Home
Club Info Ideas & Builds Downloads Newbie Calendar Interclub Series |
Spinner Research and Development
1 October 2017 Stephane and Leon are pushing forward in the seek of the optimal spinner for our e-gliders. With better conformance to our fuselage shape, offset blade holders to minimize drag while gliding and improved ventilation for motors, we hope to see this beauty on our models in 2018. Leon has started rapid prototyping the first parts based on requirements set by Stephane. This is looking good, very good!!! ...
A new oKuDa is in the air!
September 2017 Michel has finished off and successfully maidened his oKuDa. A very classy, integrally white livery, for the latest creation at MATS, as much as the very well known Winbledon etiquette would require!!! Back to serious: Michel is very happy with the model: the setup has turned out good immediately, with the glider going up at a straight 45 degrees off the bat. Wingtips are very light so that it signals thermals very well. I am very glad that our latest owner is an happy one! Long life to the oKuDa fleet and its capable builders!!! ...
Learn about batteries
24 August 2017 If you are new to electric flying you want to have a look to the Battery University website. There is a lot of good information and precise tips for getting the best out of your beloved batteries. We have noticed lately that handling LiPo could be tricky: some batteries last long while some get "puffed" and degrade rather quickly. Have a read to this article about Lithium batteries to solve the issue. ...
MATS ALES event #1
29 July 2017 The weather has finally granted us a sunny day so that we could fly our ALES machines at Les Coteaux field. Pilots from Ottawa and Lacolle showed up for a very nice competition. Thermals were abundant and a lot of full time flights were accomplished. The level is rather high and the podium is decided within a handful of points. Aren't those new polos beautiful?!?!? ...
News from the Flying Field
5 June 2017 The sod farm has started cultivating Organic crops. Please stay away from the fields marked with a sign like this one. We have been asked not to park in the proximity of these fields to avoid contaminating the crops so, in addition to the usual rule of not walking on freshly seeded sod, be vigilant for these new signs. ...
The seek of purity
29 May 2017 If you appreciate simplicity you simply cannot fall in love with these "Balsetta's". 9.5gr ready to fly, hand toss or elastic catapult. Hopefully the weather will give us a break and allow for a calm day so that we can play with these. ...
Pures at the field
11 May 2017 Jacques' and Steve's models at the field. At 460gr RTF, the models fly well even in decent wind. ...
Time to fly the mighty lights!
16 April 2017 Jacques' model is ready to fly and off he went to Ile Perrot for a few tosses. The new 2M glider handles the wing amazingly well, considering such a low wing loading. ...
2M RES Gliders
23 March 2017 Intrigued by the new European 2M RES Glider class, Jacques and Steve are exploring the concept. The weight is expected to stay around 150gr including servos, Rx, batt. and the f/glass covering. A first fuselage has been built and the plans for laser cut production are on their way. The tail feathers will add 15g or so. Geometry has settled to 17" span, 3.5" root, 2.25" tip, 3/16" balsa sanded to 0.18" centre and 0.11" tips to prepare for the final shaping to HT12. Jacques has been working on the wing and laser cut a full kit of ribs. The wing is expected to stay under the 200gr mark. ...
Apogee maiden - Winter flight!
19 March 2017 Duc and Jacques have brought out the Apogee for the first time. Plenty of snow on the ground but a great sunny day for a maiden. Eventually the little things with the new very little radios fly well!!! ...
Stephane winter works
December 2016 Stephane is making custom ballasts for his gliders. Here's a series of self-explanatory pictures on how he did it: And he is covering all the wings that Jacques has sanded for all of us. Great teamwork guys!!! ...
The race for mini DLG is on!
November 2016 Jacques and Steve are designing and building mini DLG's this winter. Jacques has taken inspiration from the Apogee. The wing planform has been straightened and the build is solid balsa. In order to achieve the contour precisely, a set of sanding jigs and leading edge templates have been laser cut. A first rendition of the fuselage is there too: this is a rather sturdy airframe. Jacques reckons he can save 10 gr building the fuselage slightly differently. As it stands now, the airframe weights 94 gr, onto which one should add 34 gr of radio gear for an AUW of 128 gr. Meanwhile, Steve takes inspiration from the Mimi. The wing uses Drela's airfoils with the AG03 at the root evolving towards the AG011 at the tip. The glider (empty) weights 104g at 40" wingspan. Tail feathers hinges are made out of sylicone, and the wing is covered with Rip-Stop using a new product which is water based and doesn't smell during application (yes!). Steve can go around compound curvature very well with these materials. The model is fitted with a 8gr receiver, 2x 8gr servos and a 2S LiPo for another 15g. He expects flying at approx 140g...not bad! ...
