The 'Night Flyer No 4'

Gareth came to visit today as he is recording anecdotes about the early days of frisbee in Britain and about the history of disc golf here, in particular. We hadn't met before but the network of disc golf players had lead him to me. We had fun and I hope it helped fill in some of the story which he wants to tell in a film leading up the the next Disc Golf championship event on the Isle of Mull in 2020.

I happened to be one of the first frisbee players to have played on that course near Fanmore, on one of the south facing coasts of Mull, back in 1980/81. It is a long story involving Trant L and Gremlin, neither of whom have I met in decades. 

Before Gareth left later in the afternoon I showed him many of my odd collection of frisbees and other flying discs, and he took a few in order to rostrum camera them to edit into the film. I had hoped to show him a special frisbee designed by Ed Headrick, the inventor of Frisbee Golf back in the 1970s, but I couldn't find it. Minutes after Gareth left I found it.

The 'Night Flyer' was a Wham-O product using the plastic injection molds for their high quality tournament standard frisbees, for which they owned the patent. Ed Headrick had the smart idea of adding an extra and wholly different ingredient  comprising fluorescent granules, which melted into the normal plastic. This material was denser which meant that depending on the amount of the additive, the discs became heavier but were confined within the same overall shape and size. In frisbee golf heavier discs might not only go further but also could be more stable in windy conditions, and so it proved. Today no-one uses Wham-O frisbees for disc golf but many other discs were designed and built using the expertise of players to refine the flight characteristics. The world of disc golf has become enormous.

The 'Night Flyer No 4' was one of a series of six numbered discs used by golf players to differentiate them just as golf balls are often numbered. But the 'Night Flyer' was a very limited edition because after only about a 1000 had been made Ed Headrick changed the name to the 'Midnight Flyer' and this went on to be made in countless numbers. 

I think the name change was because frisbee players being generally rather innovative started using the fluorescent properties of the disc to have fun. Instead of just using these frisbees for a specific golf game they started to 'charge' up the fluorescence with high-powered lights and go off into the dark to carry on playing throw and catch in the darkness. I know this because I was one of them and we had a lot of fun with this new plaything. Because there was so much added fluorescence the discs stayed brightly lit up in their weird green hue for many minutes. I have photographed it like this so you can see its translucent properties, even in daylight.

I love frisbees. Talking to Gareth brought back a lot of memories. I even remember throwing some of the 'Midnight Flyers;' at an evening football match at Tottenham Hotspur's football ground called White Hart Lane, when we were paid to give a demonstration of frisbee throwing at half time. 

If you want to watch Gareth's short trailer about the Isle of Mull Disc Golf Championship watch it here. He is working on the long form version now and interviewing old tossers like me. I'm looking forward to it.