Been lurking for a while andI'm ready to pull the trigger on a Skytrak - I think

[Lombo]

First off I want to say I've found this forum to be a wonderful place to gain insight and information on what is out in the simulator world. Back in 2016 I was one of the people that placed their deposit on an ES16, only to cancel my order before it shipped because of everything I had read on this site and the problems they had (and still have I am gathering). I'm sure there are people very satisfied with that purchase, but I for one am glad that I backed away before it shipped to me. At that time I had eliminated the SkyTrak from consideration because I was reading about a lot of the growing pains that system had during that time and eliminated the GC2 as it was out of the budget. I basically drifted away from the simulator world until January this year to review the current options. To my surprise, I don't see anything new in terms of players except a possible ES20/20, but until I see a working model that does what it says it does, I have my doubts - I've been down that road and don't wish to go back. The GC2 is still over budget and I want to give the SkyTrak a much closer look this time around. I just read through the beta 3.1 testing incorporating the club data of the skypro and other improvements. It seems like the SkyTrak has really worked out a lot of the bugs from a few years ago and is now trying to incorporate calculated club data.
If SkyTrak users could chime in and answer some of the questions I have I would greatly appreciate it in helping pull this trigger finally.
1. Accuracy - This is what it is all about in the end if I plan on using this as a tool to help me become a better golfer. Not a training aid per say, but something that will allow me to accurately bag map my clubs and gain confidence in knowing my distances with each club in my bag using several swings. For example, I'd like to have 2 or 3 solid carry numbers for most clubs in my bag using different swings or ball positions. It's amazing how many times during my round I find myself with a carry number that I don't have a club for in the bag. Would be nice to say I can hit an 8i with a 9 to 3 swing 127 yards. Right now I just take an easy swing with a 9i and pray it's the number. Another thing would be to make a swing change here or there in hoping to promote shot shapes - It's great to have a tool that would give me instant feedback that is accurate.
2. Ease of use - I never really liked the idea of the red laser dot and caused me to have too many questions such as - If I use a stationary rubber tee, do I have to move the unit (red dot) to hit my irons away from the rubber/plastic tee and then move it back again to hit off the tee? This seems like a nightmare to always have to line up the unit perfectly - which brings me to my 3rd point.
3. Calibration. It seems that some people have noticed a right/left bias with the unit even if it is perfectly aligned with the tool included to align it where both red dots are on. This seems to me like a major issue that I have not seen addressed/corrected in other posts. I saw one photo where the unit had to be offset several degrees for it to read correctly (even though the two dots were pointing crooked) and if you have to move the unit for tee shots vs iron shots constantly, I can see this as being a potential real huge problem with accuracy (see #1).

I'm hoping my reservations are not legitimate and hoping to hear from people that absolutely love their skytrak and that my hesitation is not worth worrying about. That all the bugs have been worked out now and the unit is everything as advertised. As I said, I did read the post from Seth at Skytrak and upcoming update release that will include club data from the skypro in an effort to get accurate club data merged with the calculated skytrak data - this seems to be a perfect marriage and I can only imagine it will get better and better. I guess I should also mention that I am lefthanded and want to make sure that doesn't cause any issues that I may not know about other than it's impossible to play with others that are righthanded at the same time.

Thanks for everyone's help here and I look forward to answers to these questions and hopefully my reservations are unfounded.

[SkyTrakSpiderman]

I was of the understanding that you had to raise the SkyTrak so that it was at the same level as the top of the tee (hence the reason that the metal case has legs!), is this incorrect?

[triplebogeysrbetter]

It needs to be at the same level as your hitting surface. With the FMJ it easy to accomplish. For tees I place my slightly behind the laser and about 1/2 inside. No miss shots for me.

[Lombo]

Firstly I would like to thank everyone that chimed in on my original post - and the responses reinforced my thinking that a Skytrak purchase would be a good thing. I couldn't resist the $300 off for Masters week and pulled the trigger and it arrived yesterday. I'm working on the sim area in terms of getting a computer to run the simulation software, but for now I just wanted to get going on the practice features of the unit and give my initial impressions.
After receiving yesterday, I spent about an hour setting it up, getting my package downloaded to the unit and attaching it to the Skytrak protective case, making sure it sat at the exact level of the hitting mat on the floor, and working on the alignment. I can say all of these things were very easy to do, in fact, I was surprised at how easy the alignment was. My first few shots were simple little wedges that I knew were flying dead strait and the Skytrak confirmed the direction. I then hit a couple out to the left and right and again it was right on.

