Hello "Old Dude" and the rest of you all,
It looks like your club is growing. I know what that's like. It is a wonderful thing for a rocket club to grow, but there are some pitfalls to avoid if you can. Ground support is one of those areas where few clubs think about ahead of time, but all of us should think about ahead of time. Anybody can build a simple launch control system for even a very large model rocket club, but things change when you get into high power and the distance tables tell you how much further out you have to go.
If you are looking for a turn-key system, there are several on the market, most of which have been spoken of in this thread. Most of them will perform as advertised. But please do not buy anybody's system without asking yourself and your fellow club members some key questions about your club and your ground support needs.
1) How many pads do your club need to support right now.
2) If your club keeps growing as you've been growing, how many pads are you going to need?
3) Can the system that you choose grow with your needs?
4) What are the limiting factors to our club's ability to grow?
5) What size rockets and motors is our club flying currently?
6) What size rockets and motors is our club likely to be flying in the future?
7) How far out are you going to be setting up pads?
8) How far out can any launch control system control pads?
9) How much time will any given launch system take to set-up and tear-down?
If whatever system you're looking at can't grow as big as you expect club can grow, then why would you want to throw money away?
Wilson F/X System is the only commercially available (up to 64 pads) state of the art, digital launch control system, big enough, rugged enough, and flexible enough to put on any launch that you can imagine, including any Mid West Power, LDRS, National Sport Launch sized launches. If you've ever been to a Mid West Power Launch, then you've already seen my system in action. Wilson F/X is the only launch control system that has ever been owned by TQC, NAR-QC, and QCRS.
Please check out the threads on this website about Wilson F/X. There's more to learn.
To all of you who have lent your enthusiastic endorsements to the Wilson F/X launch system... thanks.
To those looking to see what it is and what it costs, go ahead and check it out at
www.wilsonfx.com where you'll find most of what you want to know.
The simple part is $2K for a fully functional 32 pad system which will grow with your club no matter how big you get, and will plain and simply keep working. For your $2K you get a LCU-64 that can control up to 64 individual pads with no modifications whatsoever. You also get four 8-pad Pad Boxes (with 25 foot igniter leads with alligator clips) to control 32 pads in four banks for 8 pads each. Its a perfect club system, 8 pads at 50 feet for model rockets, 8 pads at 100 feet for G's thru I motors, 8 pads at 200 feet for K's thru Ls, and 8 pads at 500 feet for M's. Add a single pad box unit to your system and you have your away pad at 1000 feet. Connect them all together with one long string of 16/3 outdoor extension cords for communications and batteries at the pads and you are ready to rock!
Questions? Go ahead and send them to
[email protected] and I'll do my best to answer them.
As to why I haven't replied to your emails? Well that's pretty simple. My Bishop moved me to a new church on July 1st. The web person at my last church thought he'd be helpful and drop my email and password from my last church before I could change things over and I lost EVERYTHING. My email address book was DELETED without my knowledge along with my whole archive of 6 years worth of information. Dumped into cyber space somewhere. Unfortunately, the guy wasn't good enough to reverse his actions and my old email address is no longer in existence.
My email on my web page was also deleted, so I have to get my web guy (cheap but hard to find the time to fix) to change that email as well, as it was all auto forwarded to my last church email account which as I already said got deleted without my knowing it.
Anyway, that's probably enough for now.
Brad, the "Rocket Rev.," Wilson
Wilson F/X - Chief cook and bottle washer!