Phenix Flight Numbers Help!

[Three Putt]

For old school discs use the old school scale. Phenix=very overstable. Jaydub said that when these were the hot new discs the pros would get them before a tournament and smash them into the ground a bunch of times before they threw them. The one I had was a wall hanger, until I sold it on ebay. I don't collect Innova, only Discraft (and early Whamo)

I don't collect anything, I just never throw anything away. :\

This disc I obviously got in some sort of trade as the back is covered in ink that isn't mine, but I don't remember how or why I have it. I know in the mid-90's I had them in the shop so I threw one for a bit, but that disc was orange and I gave it away to a guy who liked them.

Lol edit: The ink on the back is a couple of phone numbers inside a circle that says "Edgar's New Disk" in HUGE letters. It does have that old Aero tooling; it just says "CHAMPION DISCS INC." and the patent number in much larger lettering than the tooling we are used to.

 

[John Rock]

The Phenix got so much hype because Sam Ferrans threw it for a distance world record in the late 80's. Some would even float in water.

 

[Countchunkula]

Wow.....yous guys have got to be old.

It seems all relative. The Eclipse was a sharp edged, high speed driver, in its day. Never figured out how to throw it that hard.

My second ace was with an Eclipse (this was 2014, so definitely not in its day). I picked one up after playing a round with a guy who threw a few really nice rollers with one. I pulled it out on a hole that needed a rhbh turnover that was just out of range for my flippy midrange. Worked like a charm.

Regarding the speeds, I think Innova has changed the speed rating for some of those old discs. In my (totally subjective) opinion, assuming a Roc is a speed 4 and a Teebird a speed 7:
Leopard 6
Cyclone 6
Whippet 6
Cheetah 5
Viper 5
Eclipse 5
Stingray 4

 

[Innova63]

Wow.....yous guys have got to be old.

It seems all relative. The Eclipse was a sharp edged, high speed driver, in its day. Never figured out how to throw it that hard.

Pot


meet Kettle...

Once I figured out how to throw the Eclipse it was a great distance thrower until the first hard, close tree hit. I remember carrying several during events, might actually be the first discs that I cycled. One of the reasons I stopped throwing them was as my luck would usually be I would whack a tree warming up for an event in the morning and wouldn't know where in the lineup the disc now would be...

Under-stable,
Really under-stable,
Really very Under-stable,
Really very, very Under-stable,
Hyzer flip roller or
Crazy hyzer flip roller...


Don't recall one ever being refered to as even remotely slightly stable...

 

[Innova63]

Okay

Major thread drift...

Early Discraft
I don't think they had a clue how to do stable...

From my recollections..
Sky Styler frisbee knock off, under stable
Ultra star frisbee knock off, still under stable
Phantom+ turnover machine
Eclipse " "
Cruiser " "

then they went over stable...

Windstar Cruiser with a bead
Vortex Eclipse with a bead feel


Not sure what may have been their first stumble on to stable....

Hawk?

 

[Three Putt]

Okay

Major thread drift...

Early Discraft
I don't think they had a clue how to do stable...

From my recollections..
Sky Styler frisbee knock off, under stable
Ultra star frisbee knock off, still under stable
Phantom+ turnover machine
Eclipse " "
Cruiser " "

then they went over stable...

Windstar Cruiser with a bead
Vortex Eclipse with a bead feel


Not sure what may have been their first stumble on to stable....

Hawk?

Until that year (PDGA approved list tells me it was '93) that the Magnet, Hawk and Cyclone came out, Lightning had much better discs for golf IMO than Discraft.

The companies went opposite directions at that point.

Discraft released the Comet, X-Clone and Stratus, then had Elite Pro plastic and the XL. They became serious competition for Innova.

Lightning pretty much stopped releasing discs and rebranded all the discs as Flyers or Drivers or Slices or whatever. They just slid into obscurity.

 

[John Rock]

Back when I was actively seeking out Freestyle events, Discraft had a pretty large share of that market. Many of those older Freestylers loved the Sky Styler. It has that huge deep rim that made it so much different than Whamo's High Rigidity.

 

[Three Putt]

Back when I was actively seeking out Freestyle events, Discraft had a pretty large share of that market. Many of those older Freestylers loved the Sky Styler. It has that huge deep rim that made it so much different than Whamo's High Rigidity.

It makes sense since if you were going to label Jim Kenner as a specific kind of Frisbee guy, he was a Freestyle guy. Discraft was ahead of the curve on Freestyle and Ultimate so when Wham-O got gobbled up in corporate buyouts, Discraft was right there to grab those markets. They were behind the curve early in disc golf, but they were a lot more than just a disc golf company. The companies they lagged behind (Innova and Lightning) were just disc golf companies for the most part, although Innova also grabbed the dog disc market at some point. I'm not sure when that happened. At any rate, the running assumption back in the day always was that Discraft made more money off the Ultrastar than all their golf discs combined.

 

[coupe]

I doubt anyone throws a Phenix any more. They can't exist too much in the wild at all, I'd think.

There are a couple of courses I play 2-3x a year that I'll bag a Phenix for; other than that, they're wallhangers and conversation starters.

 

[ejvogie]

I'm currently looking at a Phenix and a DX Totem Teebird side by side. The rim widths on each look very similar. If that's what determines speed, the Phenix very well COULD be a 7

 

[Three Putt]

We always joked that speed=wing size back in the day as that was all that seemed to change as the discs got faster. The wings would get .1cm bigger and the speed rating went up by one.

That works assuming all the discs are basically that 21.2cm diameter that all drivers are these days.

The thing that slows the Phenix waaayyy down is the 23.0cm diameter. It just takes it longer to rotate. Giving the Phenix the same speed as the 21.2cm diameter Teebird because they have the same sized wing totally ignores the diameter of the two discs and the effect the larger diameter has on the fight of the Phenix.

BUT...flight numbers are made up and you can call it whatever you want I guess.