Madcow Frenzy

My wife loves me! She got me a Frenzy with altimeter upgrade for Christmas! Can't wait to get started on it.

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What a great wife!! Mine got me a Binder Design JackHammer.

I've also got a Frenzy in a box in my build pile, I figure I'll get to it around March or so. Post some pictures of your build!

davdue said:

My wife loves me! She got me a Frenzy with altimeter upgrade for Christmas! Can't wait to get started on it.

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Merry Christmas to you! The Frenzy is a great-looking rocket. I have been working on mine for over a year and hoping to launch her soon. Build thread here.

I love the frenzy. You have a great wife. Any wife's that no only puts up with the hobby but enables it is awesome.

I received a large box in the mail as well. It was one of my Madcow black Friday purchases.

Of course I opened it to make sure all was well and today I get to open the bag!!!

Merry Christmas all. Having a Frenzy time here, too!

Didn't get one for xmas, but I did get a Frenzy XL kit from a member a few months back. I'm collecting the items I need for it and making sure it will be ready for my L3 attempt.

She supports my hobby fully. Doesn't go to any launches but she lets me go. Of course she has a '71 Mustang drag car for her hobby. We do that together. She told me that she expected it done by they end of the week. I told her not much chance of that. Especially since it is going to be in the 20's most of the week here. I believe she bought it on Black Friday. This is my first L2 HPR kit. I won a PML Phobos at AirFest but haven't flown it yet. My others have been scratch builds. It is going to be nice to build something as complete as the MadCow Frenzy. Here is a pic of the drag car.

Finally got some time to work on it this week. I never trust the eye bolts so I drilled a second hole in the top centering ring and will use a u-bolt instead. I also glued the sled together since I had some west systems left over from the motor mount.

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Building motor mounts is my favorite part of the build.

Agreed on using u-bolts in place of the wire eye bolt although I do use forged closed eye bolts on occasion.

I'm curious to see how you finish off your Madcow Av-Bay as I'm not convinced permanently gluing the payload bay onto the av-bay is the most efficient way to do it. Seems to me if you can remove the av-bay completely from the airframe it makes attaching the main deployment charge a lot easier.

Here is the obligatory test fit. Motor tube assembly is epoxied in. I am ready to start the fins but.... I want internal fillets. How should I do them. I was thinking about just putting a lot of epoxy on the motor tube through the BT slots with a syringe or should I tack them on with CA and then drill holes and inject the fillets?

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That nose looks interesting. Is that a typical ogive shape or something else? That photo makes it look a little different...

o1d_dude said:

I'm curious to see how you finish off your Madcow Av-Bay as I'm not convinced permanently gluing the payload bay onto the av-bay is the most efficient way to do it. Seems to me if you can remove the av-bay completely from the airframe it makes attaching the main deployment charge a lot easier.

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I glued it in, only because the 4" tube is big enough for me to reach my arm down there to seat the removeable top bulkhead. The top bulkhead has the all thread and a terminal block. Attach main charge to the terminal block. Lower the top bulkhead assembly into the payload tube from the nose-cone end. Seat the bulkhead to the coupler tube. Insert sled from the aft end and close with aft bulkhead. Tighten wingnuts. Not too bad and no external screws/rivets to deal with.

davdue said:

Here is the obligatory test fit. Motor tube assembly is epoxied in. I am ready to start the fins but.... I want internal fillets. How should I do them. I was thinking about just putting a lot of epoxy on the motor tube through the BT slots with a syringe or should I tack them on with CA and then drill holes and inject the fillets?

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Click to expand...

See my build thread here

I struggled with the idea of internal fillets, also. Thought about foam. In the end, I managed to pour some modest fillets using a long straw. Looking back, no internal re-inforcing is probably needed, as the instructions suggest. Just a heavy bead of glue on the root edge is probably enough for these super-beefy TWT fins.

I'll be curious to see your finished mass and if you think nose weight is needed. The instructions say yes, I say no. But, I haven't flown the thing yet!

Enjoy the build.

I did my level 2 cert with my frenzy....great rocket and flies straight and true every flight....have flown my 3 times on J motors....this up coming season gonna push it to K or L .

Leon Smith
Level 2 TRP 13636

Agree with yor postings guys! With exception of minor problems with the mega cowabunga nose cones...madcow products are absolutely top quality..the most impressive for me was the massive Frenzy ...and Mike's communication, one of the best from all US vendors. I will continue buying from him..just need to finish the pile ...

I got the aft fins epoxied on this afternoon. I decided to just put a bunch of West Systems thickened with colloidal silica on the motor tube rather than trying to inject internal fillets with a syringe. I used a scrap piece of wood to reach in the slot and apply the epoxy to the motor tube. I also made a fin alignment jig on foam core. I made it using the tool here: https://www.payloadbay.com/index.php?page=Tools&action=FINGUIDES and the glued it to the foam core with stick glue. Worked great! Hopefully will have time to get the forward fins on tomorrow or Tuesday before I have to go back to work on Wednesday. Not sure how I will make sure they are aligned with the aft fins. I was thinking about doing one first and using a piece of angle iron clamped across them. But, that will add an extra day. Maybe I can do that as well as the fin template. We'll see. Any suggestions?

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Wow I really like building kits. They are really easy and much faster. However I am still glad I scratch built both of my cert rockets.

Got the forward fins attached this morning. I used the fin template and some straight pieces of metal with clamps to make sure the are aligned with the aft fins. Maybe I can start the fillets tomorrow.

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Another pic

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Ready to put the external fillets on but I have a question first. At what speed should I think about doing T2T fiberglass on these fins? With a K550 OR shows it hitting Mach 1. I have never done any fiberglass work. I want this rocket to last and be a workhorse for about any 54mm motor I can stuff in it. But I also would like to fly it on an I once in a while to keep the cost down. It will always be flown DD and eventually I want to get a BRB900 too.

View attachment frenzy.ork

I finally got this rocket done. Didn't have any time to work on it until about a month ago. I flew it at AirFest on a AT J415. It went to 4452' I had onboard video but for some reason it didn't work so all I have are the pictures I took with my camera. I want to get the Stratologger data downloaded and see how fast it went as well.

View attachment Hornet AirFest 19 J415W 090213.pf2

Did you glass the fins? I have this kit unpackaged for my next build. Right after my son and I finish the 2.6" PAC-3 that is. Not sure I want to send it up much higher than you did though.

No I didn't glass anything. I did put internal and external fillets on it with West Systems and Colloidal Silica. The data shows it hit a little below 900 ft/s. OR says a max of 953 ft/s. Not sure if I want to put a K550 in this rocket or not. That will take to mach 1 per OR. Maybe one day after I have had a few flights with it I might give it a try. To new right now to take a chance shredding it.