What does a MATS member do in a museum in Nova Scotia?
7 September 2016 He finds the RC model that crossed the atlantic. And he also finds out that, although crossing an ocean with an RC model sounds like a huge endeavour, simplicity is the better engineering solution! In his own words: Maynard Hill's Trans Atlantic Model (TAM) has only one aileron (!) and a small elevator... the photo doesn't show it well but the tail moment is quite long ...it doesn't seem to have a moveable rudder (?). Span is about 2m and construction is conventional balsa/ply ...not too hi-tech...the motor is 4 stroke and must be pretty reliable... they don't say anything about guidance but I know it is satellite GPS...I read somewhere he lost a few models on the first attempts to cross the Atlantic... ...one dove in right away...others just never showed up on the other side A remarkable feat for an unremarkable looking airplane. ...
Lacolle International 2016
August 2016 A very nice first 2 days event organized by Les Arpents V'lair. Kudos to Fabien for having attracted the interest of local competitors as well as of from Motreal, Ottawa and the USA. The weather was with us big time on the first day greeting us with blue sky and great thermals. Fabien's better half working at the scoring. The organization was flawless! ...
A "Peanut" on the tarmac
25 July 2016 Another "chef d'oeuvre" from Steve: Wingspan: 13" Weight w/o rubber: 11g ...
Tony maidens his new full house glider
17 July 2016 Tony has made the first flight with his brand new Grafas Maxi. Looking good mate!! ...
Little, very little models
26 May 2016 MATS doesn't put together only big composite gliders. Steve also indulges in little models like these. I let him talk about them: "When I started building the first Little Wing I got fed up with the fuselage structure and made a 1/16" sheet balsa fuselage (box)...very strong, much simpler and maybe one gram heavier. Anyway, that one flew away (!) so I completed the other fuselage by adding all the cross bracing and diagonals (1/16" X 1/16"). It took some time but the resulting structure is amazingly rigid. The model weighs 12g at this point....propeller included." ...
Lighthouse oKuDa
8 June 2016 Steve has finished the paint job on his oKuDa and the scheme looks like a lighthouse. Of course, it didn't take long for the nickname to stick to it. Have a look! ...
Paul and his BD at the field
23 May 2016 Paul has finished his first build, and he took on a whole challenge. Building a BD from scratch is not for the faint-hearted. He did a superb job and he's now a happy flyer of this excellent beast. Have a look!!! ...
oKuDa Squad - First outing!!!
22 May 2016 The current squad is at the field for the first flights of the year. The whole family looks great. ...
Steve's RDS - Jigs are ready
13 April 2016 Steve have put together a jig to accurately locate the servo pockets, ensuring the right angle for the RDS shaft. ...
Stephane's RDS - Build progress
12 April 2016 Stephane is producing RDS parts and he's almost finished installing the first set into his wing. ...
Stephane's oKuDa - Build progress
6 April 2016 Stephane is making good process on his build. The central panel is out of the bag without a defect. Tips are getting sanded to shape (using a little help from technology), and servo installation is well underway with rds pockets installed and servo holding blocks being refined. ...
oKuDa Tips bagged
7 February 2016 Plant 1 (namely chez Jacques) is cranking out oKuDa tips lie a cookie cutter. The finish is definitely impressive. Weight is down to little more than 8oz, which is accurately repeated for each part. We are very pleased with these. ...
First oKuDa wing assembled and second central panel ready for bagging
4 February 2016 The first wing has been assembled and the fit is excellent. A few hours of sanding leading edges and tips shape and this is one is ready for servo installation. In parallel Jacques and Duc have finalized the second central panel with all the reinforcements in place, and it's ready for bagging. ...
First central panel out of the bag but there is a bump. Oups!
13 January 2016 The first central panel for Jacques' oKuDa is out of the bag. The lower surface is pristine. Unfortunately the upper surface has a bump. The picture shows the panel before removing the mylar so it really looks better than it is, but we have to figure out what happened before the next one goes for curing. The next panel is almost ready for bagging already: just missing a little sanding here and there and few kevlar reinforcements. And in the meantime Steve is busy preparing the stack-ups to cure the central panel spars with the right dihedral angle. ...
