hugheshilton
* Ace Member *
So I've had a theory kicking around my head and just wanted to put it out there (so everyone can tell me I'm wrong). We all know that lighter discs tend to fly less stable generally. I'm not talking about bubble plastic right now, just weight variation within the same plastic type. So I have often experienced the fact that buying a driver that's 6-8 grams lighter seems to make a difference in how overstable it is that seems out of proportion to the actual weight difference. I mean, it's true that a lighter weight does mean that it takes less power to get a disc up to speed, but a few grams shouldn't mean that I'm throwing the disc THAT much faster. In fact, it doesn't mean I'm throwing faster at all; it just takes less energy to throw it which means it's going to tire me out a little less.
So my theory is when discs are molded up in lighter weights, the weight doesn't come out evenly from all parts of the disc. I think weight generally gets removed from the wing of the disc rather than from the flight plate. Less weight around the edge means a decrease in angular momentum (the gyroscopic force that stabilizes a disc). Less angular momentum means less resistance to high speed turn, which makes a disc less stable.
So coming to bubble plastic, if you remember the "good" Blizzard Bosses that were the ones that were initially released that had bubbles in the flight plate as well as the wing. I have one of these that I threw for quite a while, and it definitely started out pretty stable to overstable. In subsequent releases, they started doing bubbles only in the rims, and most of those discs are super flippy compared to those initial ones. I believe this is because having bubbles in the flight plate lightens up the disc proportionately (or even lightens the flight plate MORE than the wing), whereas if you just put bubbles in the wing, you are decreasing the angular momentum substantially and thus making the disc much more understable.
Now I have a 158 gram McBeth Star Destroyer that is super overstable. This seems counter to my theory until I compare it to my other regular weight Star Destroyers. What I find is that I think the mold or the cooling process has been tweaked for the light weight Destroyers. The wing is higher than any of my regular weight overstable Destroyers and it also is distinctly more concave on the underside. I recall there was a run of light weight Japan Open Star Destroyers a few years ago that Innova admitted had been "stabilized" and I think this is what they did. To counteract the decrease in angular momentum, they raised the PLH and made the wing a bit more convex. These tweaks decrease the aerodynamic lift, which is where high speed turns come from.
Alright, that's my theory. Now everyone can pile on and tell me how wrong I am.
So my theory is when discs are molded up in lighter weights, the weight doesn't come out evenly from all parts of the disc. I think weight generally gets removed from the wing of the disc rather than from the flight plate. Less weight around the edge means a decrease in angular momentum (the gyroscopic force that stabilizes a disc). Less angular momentum means less resistance to high speed turn, which makes a disc less stable.
So coming to bubble plastic, if you remember the "good" Blizzard Bosses that were the ones that were initially released that had bubbles in the flight plate as well as the wing. I have one of these that I threw for quite a while, and it definitely started out pretty stable to overstable. In subsequent releases, they started doing bubbles only in the rims, and most of those discs are super flippy compared to those initial ones. I believe this is because having bubbles in the flight plate lightens up the disc proportionately (or even lightens the flight plate MORE than the wing), whereas if you just put bubbles in the wing, you are decreasing the angular momentum substantially and thus making the disc much more understable.
Now I have a 158 gram McBeth Star Destroyer that is super overstable. This seems counter to my theory until I compare it to my other regular weight Star Destroyers. What I find is that I think the mold or the cooling process has been tweaked for the light weight Destroyers. The wing is higher than any of my regular weight overstable Destroyers and it also is distinctly more concave on the underside. I recall there was a run of light weight Japan Open Star Destroyers a few years ago that Innova admitted had been "stabilized" and I think this is what they did. To counteract the decrease in angular momentum, they raised the PLH and made the wing a bit more convex. These tweaks decrease the aerodynamic lift, which is where high speed turns come from.
Alright, that's my theory. Now everyone can pile on and tell me how wrong I am.
