First time buying fairway drivers. Need suggestions.

[mashnut]

Rather than a champ leopard, I'd go with a dx cheetah. It's a little more workable right out of the box, and has nice turn with just enough low speed stability to keep it from turning into a roller, and let you shoot nice straight shots with a hyzer flip.

 

[houser]

A heavy Tee-bird. i bought a 162 g first and it turns over real easy. 170+ tee birds are real straight fliers.

 

[garublador]

Rather than a champ leopard, I'd go with a dx cheetah. It's a little more workable right out of the box, and has nice turn with just enough low speed stability to keep it from turning into a roller, and let you shoot nice straight shots with a hyzer flip.

At that 300'-325' range a DX Cheetah will be awesome. A new one will have some fade and a a beat one will be easy to turn but not squirrley and not fade that much.

 

[Marmoset]

...it shows the leo to have a -2 turn, and the stalker to have -.5 turn, XL with -1 turn, tbird with 0 turn... Is the leo in champ plastic really that understable?

No, Champ Leos are much more evenly stable than that. They can actually be overstable if you pick out the high PLH Leos. A low PLH Champ Leo might be closer to -2 turn but I stay away from the low PLHs since I'm already throwing 150 class so I don't really know if they get this understable "off the shelf."

Those Stalker, XL, and TB ratings are very close to their actual flight IMO.

 

[eegor]

I like heavy Teebirds and Leopards in champ plastic. I throw the Teebird in the wind and the Leopard for accuracy. The Leopard glides straight big time, so you don't have to put a lot into it to get it to where you want it to go (in calm conditions - not a good windy day disc). The champ Leopard is not near as understable as the DX and will stay "straighter" for a long time.

 

[jongoff09]

Thanks for the suggestions, since the leo isn't that understable in champ plastic that will probably be the next disc I get. Might also pick up a TB for the wind since it almost always windy around here.

I am loving that in this world of wide-rimmed drivers more and more players are discovering teebirds! I throw both the teebird and the leopard.

I wish I would have started with a TB and leo or other fairway drivers. I started with a beat champ valk which is still a great disc to start with, but now it is hard for me to power down with it because it is so flippy even when not thrown at max power. Right now the fairway drivers will fill the hole between the mids and drivers like they are designed to.

 

[jacob2918]

champ leopards are junk! gave mine away after a week. sometimes its straight sumtimes hard right hell who knows. everyone is right get a nice weight teebird to start.champ not star! and then later for fun get a 150 champ teebird for wooded courses!

 

[volmed10]

I also throw max weight Champ Teebirds and Leopards almost exclusively. The Champ Leo is an absolutely awesome disc; I'll regularly get one out to 350' with relatively little power and some hyser on the release. They are very reliable, as long as you know how to throw them, because they are in no means a driver that you can release flat with max power and expect it to fly well. The Leo taught me how to decrease my power on drives for better controllability and accuracy since it is more about finesse than crush.

The Teebird is my favorite disc in my bag by far. I carry 3 max weight TBs at all times (11x Glow Champ, 12x Champ, and Echo Star) that all have slightly different roles due to their inherent differences in stability and glide. My E* glide the best and produces the most distance (~400-415' on a flat drive with no elevation) and is also the least stable, the 11x Glow Champ is my stable TB, for when there is a little more wind or I need a straight drive sans S curve, and the 12x Champ is between the two, and I'll use it on monster anny drives out to 450-475' that I want to stable out at the end and not turn into a roller. They only thing I can't get the TB to do is act as a super overstable driver (because it isn't); that's why I carry a Banshee.

Cheetahs are great discs too. Like stated previously, they will be less stable initially than a Champ Leo and subsequently more workable. One of the guys that I play with all the time uses a Cheetah constantly, and he can do more with that disc than any other one in his bag. The only problem is that they only are produced in DX, of which I'm not a huge fan due to low durability (Champ is my favorite).