New Madcow's 4" Filament Wound V2

Thought it would be good to start a new thread for this one

Thanks for all the support on the 5.5" V2! The new 4" Madcow V2 prototype parts are in and we're building the prototype now. Same scale shapes as the 5.5" (3.2:1 on the nose and 4:1 on the tail). We're spinning up production and should have them available in a few weeks. I'll keep you all posted and try and post some pictures later today.

A 4" V2? Sounds fantastic. Do you have a weight on your prototype?

I am super happy with your 5.5" that I have with a 75mm motor mount and dual Deploy! Guess I will need to add the 4" as well!

Great job Mike. The 4" will be a great seller. I looks like we have a V2 war going here. So what's WM going to bring out now?

crossfire said:

Great job Mike. The 4" will be a great seller. I looks like we have a V2 war going here. So what's WM going to bring out now?

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Stop it Gary...

Anyway, what size motor mount will the 4" have?

chadrog said:

Stop it Gary...

Anyway, what size motor mount will the 4" have?

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54mm x 12" long.

botscott08 said:

A 4" V2? Sounds fantastic. Do you have a weight on your prototype?

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I'm going to have to figure out the final weight - if you all remember on the 5.5" last year, we had to dial in the alignment of the mandrel with the outside cut to get the wall just right. For the 4" prototype again we didn't worry too much about that so the aft end is more than 1/4" thick! I wish I had weighed the 5.5" prototype tail cone before it was built to compare with the production one, but the production complete built kit is about 2 lbs lighter than the prototype - this includes the much less lead in the nose to compensate for the heavy aft end. I'll weight it up as soon as it is built and keep you all posted.

As some of you know, this 4" guy has been in the planning stages since the beginning of the year, unfortunately too many distractions, but I'm glad it's finally getting built

On a final note - I hesitate to comment on the other topic, but I will just say one quick thing I want you all know our strategy is to respond to customers, not competitors. This has always been our strategy and always will be. It just makes good business sense to look forward and not backward. Please don't read into this more than it says - I have a lot of respect for all the vendors that contribute to our hobby and I consider all of them my friends.

Well said and well played, Mike. Might have to cave for another V-2. The autographed edition! LOL!

madcow said:

I want you all know our strategy is to respond to customers, not competitors. This has always been our strategy and always will be. It just makes good business sense to look forward and not backward. Please don't read into this more than it says - I have a lot of respect for all the vendors that contribute to our hobby and I consider all of them my friends.

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Well said! Kudos to Madcow.

Sorry all, meant to post this last night - here are the parts ready for assembly. Looks a lot like the 5.5", but much smaller I'll get some more photos of the assembly.

Looks to be another great kit from MC. Mike is the nose cone FW in white color? I do see the metal tip.

Sorry, bad lighting on that picture. Yes Filament Wound nose and tail just like the 5.5". Here is a close up of the tip - the NC is 3.2:1 Ogive.

We are starting to tint our parts white - helps give you a good base to paint on. Haven't been very consistent on doing white parts, but trying to be

madcow said:

View attachment 168080

Sorry, bad lighting on that picture. Yes Filament Wound nose and tail just like the 5.5". Here is a close up of the tip - the NC is 3.2:1 Ogive.

We are starting to tint our parts white - helps give you a good base to paint on. Haven't been very consistent on doing white parts, but trying to be

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Do you have a weight on those parts?

botscott08 said:

Do you have a weight on those parts?

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Finally weighed the parts - total all together including bulkplates, centering rings, eyebolts, motor tubes, etc came to 4 lbs 1 oz. This includes the thicker than normal tail cone which came to 14.5oz all by itself. The nose cone is 12.4oz with the metal tip so I'm guessing the normal tail cone will come in around 10oz. So if we're trying to guess final production weight - probably around 3 lbs 12 oz plus glue, nose weight and recovery. I'll get the nose weight next.

How about the 8" Monster V2!!! love my 5.5 I got from you and looking to fly it on April 26th or 27th...

madcow said:

Finally weighed the parts - total all together including bulkplates, centering rings, eyebolts, motor tubes, etc came to 4 lbs 1 oz. This includes the thicker than normal tail cone which came to 14.5oz all by itself. The nose cone is 12.4oz with the metal tip so I'm guessing the normal tail cone will come in around 10oz. So if we're trying to guess final production weight - probably around 3 lbs 12 oz plus glue, nose weight and recovery. I'll get the nose weight next.

