when is the last time someone did buisness with the launch pad?

[Beergnome]

Just wondering. The circa 1995 AOL webpage layout, the mail in order form, and the last updated in 2008 gives me cause for concern.
Otherwise, they got some nice kits I wouldn't mind ordering.

[chuck5395]

That being the case, why not order from your personally favorite and trusted on-line rocketry store that carry their products. There are several that I found with a quick search. I have often found that this is a safer way of ordering products rather than directly from the manufacturer. YMMV

[Beergnome]

Ah yes, of course, and I shall. I jjust found their site last night, via this forum actually! So I'm asuming tbhat somebody here has orderd from them in the past, and might have a opinion one way or another. I will admidt I have not had much of a chance to research the matter more throughly. They make scale kits of military ordinance, and if all is well with them, I would do quite a bit of buisness with them. But I don't think I've seen them listed with any other retailors. Given the ...ahem.. primative state of their website, it makes me wonder if they are even still in buisness. It looks like its a guy, who is obviously a rocketeer, but this is a side line casual buisness for him, and turnaround times may be an issue.

[NAR29996]

Just wondering. The circa 1995 AOL webpage layout, the mail in order form, and the last updated in 2008 gives me cause for concern.
Otherwise, they got some nice kits I wouldn't mind ordering.

I have several of their kits, but have never ordered direct. I either got them from a third party vendor or from our on site vendor. It appears that siriusrocketry.com has a good selection of Launch Pad kits and most of them seem to be in stock.

[sodmeister]

I have several of their kits, but have never ordered direct. I either got them from a third party vendor or from our on site vendor. It appears that siriusrocketry.com has a good selection of Launch Pad kits and most of them seem to be in stock.

I have to agree 100 % , Sirius Rocketry is the place to order from ,fast shipping and very good prices and a great vendor to deal with ,David is top notch !!!!!
Can`t say enought goods things about him !

To actually get any type of communication directly with TLP is probably not going to happen ,but then again ,the vendors have that covered.

Great kits ,in my opinion of course


Paul T

[Beergnome]

I have several of their kits, but have never ordered direct. I either got them from a third party vendor or from our on site vendor. It appears that siriusrocketry.com has a good selection of Launch Pad kits and most of them seem to be in stock.

Cool! Thanks for that! Ill look into it tonight when I get on the desktop.

Of course, it must be noted that I like to be a guy who shops at small buisnesses and deals with the owners of those buisness as much as possible. But of course, if running through a third party gives the guy more exposure and less headaches, I can support that as well.

I understand its a small community. And the internet is a god send to the small manufacturers. You can sell directly to the consumer. But it also looks like folks like the vender you mention are stepping in as the indie LHS falls by the way side. There will always be a need for a LHS to inspire, and provide a source for must have little bits.

But if dude is still active, and relyiiing mostly on the big online vendors to push his goods, that's cool. And ill give him my buisness

[luke strawwalker]

Ah yes, of course, and I shall. I jjust found their site last night, via this forum actually! So I'm asuming tbhat somebody here has orderd from them in the past, and might have a opinion one way or another. I will admidt I have not had much of a chance to research the matter more throughly. They make scale kits of military ordinance, and if all is well with them, I would do quite a bit of buisness with them. But I don't think I've seen them listed with any other retailors. Given the ...ahem.. primative state of their website, it makes me wonder if they are even still in buisness. It looks like its a guy, who is obviously a rocketeer, but this is a side line casual buisness for him, and turnaround times may be an issue.

Yeah, I've heard that they are not good with customer communication or shipping orders... and evidently not with website design either (though of course so long as it works I could care less... usually I prefer simple webpages over the ones with lots of blinky, flashy, crapola that makes it hard to load and hard to find what your looking for or navigate). The kits are nice, it's just customer service and web design aren't strong points...

That's where an excellent vendor comes in. Dave at Red Arrow Hobbies carries them, along with Sirius rocketry, and there are a few others...

Good luck! OL JR

[Zeus-cat]

I remember reading several posting from the owner of The Launch Pad a few years ago. I think they had storm damage at their building and then they decided to move and the move went poorly, etc. It seemed like they just had a run of bad luck and weren't producing kits for 6 months or so. I could have those details wrong, but I know they were out of commission for a while.

Anyway, some of these manufacturers set up deals with vendors so often their preferred sales points are through their network of vendors. For some of these guys it is more profitable to ship a bunch of kits at a wholesale price to an established vendor than it is to maintain a retail operation and sell one or two kits to the average Joe.

I have never dealt with them directly, but as others have stated they seem to have a reputation of not responding to emails, etc. Since the kits are readily available at other vendors it makes sense to go that route.

I just got back from launching six rockets and two of them were TLP kits. Their 2.6 kits are always white knuckle flights as the rockets are marginally stable on D12s. Tonight's flight of the Standard AGM-78 on a D12-3 was nearly flawless. Straight up (for once) and deployment was 0.9 seconds after apogee. It hit a whopping 148 feet with a peak velocity of 40 mph.

Now the 1.6 inch Bolo was another story. This is my all time favorite TLP kit. It hit 808 feet on a D12-5, with a peak speed of 158 mph. Deployment was 0.1 seconds before apogee. Data was collected from my Altimeter Two.

[Woody's Workshop]

I emailed TLP directly because I was considering a few of their kits. I took a full day to get a response, but they detailed the answer, and then went into why they do what they did pertaining to my question, and a bit of history.
You can find vendors that run sales and most likely pick them up cheaper from a vendor than directly as I had planned.
They do not come with decals, just painting instructions. Which from what I have heard from others here, the painting instructions are better than the build instructions. I have no experience myself with building one of their kits...yet.

