Flight numbers

If you've tried throwing different discs, you'll have experienced that they often fly differently. Disc golf discs in particular come in many different variants, and here the difference between many discs can be quite significant.

To identify how different discs fly, you can look at the disc's flight numbers to get a hint about the flight characteristics the disc has. Flight numbers can be a bit of a jungle to navigate at first, but they can also be a great tool for finding the next disc for your bag. The best way to find out whether a disc is the right one for you is, however, always to try throwing it yourself.

Flight numbers are mostly an indication, and they aren't fully standardized across the different manufacturers. Two discs with the same flight numbers from two different manufacturers can therefore fly quite differently. Even so, we think it's important to give you a proper introduction to the four numbers printed on the vast majority of disc golf discs.

A disc's flight numbers contain 4 categories:

Flight numbers are read from left to right. In the example we see that an Essence from Discmania has Speed 8, Glide 6, Turn -2 and Fade 1. You can read more about the individual categories below. The manufacturer Discraft has an extra number after the 4 flight numbers, which they call "Stability rating". We briefly go through Discraft's Stability rating at the bottom of this page.

Speed

+1 to +14

Works as an indication of how hard you need to throw the disc for the turn and fade numbers to hold true. Speed is also a direct expression of how wide the disc's rim is. A wider rim thus indicates a higher speed.

The higher the number, the more speed the disc needs to fly well. Discs are often categorized so that speed 1-3 are putters, speed 4-5 are midranges, speed 6-9 are fairway drivers and speed 10-14 are distance drivers.

For new players we recommend starting with no discs faster than speed 8 or 9 in the bag.

Glide

+1 to +7

An expression of how well the disc glides. The higher the number, the more it glides. A disc with a low glide is often described as being a bit heavier, since it seeks the ground faster as it flies. What disc golf players prefer varies. Some prefer a low glide, as it gives better control over the disc, while others prefer a high glide to get a little extra distance on their throws.

For new players we recommend having glide 5 or 6 on your fairway drivers.

Turn

-5 to +1

An expression of how much the disc turns at high speed. The highest speed is always in the first part of the throw, since the disc slowly loses speed due to wind resistance during its flight through the air. If you throw a backhand as a right-hander, this will be an expression of how much the disc turns to the right in the first part of the throw.

The lower the number, the more it turns to the right for a right-hander throwing a backhand. On a forehand throw, the disc's turn will be to the left.

We generally recommend discs with a fair amount of turn (lower numbers; that is, a negative number) for new players.

Fade

0 to +6

An expression of how much the disc turns when it doesn't have much speed left. This will always be at the end of the disc's flight through the air, since it has here lost most of its speed due to air resistance.

If you throw a backhand as a right-hander, this will be an expression of how much the disc turns to the left at the end.

The higher the number, the more it turns to the left for a right-hander throwing a backhand. On a forehand throw, the disc's fade will be to the right.

We generally recommend discs with lower fade for new players.

Summary of flight numbers

We've gone through flight numbers, and hopefully you've become a little wiser about what the numbers mean. It was mentioned at the start that flight numbers aren't based on a standard across manufacturers, and you therefore can't always expect a disc with certain numbers from one manufacturer to fly like a disc with the same numbers from another manufacturer.

Flight numbers are good as guidelines, but the only way to find out whether a disc is the right one for you is to throw it. In an attempt to tie it all together, below we have an example where an image of a disc's flight path (also called a "flight curve") is shown. Here it's marked in which part of the flight the disc turns and fades.

You can read more generally about the stability of discs on our page about stability.

Stability

The stability rating only applies to discs from the manufacturer Discraft.

On Discraft discs you'll often see a fifth number after the 4 flight numbers. The fifth number is Discraft's own stability rating. It rates discs on a scale from 3 to -3, where a high value is an overstable disc and a low value is an understable disc.

Discraft themselves write that overstable discs typically lie between 3 and 1, the neutral discs have a stability rating around 0, and the understable discs have a rating between -1 and -3. Discraft's stability rating can also appear as decimals, so you can find discs with a stability rating of, for example, 0.4 or 2.1.

You can read more about Discraft's stability rating on their website.

You can read more generally about the stability of discs on our page about stability.