RDS Servo spacers
11 January 2016 JP has been producing spacers for the servo installation of our RDS system. The plan calls for a 6 degrees pitch, so after taking the volume left between the skin and the servo face, he fed it into the 3D printer and got a precise spacer for us. ...
RDS Stainless steel version
12 December 2015 Stephane has been working on the pre-production parts of the stainless steel parts for RDS. Immaculate parts, and with the 3D printed holders they look very neat! ...
oKuDa Production Update
December 2015 Our Plant 2 (namely Steve's cave) reports on construction progress of multiple parts for the new coming oKuDa's. First, the spar held firmly in the jig with the bolt beam locked in position as the epoxy cures, then ONLY built-up Hstab (all subsequent Hstabs will be foam) which, once covered weights only 32 grams, and a Vstab ready for bagging (thanx to the collaboration of Michel Howarth). ...
RDS 3D printed parts
29 November 2015 JP has been working around parts for our new RDS system using 3D printing. The results are encouraging! ...
The origins of MATS
24 November 2015 During the AGM it has been decided to publish online two original numbers of Flight Line the newsletter that MATS used to share within its members before the internet came along. In these you will find the very beginning of the club, the founding members and their activities 40 years ago! ...
Built-Up HSTAB for oKuDa
22 November 2015 Less than 20gr and plenty strong. It seems that no matter how we build these they come out always at around this weight. Bagged foam seem to be a bit tougher, but all in all it boils down to personal preference! ...
oKuDa build has began
26 October 2015 First vacuum bagging for spar caps is underway for the nez oKuDa project. At the same time all components of the Spar for the central panel have been bonded together and the fit tested before mass production. Everything works as planned. ...
Steve's first RDS Jig & Prototype
20 October 2015 First results form experimentation about RDS drive shafts. Cheap, simple and effective. ...
Last event at ORCC
September 2015 Beautiful weather; great but technical conditions; lots of good friends: clearly it is time for a break!!! ...
Wing cover
4 September 2015 I know, it is not an actual build, but covering this well deserves a mention. It is very difficult to do such a neat job. Kudos to Steve! ...
New gliders getting ready for the season
August 2015 Steve's and Roland's new gliders are ready to fy!!! ...
Another Cloud session for Roland
Many times during the summer Can you find his pulsar?!?!?! ...
ALES at Isabel & Ray's field
11-12 July 2015 Two great days of flying at Isabel & Ray. Luca ends up on the higher step of the podium! ...
40th anniversary of MATS
5 July 2015 MATS has organized a fun barbecue-all you can fly event at the field. Michel has taken some great pictures. As you can see we had a little ALES event, got all kinds of gliders, airplanes and FPV flying. We had great weather too. . . what more can one ask? ...
Serious training at the field
27 June 2015 the ALES practice took place this morning between Duc, Jacques, Roland and Luca. We had landing tapes and speaker to run 8 rounds in variable weather. At time cloudy and gusty but relatively active in terms of thermals. The winner is Roland with 6669.21 points, followed by Duc at 5660.82, Jacques at 4932.86 and Luca (with 5 zeros out of 8 flights...blurk!) at 4146.53 points. The winner is Roland with 6669.21 points, followed by Duc at 5660.82, Jacques at 4932.86 and Luca (with 5 zeros out of 8 flights...blurk!) at 4146.53 points. Luca and Roland put in another 18 rounds plus a few casual flights every now and then, totalling more a good 3 hours of actual flight. The conditions were stable until 4pm then the wind shifted a bit and thermals became weaker and more scattered. Many flights were maxed at around 6-7 minutes. By the time we left, around 6pm, a 10 minutes flight was to me impossible to achieve. Roland outclimbed me and outflew me regularly, but I was more constant on my landings hitting the 40+ mark more often. Both managed 2 zeros for out of bounds landing...we have to improve on this one substantially. At the end Luca collects 15151.37 points vs Roland with 14982.93 points. The day was good fun and a precious learning experience. We will certainly try again the event!!! ...
Sessions at the field
June 2015 Michel has maddened his glider with a brand new high start. Roland and Luca flying their machines. ...