[Beergnome]

Thanks for all the hints, tips, warnings and explinations folks. Ill be looking into the third party venders if I choose to pick up a kit of theirs. And it sounds like if I do get one, ill have to build it twice, once in the sim, and again in real life. Or are they just that inherently squirlly? (I think that's a scientific term.)

[Daddyisabar]

Thanks for all the hints, tips, warnings and explinations folks. Ill be looking into the third party venders if I choose to pick up a kit of theirs. And it sounds like if I do get one, ill have to build it twice, once in the sim, and again in real life. Or are they just that inherently squirlly? (I think that's a scientific term.)

They are fine if built stock and with decent technique. They are sports scale and therefore not always as stable as your typical 3-4FNC. Too many people think they are pros and try a lot of mods/bulletproofing and get into trouble, then bitch about the kits when the real fault lies with the builder. Oh my, I probably just pissed off a few people but that is life. You can do a few minor mods but be real careful if you want to add any amount of weight - especially on the hind end!

[luke strawwalker]

EXACTLY!!! Daddyisabar has it right...

If you do any "substantial modifications" be sure you do plenty of sim work to correct/ ensure the stability.

And, as Diab pointed out, realize that they are "model rocket" style MPR kits... not little HPR kits. I agree with him that building them as-is with perhaps a little bit of strategic beefing up (like papered fins) will result in a good model. Trying to fiberglass the thing into an anti-tank round will lead to grumbling... Besides, why overbuild the darn thing, having to double the motor size (and expense) to get the same performance as stock with a BP or low-end APCP motor??

Later! OL JR

[Beergnome]

well, you most certainly didnt piss me off! I have a firm grasp on the concept that the common numeral in the equation of the wierdness of my life is me

Im mostly interested in them for the scale, and semi scale military ordinace kits,I wont be so arrogent as to say building a rocket is easy, and I wont be so arrogent as to say " yeah, I got this" I fully admidt to being a newb, and am down in the having fun with the LPR stuff and flirting with MPR... and maybe as I get better and more confident.. go further into the more complicated HPR's

mostly right now im just enjoyomh having something to do with my hands after a hard days work beer mineing

[terryg]

The Pershing is a great kit. I do not care for the mylar chutes that the kits use. They tear easily and I have had issues in getting them to deploy reliably.

http://www.siriusrocketry.biz/ishop/...roducts_id=631

[NAR29996]

Too many people think they are pros and try a lot of mods/bulletproofing and get into trouble,

Guilty! But I don't bitch because I always assume that I screwed up. (Well mostly.)

[Beergnome]

The Pershing is a great kit. I do not care for the mylar chutes that the kits use. They tear easily and I have had issues in getting them to deploy reliably.

http://www.siriusrocketry.biz/ishop/...roducts_id=631

you know, I gotta agree with the notion of Mylar, I recently got a little silverlight star fire that had a little mylar streamer for recovery.
reinforcement for the tie off hole was ineffective to reduce tearing, I then used a piece of electrical tape instead.

the maiden flight was on a A8-3, and she came back down fast.. faster than it should have, when I recovered her.. the mylar streamer had sheared right off at the electrical tape reinforcement!

The rocket was fine, and I replaced it with a length of rip-stop nylon that I use for sail material for my little toy boats.
fun little rocket though! dang thing went up there like a bat out of hell!

But, so far that is my experience with using mylar for recovery, and I'm not impressed. I can see the benefits, light weight, "sparkly" but I just don't think I trust the stuff at all.

I just got another little starlight kit last night, and it has a 12" mylar chute included, I might just go ahead and replace it with some polyethylene garbage bag material.

[Daddyisabar]

Guilty! But I don't bitch because I always assume that I screwed up. (Well mostly.)

But it is just so much fun to bitch and blame the kit or motor manufacturer! If I don't come away from a launch with out moaning and groaning about bonus delays, or find myself complaining about the flight characteristics of some of my TLP or other kits, well, then I must be flying stuff that is way too easy, or maybe I have just become a Pro!. . .No, I doubt that will ever happen.

Yeah - the TLP mylar can be a bit of a pain. But if you have the big bucks, then get a nice LIGHT rip stop nylon one and impress even the old school boys. If you are poor like me then I see talc, nice strong clear tape, and extra three hole binder reinforcer's in your future.

[sodmeister]

Guilty! But I don't bitch because I always assume that I screwed up. (Well mostly.)

I may be more guilty than you (look what is says below my avatar)

Although i don`t bullet proof my kits (change out engine tubes ,replace Balsa with Basswood and detail the snot out of it ) I fly on S/U E`s and now CTI 24mm reloads.

But indeed ,if you do modify these kits ,you MUST do a SIM and check that CP/CG or surprises can occur.

You also have to remember that some of the real missiles that TLP re-creates are unstable in their design (AIM-9 for example) , so when the creator of these kits (Chuck Barndt) makes a point of telling the builder to build the kit according to the directions ,they should take heed (lest your rocket shall fall )

I make spare templates and take measurements of all parts ,so if need be ,I can rebuild the kit from scratch/clone.

The biggest gripe and one that makes me laugh ,is the lack of decals , I mean c`mon......! It would certainly boost the cost of the kits (and you know how cheap people are) so more bitching........or make those aweful crappy clear film stickers.......more bitching......or get them made in China for 1 cent and quality to match....more....well you know ! Or suppost a local vendor from here and buy them or make them yourself.

Then again ,you have people that just don`t like them and make it a point to say so at any chance they get (that idiot got banned from here) so to them I say GFY or take up macrame

Paul T

[bradycros]

Point(s) well made SM.

[sodmeister]

Point(s) well made SM.

I feel better now T.

But the more I look at that swanky macrame chef`s apron on that cool hippy chick and those S&M whips in the background.....maybe macrame ain`t so bad


Paul T