I believe that my team is dealing with some defective flags. Our flywheel shoots powerful and hits the flags pretty consistently, but doesn’t turn them. How hard are your flags to turn? Is it the flags, or is there a way to make a flywheel shoot with more power?
Where is your robot hitting the flags?
Further from the pole in the middle is generally better. VEX even has a hot-zone marked on the flags (the green spot).
How long have you had your flags? Many peoples’ flags are stubborn at first, but get easier to toggle after some use.
Flywheel power is based on the compression in your flywheel hood and RPM.
New flags will be harder to turn than old flags. This has already been addressed, and teams are expected to be able to cope with this variability.
Try hitting them at the green strip at the very side.
If you’re worried about it happening at a tournament, just sneak in early. Then, have a couple of members go back and forth for ~3-5 minutes on each flag. You’ll have some easier ones by the time matches start.