Demon 150

Erik and Dirk Gates had given me an AMW N4000BB as a thank you gift for helping them out at the X-Prize Cup back in 2006. At the time, I didn't have a rocket to put it in, and I stewed on it for over ten years waiting for the right opportunity. Cut to Balls 2019: we're going, I want to fly something big, and I finally had a rocket worth flying this motor... call it a Balls project! This was one of the motors originally intended for flight in Porthos II, and had a modified smoke grain for head-end ignition, so prior to the flight, I added a little epoxy and RTV to keep the fire where it was supposed to be. Prep was simple (even with heckling from the peanut gallery BOB :)) and I had it ready to go by mid-day Friday. Some light upper clouds had blown in prior to launch, but that's what my new Featherweight GPS in the nose cone was for, right? Tim helped me get it loaded up, Charlie was on the mic, and before I knew it the rocket was away at an incredible clip on a huge purple tail. This was a REALLY GOOD COMBO. The rocket was invisible against the clouds, but after a while the GPS started reporting a nominal descent rate, so I let out a shout of success. Robin Meredith high-fived me and then it was off to find it. The GPS led us straight to it laying just past the first row of mud hills to the southeast. Thanks to Andrew, Tim, and dad for recovery help!

Despite my best efforts, things didn't get finished up on my Demon 150 until the Friday night before the drag race (yes, that's two days in to the launch already). Once construction was complete, I built my motor while Tim helped me finalize the avionics bay. I also mixed up some thermite for everyone to use so we could be sure we'd get a great liftoff shot. Then, we had to set up pads waaaaay out in the field to meet the intent of the new Tripoli drag race rules. As the sun was beginning to set on Saturday evening, the hour of the race had arrived, and we loaded everything into trucks for the drive to the away cell. After appropriate amounts of heckling and ribbing, it was the moment of truth. At zero, four rockets left the ground simultaneously (the others were held up by electrical problems), mine among the bunch. Two of the Ms suffered catos towards the end of the burn, but mine was flying hot, straight, and normal, and at shutdown coasted silently into the darkening skies. We saw one descending into the orchard next door, but mine was downrange with the other three. After a few minutes with the tracker and Tim's quad, I located my parachute sitting atop a breezy field of wheat. I wrestled the chute out, followed by the nose cone, and then finally the booster. Everything looked great, though post-flight disassembly found a small bulge at the head end of the motor case—close, but no cigar. Instead, I returned to the launch site for a celebratory margarita and tacos. A great first flight!