[Innova] The Valkyrie, a discussion.........

[KangarooCrayon]

I have a 300ft arm. I have bagged at least one Valk the entire 10 years I've played, until recently. Bout a year ago, I hurt my foot and also got a slipped disc. I replaced my Valks with Insanities because they were flatter and easier to throw from a standstill. This was part of discovering that MVP/Axiom discs were flatter and easier to grip. I now cover the Valk slot with Waves. I still compare all the discs in my bag to how a Valk throws.

 

[isamoor]

Yea, you could easily shuffle between Valks and Insanities. Especially throwing them around 300ft.

I think you could probably get a bigger spread of valks across weights and plastics. But even Insanities do have a spread. There was the fluke eclipse run from a couple years ago that was super stable for example.

I've got ~4 well seasoned 175g GStar Valks still on the shelf. I did some field work with them last week. I actually had a radar gun with me for that field work session.

I was fairly consistently launching them in the 56-58mph range. At that speed, these seasoned 175g GStar valks definitely needed a hyzer flip to land straight-ish. My longest straight throw was 360'. I accidentally turned over some that "went" 400', but that was because they landed 200' right of my intended line on a giant turnover.


I've got some Star and Halo Star Valks that are generally what I bag for distance on newer courses I'm still figuring out. They are a good chunk more stable. And then I have a small range of used champion valks and they have a wide breadth of stabilities.

 

[GladeScentedMandle]

I've been working on form all summer and have been getting more consistent distance, but have discovered my flat star Valks are even more stable than I initially thought. They're almost as stable as my Sparkle Rivals at 350+ feet and noticeably more stable than my Star Archons. On flat shots they've been flying about 20 feet longer than Rivals with a tiny bit of turn before fading, while my Archons are pushing 420 on reasonably large S curves. I cannot throw Archons into a headwind, but these Valks are just fine. I want to buy more but am worried they will be flippy.
For references, all distances were measured using averages between UDISC and pacing based on average number of steps it took me to walk 30 feet 5 times.

 

[isamoor]

Yea, there are just soooo many Valks out there you really can't buy exact replacements on demand. (Unless you're buying more of the most recent retail run...).

I will also mention I haven't seen that many flat star valks alas (most have neutral to high dome). I have a few flat top champion Valks, but those happen to be among the least stable premium Valks I have.

I have a couple F2 halo star Valks. They have a normal-for-a-valk dome. They're just a small touch more stable than my other star Valks, but they're also not very seasoned. But I like the feel of the halo star very much.

Still, I only have one valk that I would probably trust to throw 350'+ into a ~10mph headwind. And I'm modestly certain that valk is a mislabeled viking.

 

[GladeScentedMandle]

I will also mention I haven't seen that many flat star valks alas (most have neutral to high dome). I have a few flat top champion Valks, but those happen to be among the least stable premium Valks I have.

So do I just have a few freak Valks? Lol based on my description do you think I should buy a Viking to test it next to? Or is there another mold that sounds similar to what I am describing? Sorry for the 20 questions. I just like these flights and would like to pair them with something that may fly a similar distance but more stable than the Archons I have been throwing.

 

[isamoor]

Vikings are pretty hard to come by these days. But yea, if you find some they're pretty nice.

OLFs can be pretty close too, although many OLFs I've thrown have been closer to stable Thunderbirds. You could ask in the OLF thread about mellow OLF runs.

I think the most common choice for "something like a stable valk" would be a Pro or GStar Thunderbird. They're very easy to find as well.

Dynasty is the old CD2 and that's somewhat close. It does have the flattish sidewinder wing through, so I don't know about headwind stability with that.

Other manufactures have plenty of options in that space. Anax, Vulture, Volt, Wrath, Alpha, Getaway.

 

[isamoor]

Or based on other Innova I own, I suspect your flat top star Valks with high PLH came from around the 2019-2020 era of runs. So you could shop around for those. Plenty were made in that era. And most star in that era was stiff with many flat tops and higher PLH. You could ask on reddits discexhange community for example.