Demon 98

Continuing the ever-present battle to clear out the motor box, this one was left over from my days in Indiana! Neil was on LCO, I was on camera, dad was on video, and the Demon turned in a great performance on the 6 grain load. I lost track of it at burnout, but the tracker confirmed it was to the south, and eventually we saw it pop the main and land near where the Anaconda had come down a few hours earlier. The only downside was I got the case stuck when taking it out of the rocket, and I broke a fin trying to get it apart. (Stupid plastic tailcone.) That turned out OK though—I fired up the CNC at Tim's and cut four new fins to go with a new boattail... the Demon will return soon, better than ever!

For my last flight of the day, I had loaded up a classic 54mm 4 grain reload. This propellant was leftover from a research project I had planned at Purdue but never got around to. The rocket jumped off the pad nice and straight on the characteristic light orange plume with light white smoke; apogee was visible, and the main deployed about a half mile to the west. I called the FAA and closed the waiver once it landed; a nice flight to end the day!

For my second flight, I cleaned out the rest of the blue reloads with a 5 grain 54mm version. Jacob had just punched his Rogue to 11,000' and change with a 6GXL L990 blue and landed behind the mysterious compound to the north; my Demon took off on the 5g blue and headed the exact same direction! Luckily, I didn't go as high as the Rogue, so I landed on the lakebed; Jacob and his dad got it back for me while I helped the kids get their high power flights in the air. Thanks, dude!

My flight plan for this launch consisted of burning up a bunch of leftover 54mm motors in my Demon. Jacob was already set up when I arrived, so I quickly dropped the Wilson system out and got my rocket on the pad. Juliett and David arrived shortly after, and we sat around for a few minutes wondering where the kids were. A quick phone call to the "man with van" revealed they had stopped at Starbucks. We had tons of high power stuff to fly, so I went ahead and flew. The three-grain J motor lit right up and had no troubles gently lofting the rocket into the calm blue sky with a nice clean shutdown. The coast to apogee was silent, and drogue deployment was audible and visible. The rocket descended right in front of us and popped the main about 100 yards behind the pad. Gorgeous flight.

I had pre-prepped the Demon for this flight, but hadn't chosen a motor yet, figuring I'd make a last-minute selection based on conditions. When I started building the K550, it was calm, but by the time I got to the pad the winds were a solid 15 mph. With all-fiberglass construction, I figured it wouldn't be a problem, and the classic 54mm reload did not disappoint. The Demon vaulted from the pad on a gorgeous plume of fire and weathercocked a few degrees into the wind before tearing off into the sky. Drogue deployment was visible, as was the main way off in the distance. I tracked it across 247, past BAR a mile away, and ultimately found it about two miles from the site wedged in a ditch; that was the only thing keeping it from going further! The fillets had some cosmetic cracking in them, probably from the plastic boattail flexing as it was repeatedly smashed into the playa by the chute.

The Demon is a nice rocket to ship, since its fin can structure is entirely independent of the main airframe. So when Wildman's offered a drag race special for 4" Demons, I couldn't say no. I had built mine using PEM nuts in the fin can for easy disassembly, so it was inexpensive to ship back to Illinois for the race; I spent Friday night in the Wildman shop assembling the bird and getting it prepped for the race. Thanks to the travel-ready construction, the bird ended up relatively light, and I was one of the first off the pad, going arrow straight into the calm Kasbeer skies. Drogue deployment was confirmed via tracker, and the main appeared on cue at 700'. Roger gave me a lift out to the landing site on his quad, and I was back in record time. I got second place in the race, and a great first flight on this new bird.