6/7/2008 Meeting Minutes

Meeting began shortly after 9:00AM on June 7th, 2008 at Dan Work's residence in Fife.

Cleaning

This meeting started with a cleaning party to take care of all the club's equipment following FITS 2008. The entire trailer was emptied, all of the pads and rails were scrubbed clean, and maintenance was done on some of the launch controllers. Mike Wyvel brought coffee and doughnuts to keep the crew motivated. Thanks to everybody who helped out and we hope everyone enjoyed the rocket chat!

New Business

FITS 2008 Postmortem

FITS 2008 was a huge success from every perspective. The comments from participants were very positive; the city was very happy with our attendance and commerce; the altitude parameters proved to be most acceptable; etc. Most notably, the club has been able to pay off the loan on the trailer ahead of schedule. With that major expense behind us, attention will be given to other areas that can help improve our launch activities.

Several issues were brought up regarding the event. These are things that didn't go as well as they could have and need our attention for future launches, especially FITS 2009.

The PA system

The combination of our PA system, FRS radios for range and away cell communication, and the fact that our FM transmitter is faulty make communication of what was happening at the flight line very difficult. People in the camping area couldn't always hear the PA and trying use the PA's microphone and an FRS radio while running the launch controller is next to impossible. The intent is to have the LCO could talk into a single microphone and be heard by everyone, everywhere. Carl Hamilton wondered if FRS could be used for a wireless PA system, but nobody was aware of such a product. The best bet is probably to get our FM transmitter fixed so that people in the parking lot can just tune their car radios to the right frequency in order to know what is going on.

Mid/high-power launch controller

Our mid/high-power launch controller is on its last legs. The need to replace the controller has the priority right now in GSE enhancements.

Launch card organization

As LCO, managing all of the launch cards for a single rack, as well as those from the away cell and recycles, is a pain. It sure would be nice if we had some way to manage these things. Althought there have been many methods tried that improve one facet or another of the issue, none of them has solved all of the problems. The procedure will receive additional attention next year.

Attendees

Bill Clugston
Bill Wyvel
Brad Wright
Carl Hamilton
Dan Work
Dave Randall
Denny Smith
Kent Newman
Mike Wyvel
Niel Anderson
Robert Simpson-Clark
Thomas Randall