Flying into the clouds
15 June 2015 Roland cannot wait for flying: thunderstorm are no problem at all for him!!! His glider is actually in the air: look at the left upper corner of the photo! ...
Flying at JC field
10 May 2015 JC has invited us to go flying at his field for an ALES event. Here some pics: ...
2015 Season Warm-Up
2 May 2015 Season 2015 has started with the traditional Warm-Up event at MATS. Weather has been very benign to us and granted a good blend of delicate winds with strong thermals and a few gusty moments with more technical conditions. Pilots have come in from clubs all around Montreal like ORCC, C2VM, Les ailerons. There was a total of 16 pilots including a young fellow who participated to a competition for the first time. He flew with a Radian and did a rather good job with it. Way to go Peter!!! Here we are before the dance begun: A few pictures of the machines of the day, from left to right: Rob surrounded by Bernard, Etienne and Aurele mouldies; Jacques' new home brews and Isabel's Aspire, followed by Steve's hybrid Supra, Luca's BD, Duc's Omerta together with Roland's hybrid (with a Stephen Barry signed H-Stab) and Peter's Radian, and, last but not least, the ORCC Aspire fleet and Paul's Gracia. Conditions have been very good with strong thermals during the morning granting numerous full 10 minutes flights to the competitors. After lunch the sky turned a bit gusty such that making the time proved much more difficult. Let me now take the time for a little celebration here. "First"'s are always memorable, but for a pilot the first 1000 after an impeccable thermal flight must top the list. Especially if the pilot started RC modelling only the year before! So here we go with the last seconds of the first 1000 of Roland! The day went by fast, in a great ambiance and after 6 rounds the ranking was: 1st - Brian with 5104.73 points - 2nd Steve with 4955.53 points - 3rd Etienne with 4746.72 points ...
New Articles in New Ideas & Builds section
17 January 2015 Our collection of builds and tutorials is growing thanks to JP who is putting down on paper his experiences with Electric Models. You can find the old material and the new additions in the now called Ideas & Builds section. The first two articles that we publish are: Connecteurs 101 and Foam Board 101. A third one is already in the pipeline and it is all about: Propellers. We'll keep you posted! ...
QuadCopter and FPV at the field
1 September 2014 Stephane has been flying his QuadCopter and with the help of Roland, he put on his FPV goggles and enjoy the views!!! ...
New pictures of the ORCC Manotick ALES event!!!
June 2014 We just received a set of pictures made back in june at Manotick Station during the Polecat Warm-Up competition held by ORCC. The pictures are really nice so click here and enjoy !!!! ...
New pictures & Videos from PoleCat 2k14!!!
June 2014 Pascal, from C2VM has put together a nice video of the event, have a look !!! Another set of pictures of the event here !!! ...
Congratulations to Vincent for his very first flight!!!
23 June 2014 Vincent has co-designed with his dad the model, using sheets of hi-load foam for the fuselage and foam cores for the tips of an Omerta glider. A little brushless motor and a 2.5" diameter prop put him in the air. Welcome to RC Vincent!!!!!! ...
