Strong tail wind test, curious results?

[wericsson]

Non-tailwind related insane wind story:

I played a doubles tournament at a couple of the more scenic mountain courses up here in Colorado this last spring: Hi View in Pine, CO.

Threw a very high turnover into a left to right wind that was starting to push into a headwind. First time it worked gloriously, gaining massive uphill distance - rising with the wind current and flexing up the hill giving us the only look for 2 on our card.

Next time I throw the same shot on a similar hole, the disc goes out about 350' flexing up and to the right on anhyzer, and this is when the flight gets weird.

Wind goes into an updraft, carrying the disc straight up in the air... 30', 50', 100' STRAIGHT UP! We're all standing there dumbfounded and I'm thinking I'll never see my Wraith again as we're on the side of a mountain and trees are everywhere.

The disc stalls completely at the top of the updraft and appears to be heading right back towards the tee pad. It's zinging right towards us on a frozen rope like somebody shot it out of a cannon at us! I realize this Wraith is doing full bore right at our group and I start high stepping out of the tee box area at full speed, and the disc augers into the dirt about 15' in front of the tee box.

Not sure I've ever laughed harder during a round, but needless to say - we used my partners drive.

I've never seen anything quite as crazy as what happened to your poor Wraith, but I get enough 20-30 foot vertical pops over water that it doesn't surprise me.

 

[joecoin]

Keep in mind that wind does not always parallel the ground (or water) that it is passing over. Some winds come down, some winds push upwards.

http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_is_wind_shear.htm

 

[armiller]

I've said this before and should probably stop harping on it, but there exist tailwinds too strong to throw just about anything effectively. In those moments, if you're going for max distance, I highly recommend an overhand. >400' foot tomahawks or thumbers become possible for us mere mortals, especially if you can get the underside of the disc to catch that tailwind for a bit.

 

[Lazerface]

Keep in mind that wind does not always parallel the ground (or water) that it is passing over. Some winds come down, some winds push upwards.

http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_is_wind_shear.htm

EXCELLENT POINT. Never really thought about it much but have definitely experienced both types.

 

[slowplastic]

I've said this before and should probably stop harping on it, but there exist tailwinds too strong to throw just about anything effectively. In those moments, if you're going for max distance, I highly recommend an overhand. >400' foot tomahawks or thumbers become possible for us mere mortals, especially if you can get the underside of the disc to catch that tailwind for a bit.

Do you still throw a super overstable disc? I've never tried an OH shot in heavy tailwind. I've had them get decimated in bad crosswinds so I just put that shot away in the wind and have actually never thought of it.

 

[armiller]

Do you still throw a super overstable disc? I've never tried an OH shot in heavy tailwind. I've had them get decimated in bad crosswinds so I just put that shot away in the wind and have actually never thought of it.

Yes I'll throw pretty much the same disc. My current go-to overhand disc is a standard 175g champ Firebird (I haven't ever looked for super-beefy variants) that seems adequately beefy and more-or-less the same as my last heavy champ Firebird. I actually haven't fiddled with different discs too much, though it's worth doing. I just bought some SP Tsunamis that have good overhand distance potential, so I ought to get out there and try them.

I think the overstability just helps OH discs rotate more slowly, so stability in my experience doesn't change overhand flight in the wind nearly as much as standard "bottom of disc toward the ground" type of throws. So in my experience, it will pan just like a plain ol' overhand so that the flight looks about identical, just with way more distance since the wind is pushing it forward.