I was now ready to go through my bag and see what it was all about - and 3 hours later I could tell you that this is going be addicting. I spent most of my time just hitting different clubs and trying to test it for accuracy. This is setup in my garage with plenty of room to swing - I've had a net/blankets hung on a back wall for a couple of years now and don't think I suffer from an "indoor" swing, but based on some of the numbers I saw, I could be wrong about that. As far as direction, I only had one shot all night that I though was a misread - other than that they seemed to all be very understandable. I didn't have a total misread for about 45 minutes, then all of a sudden the misreads became consistent at about 1 in 20/25 shots or so - and it always literally seemed to be the best well struck shots. In fact, I called out the final 3 no reads of the session immediately after I hit them on the screws - 2 wedges and 1 driver. Very strange.

Readings - As I said, the direction was right on but the swing speed was not. I also have my own little swingspeed device that I have used for years and with it, my driver speed is between 98 and 102 consistently. My driver swingspeed last night on the Skytrak peaked at 95 with the most common read at 94. Noticed my iron speeds were down as well. I will use both together tonight to get a better handle on that.

Distance Accuracy - consistently short all night - not by a lot - but a fairly consistent pattern - used a brand new ball - a Titleist Velocity. After my first night, I'm not going to say it was the Skytrak not getting it right, so I'm going to have to make sure I take a very very close look at the height of the unit. I can say that it was dead level and if the height was off, it was not by much if at all - I took a good amount of time getting that strait right from the beginning because I know how important it is. I was just last week on an AboutGolf simulator and my average driving distance was about 251 total with a SS between 101-104 that day. I had a very difficult time getting the Skytrak to read anything above about 243 total - My average had to be in the high 230's last night. Ironically, I have an old Tommy Armor 12 deg 2 wood that I bought out of discount bin for $20 when Sports Authority went out of business years ago and fired that up on the Skytrak. I hit that longer than my driver on the Skytrak getting high 240's and a couple fo 253's. - which in real life never happens - I max that out at about 240 IRL - so I'm a little confused. Maybe I have to look at ball position a little more closely. I was pretty much putting the ball right on the dot and when I teed it up, I brought it a bit closer to the unit by about an inch or so. I know a couple of my wedge carry numbers and can hit those numbers fairly consistenly. Was coming up about 5-7 yards short of those carry numbers. Again - maybe it's ball position. Hit one 6 iron about 115 yards, so I think that was the worst read of the night - certainly the outlier. The vast majority of the numbers were right on if I just added a few yards to the carry numbers. One thing that I found out immediately was that my 7 iron is a strange fit in my bag. Only hit it a couple of yards further than my 8 iron and I find this IRL as well. I've never liked that 7i and now I like it even less.

In short, I think the unit is great and even if I have to adjust the numbers in my head a little as compared to real life, so be it - To be fair, it's my first time with the unit and it isn't fair to make a sweeping statement on distances until I really have put it through it's paces - Plus I swung for 3 strait hours - the body is certainly not used to that.

Looking forward to getting the simulation set up in the next couple of weeks and that is going to be fun.

[dagratest816]

just a quick comment, first of all good stuff on pulling the trigger on the skytrak its definitely a help for your game. I truly believe that. Second if you havent already or know already check your settings and your altitude of where you live (via google if you dont know the ft elevation already) and input that number in to altitude setting on the skytrak if you have that at zero you might notice a difference when you put in whatever altitude you live at and why some of the numbers mightve been lower than what you believe you get in real life. If that is already set accurately then take your skytrak to the range you can see how pretty close accurate it is in terms of distances there really well and that will confirm if you have "indoor swing" issues or not and just how to adjust to them when hitting at home. Hope that helps ya in some way and best of luck on your game going forward.