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I was really hoping it could be made light enough to fly lpr.

botscott08 said:

I was really hoping it could be made light enough to fly lpr.

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It's a 4" Fiberglass rocket. I will guess loaded with a motor it will be near 7 pounds.

Area66 said:

It's a 4" Fiberglass rocket. I will guess loaded with a motor it will be near 7 pounds.

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Gerard, you hit it dead on!

Build is done and I was just doing some sim'ing to see how much nose weight to add. Built rocket is 4 lbs 8 oz all glued up. I built light, but added fillets inside and out in the fin can. With a 2g 54 in there (which looks to be the worst case balance motor), I need to add 16oz to the nose to get it to balance right which gets me to 7 lbs 8 oz. I'm figuring the prototype is about 5 oz heavy in the aft end compared to the production so I figure 2 oz lighted in the nose giving us 7 lbs 1 oz lift off weight on a 2g 54. (Actually need to add the chute also)

Here are some build pictures:

Area66 said:

It's a 4" Fiberglass rocket. I will guess loaded with a motor it will be near 7 pounds.

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Most of my rockets are carbon fiber. I guess I'm used to things being lighter. I have two 8" diameter 10'-12' rockets that come in under 30 lbs dry.

madcow said:

Gerard, you hit it dead on!

Build is done and I was just doing some sim'ing to see how much nose weight to add. Built rocket is 4 lbs 8 oz all glued up. I built light, but added fillets inside and out in the fin can. With a 2g 54 in there (which looks to be the worst case balance motor), I need to add 16oz to the nose to get it to balance right which gets me to 7 lbs 8 oz. I'm figuring the prototype is about 5 oz heavy in the aft end compared to the production so I figure 2 oz lighted in the nose giving us 7 lbs 1 oz lift off weight on a 2g 54. (Actually need to add the chute also)

Here are some build pictures:

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That looks great. When will they be available?

First flight went great yesterday even though we had big W. Had a long walk!
Flew on a J400T - 10 second delay was perfect at apogee.

Expecting to have first production units available end of this week.

Retail will be $179.95
We will do a limited qty intro price of $129.95
If you want to pre-order and make sure you snag one at this price, email me at [email protected] and we'll get you setup. Make sure you send your address so I can calculate shipping for your pre-order.

Thanks all!
Mike

Looks like a great kit at a super price! Got mine ordered. Can't wait to build and fly it!
Thanks again, Mike!

Does the FW nosecone lend itself to head-end dual deployment possibilities?

Viperfixr said:

Does the FW nosecone lend itself to head-end dual deployment possibilities?

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Several people have made the 5.5" version a dual deploy because the extended nose cone is basically a payload section and the coupler doesn't need to be glued into the nose cone. In other words the coupler could act as a removable altimeter bay between the nose cone and body tube. The 4" doesn't have as much of a nose cone extension as the 5.5" did, but looks very possible.

this looks really cool.

First batch shipped out today. Should have all of the pre-orders out in the next couple days. We still have a few left at the low intro price - they are up on the website. Thanks for all that got their pre-orders in!

Sigh... (logs into PayPal) needed to order some rail buttons anyway... now what to tell the wife. Honey look, I saved $50! (Gets "can't believe I married this guy" look). Seriously, really looks like a great kit and a fun flyer... can't wait.

Looking to getting one soon, What size chute do you recommend for it?

Anyone have a Rocksim file for this? Started my build today.

For anyone interested here are the actual component weights of my V2 parts.

Nosecone 10.8 oz
Nosecone coupler 4.3 oz
Nosecone bulk plate 1.2 oz
Eye-bolts, nuts and washers (2) 0.8 oz each
2" long coupler 2.3 oz
Body Tube 8.5 oz
Slotted tailcone 9.1 oz
54mm motor mount tube 6.3 oz
4" centering ring 0.8 oz
Aft centering ring 0.3 oz
4 fins x 3.4 oz = 13.6 oz
Nylon shock cord 2.3 oz
Rail Buttons, weld nuts, screws 0.2 oz

Total kit weight 3 lb, 13.0 oz