

 

[optidiscic]

I love it.....everyone is gonna have a personal disagreement here or there but this is what the masses have been clamoring for all in one place

keep adding discs and perhaps different plastic types etc

I am gonna love watching this thing evolve

 

[inbounds]

I love it.....everyone is gonna have a personal disagreement here or there but this is what the masses have been clamoring for all in one place

keep adding discs and perhaps different plastic types etc

I am gonna love watching this thing evolve

Thanks optidiscic! You touch on a good point. I know I mentioned it in the verbose OP, but these ratings are subjective and the flight paths will not translate for all players. We recognize that this resource can't be all things to all people, but we do think it's a good start to get you into the ballpark of what the projected flight path will be. Especially to newer players, we would stress reading the "Overview" and "Factors Affecting Disc Flight" sections of the guide to ensure that the flight charts are properly interpreted.

We'll make announcements here any time there are additional features available, but if you like us on facebook you'll get immediate updates as soon as they're released

 

[jrawk]

Any thought about creating an overlay view? The three flight paths on top of each other starting from the same point.

 

[inbounds]

We thought the same thing initially.

Short Answer - We originally wanted to see the discs from the same starting point, but in the end it was too messy.

Long Answer - Early models featured all three (or more) discs starting from the same point. The problem that we encountered was that discs were hidden by discs of similar flight paths. While this was good from the standpoint of determining which discs were the closest in characteristics, it also made differentiating among the different molds (especially identifying the nuances) difficult. Additionally, if you had several totally different discs displayed, certain portions of one disc's flight path could overlay the flight path of other discs and the chart got muddled.

 

[RUSSELL]

the comparison feature has stopped working for me. i can hit the arrow and bring up the chart for a single disc, but not the "1" "2" "3" side by side at the top. ????

 

[dickyp1113]

Nice work on the charts! Love how easy it is to use!

 

[inbounds]

the comparison feature has stopped working for me. i can hit the arrow and bring up the chart for a single disc, but not the "1" "2" "3" side by side at the top. ????

Thanks for the heads up. I just checked it out and it works for me on all the major browsers. Which browser are you using? Have you tried to reload the page? Let me know if a refresh doesn't resolve it.

Nice work on the charts! Love how easy it is to use!

Thanks!

 

[RUSSELL]

might be a javascript issue....:wall::doh:

 

[inbounds]

Sorry you're running into difficulties. PM'd ya.

If anybody else is running into the same issue, please give me a shout!

 

[shawny0123]

This could be the single best disc gold related item to come out in a long time. I just looked up a few of the discs I use and your charts are really dead on with the way they fly. There seems to be an error though as you have the Buzz distance listed at 300' and everyone knows it's more like 400' on these boards brahhhhhh!