Brief:
This is an UPSCALE of the famous Fliskits Deuce's Wild. Dual 24mm motor mounts, 22in 'chute.

Construction:
For the components, I used a 2 inch mailing tube, cut to a length of 23 inches. I had a beautiful custom Nose Cone turned for me by Gordon Agnello, and all I can say is WOW! I used standard Estes-style tubing for the motor mounts. My friend, Eugene, made me a set of upscale centering rings, along with a set of plywood fins.

After my friend Eugene and I spent an entire day making the parts for this thing, I returned home to start construction. The first thing that I did was take the nose cone that was turned by Mr. Agnello and spread some finishing epoxy over it to give it a nice finish. I then sanded that first coat down, and applied another coat of finishing epoxy. I don't know what happened, but after the epoxy dried, One area, approximately two inches long by one-half inch wide was "gooey" it would not sand very well at all. To counter this, I covered the NC in Fill n' Finish, then sanded it down. Not as glossy a coating as the epoxy, but decent nontheless.

On to the tube. The first thing that I did was take the upscale marking guide, graciously sent to me by Jim Flis, and mark out the fin lines and the places for the motor mount tubes. I cut the motor mount tubes out, then applied Fill N' Finish to the DEEP spiral the tube had. By deep, I mean run your fingernail down it and you hear a definate CLICK sound! One thing I learned in the process of sanding the tube down, is that there are an awful lot of "fuzzies" that start coming up, making the tube look pretty bad. My recommendation to to do something to make them go away, my thought was to fiberglass the tube. This will add some strength that I think the tube really needs!

On to the motor mount. I basically did the EXACT same thing that is done in the instructions of the original. I glued the motor spacer to the side of one of the tubes, then glued the other tube on. I then glued the bottomost centering ring on. The two pieces of the top centering ring did not fit at all, so I glued together two small pieces of balsa strip together, times two, then glued those into the small area at the top between the two motor tubes. I need to mention here that I "tacked" the motor mount together with wood glue, then reinforced it with epoxy. I had to trim the motor mount holes in the body tube so that they would fit properly. I also installed motor blocks.

On to the fins. The fins were cut out of 1/8th inch, 5-ply birch plywood. Eugene and I also made an extra set of fins and rings so he can make his own upscale, I also provided him with the tube. Anyway, I sanded a total of 24 (!!!) edges. I did not airfoil the fins or anything, but I do have the edges sharpened. I then "tacked" the fins on with wood glue, in a rush to build the rocket. I had no intention of keeping the wood glue joint, since I will fly the rocket on a pair of Aerotech F21-8 motors soon. I attached a pair of 3/16ths inch launch lugs to complete the model.

Flight:
I attached a 1/4th inch by about 5 feet elastic/cloth shock cord with a tri-fold mount. I used an Aerotech 22 inch yellow Nylon chute.

I flew the rocket at the Tampa-Hillsborough Organization of Rocketry's May launch. The first flight was on a pair of Estes D12-5's. The rocket went straight up, with a little twist near the end of the burn. The rocket went to a altitude of approximately 700 feet. The yellow chute deployed perfectly, and you could definately see the different wind currents and directions as it came down! First it headed east, then got a gust to the north, then straight down a little, almost in a tree, then another gust north, and it landed perfectly about 100 feet north of the tree. Since it was such a successful/perfect flight, I decided to fly her again, for another beautiful flight, almost an exact clone of the first. This last flight proved to be it's undoing. The rocket landed on it's fins, bending the glue joints so they were too weak to have it fly again.

Why RSO's rarely let Jim Flis fly the little Deuce, I'll never know!

Summary:

PROS:

• Turns in PERFECT straight flights every time.
• Pretty easy construction.

CONS:

• I used a bad tube.

Other:

Build it like you mean it, and you'll be greatly rewarded!