• The proper fletching keeps your arrow's flight stable.arrow and target image by T.Tulic from Fotolia.com
  
  The three or four feathers or vanes glued to the nock (notched) end of an arrow are known as the fletching. Fletch, while often colorful or intricate, is not merely decorative; it is essential for maintaining the stability and speed of a flying arrow. Different types of fletching provide many variations in performance, and archers can select the best options depending on their specific shooting needs and styles.
  
  

Materials

• Feathers can provide ideal fletching in most circumstances.feather on the sand image by Mike & Valerie Miller from Fotolia.com
  
  For archers, the biggest decision when selecting fletching is material—feathers or vanes. Natural bird feathers seem to be the more advantageous choice—they are more flexible and therefore recover more easily if they brush against the arrow rest as the arrow is fired. They are lighter, fly faster and stabilize arrow flight better than synthetic counterparts. On the down side, they are more expensive and must be attached to the arrow in a helical pattern, reducing the archer's choices to one fletching pattern. Feathers also get soggy in wet weather, which causes performance problems.
  
  By contrast, vanes, which are made of flexible plastic, are all-weather, durable, and can be attached in any pattern. They are cheap and easy to handle and come in a variety of colors, which is desirable if you want a bright color to serve as a "tracer" to find your arrow after shooting it. However, vanes are heavier, causing faster loss of trajectory, and they are not as effective as feathers in stabilizing the arrow's flight.
  
  

Attachment Patterns

• Archers can choose from three different patterns when attaching fletching to an arrow. A straight fletch is glued on in parallel, straight lines that are evenly spaced around the arrow shaft. Helical fletching is also evenly spaced, but attached in a curving line that follows around the shaft. This configuration causes the arrow to rotate in flight, making its path straighter and more stable. Helical fletching is usually the preferred choice; the only downside of this configuration is that the fletching is more likely to brush the arrow rest and disturb the archer's shot. Offset fletching is a combination of straight and helical—the fletching is attached in a straight line, but the line is at a slight angle (usually about 4 degrees) on the shaft. This provides a small amount of rotation, but allows the fletching a better chance of clearing the arrow rest.
  
  

Surface Area

• Length and height both increase the total surface area of fletching (as computed using both sides of the vane or feather), which in turn increases stability. Arrows with larger fletching are more stable because there is more contact between the air and the fletching during flight; more air resistance keeps the arrow on a stable path. The downside of using large fletching is increased weight, particularly when using vanes, which are heavier to begin with. Vanes and feathers are both available in 3-, 4- and 5-inch lengths, but 4-inch lengths are the industry standard.
  
  Flu-flu fletching is deliberately large fletching that is either wound around the nock end of the arrow or attached in six or more rows. Flu-flu is used for aerial shooting specifically because of the amount of drag the fletching creates; too much speed can be dangerous in aerial shooting. This is an example of using large fletching to control the speed of the arrow.