Polecat ALES 2014
13-15 June 2014 It's already time to go south and try to grab the Polecat ALES Trophy for 2014! The team from Montreal this year was composed by Jacques, Stephane, Luca, Etienne and Pascal. "Danger Dan" could not join us. Very unfortunately because, I am sure, he would have entered the Fly-Offs this year. Our friends from Gatineau and Ottawa were also there, making up for a huge Team Canada. And here we are: from left to right: Luca, Brian, Pascal, Rob, Dany, Stephane, Jacques, Gudmund, Isabel, Ray, Jean-Claude, Etienne. Attendance was important keeping the flight line busy for 10 rounds for the full two days! The trip has been, as traditionally, quite a thing: we left Montreal on the Thursday and hit heavy thunderstorms all along the path. The weather cast was positive for the week end though, so we were confident that we would not drive 9 hours in a row for no reason! We discovered later on first hand that the field had been transformed in a lake by the heavy rains, and the sky stayed scarily covered by cloud on friday and saturday, while typical local blue sky and little winds would have shined on us on the following sunday. Friday was practice day and we went to the field to do the final pre-competition checks. This year our models were reliable and flew well without major setbacks during the competition. The only exceptions were two tail servos that did not function properly. The first one was Luca's rudder on the eBD. Without any apparent reasons the model yanked violently to the left and spinned the model out of the sky. The soil was so soaked with water that after the impact the whole prop-spinner-motor-fuselage was full of mud. The lake in front of the pilots gazebos was very handy in cleaning up the mess! Jacques had the same kind of issues with his rudder all over the place right before the first flight on saturday. Stephane fixed the problem with martial dexterity: he took the rudder and cranked back to neutral at a few seconds from the start of the round. We changed the servo right after that flight. Bernard had a problem with his Aspire and smashed it down to pieces right after one launch. Unfortunately his model was a write-off. He kept flying with Dany's Tango for the rest of the competition. A wide variety of models was on the field: everything from Homebrews to high-end Mouldies, passing through RTFs and Foamies. Here's a selection of the models we could see during the week end with a little preference to Homebrews of course!!! A very well built Mantis. All kevlar wings and fuselage with carbon reinforcements "where needed". Both thumbs-up! Three mouldies that impressed me. Aspires were no surprise: the built was, as usual, impeccable, and the use of disser for the wing skins made them rather light. The Cluster was new to me, and if I got this right, it seems that an Eastern European company has acquired the moulds of the good old Tragi and sell it now renamed as Cluster. But the point is: these models were flown very well and in a few occasions circled at less than 30' from the ground like a DLG. Their pilots did a great job on that. Last note: the orange model clearly went through a serious crash but if it wasn't for the paint scheme disrupted by primed repair regions, you could not tell. Whoever repaired that machine masters composite construction perfectly well... oh yeah!!! The model that attracted our attention the most was this full composite, home made, Bubble Dancer derivative. First of all it was very well built, and the technique used was simple yet effective. The model and its pilot attracted attention since friday: the model was used intensively in landing practice and the precision of the manoeuvres and the effectiveness of its flaps were evident. During the competition then, the pilot went downwind on a launch spiralling the machine while the engine was still running, putting the model in the core of a thermal for a perfect time and hitting the landing with outstanding precision at the end of it. Since that flight I observed the model and was impressed by overall agility and control. The wing features a strip of carbon 8020 as spar cap (each side). The middle section has a balsa vertical grain web that carries the joiner tube. Skins are made out of 3/4 oz per square yard glass cloth, draped at 45 degrees; 3 layers for the central section, 2 for the middle one, 1 for the tip. Each wing is bagged as a single straight piece, then the upper skin is cut, the foam removed accordingly to the dihedral and bent to final shape. A little strip of carbon for the spar, and glass for the skin, reinforce the joint on the upper skin only. Light, simple and quick to build...sounds like a plan!!! V-Tail feathers are mounted on the boom via two pins and kept in place with tape. Can't be simpler than that! Also note that the boom on this model is of the size we use on our Omerta. I believe that this extra stiffness is one of the reasons the model was so precise even though it was a RES ship. Saturday greated the whole team with very good flights, camaraderie and remarkable team work. We consistently coached and timed each other pushing everybody to get the best possible result out of each pilot/machine duo. And all that effort gave good results. We finished the day dreaming of the next day! Oh well, of course, after all those efforts we enjoyed a little aperitif, I know, I know, but I always dreamt of a drink in one of those brown bags like in the movies!!!!!! Sunday was characterized by a completely different sky. Bad weather left the field and the surrounding area and blue sky smiled at us the whole day. Despite this, the morning thermals were weak and not well defined and a few pilots were left mocked by the conditions. Our Canadian fellows felt less comfortable than the days before, which were much closer to our northern windy typical days! Only four rounds were run on Sunday. When the day was called-off we all started packing our stuff. Only then Jacques came back from the CD tent saying that we were in the Fly-Offs. Seriously? What? Impossible! And yet, the very good performance of the day before paid-off and Stephane, Luca, Pascal and Gudmund were indeed called to prepare for the three final rounds. The Fly-Offs The CD instructed the finalists to change the CAM setup so that maximum height was set to 100m. We didn't expect of being in the Fly-Offs, nevermind re-programming the CAM!!! We ran to our boxes, re-assembled the models, some of which were already packed in the car, and learnt how to program the CAM. In a matter of a few minutes we were on the start line, ready to fly. What a rush! So here we are: in front of my eBD, Stephane who's going to be timed by Jacques, while Paul is going to be my helper for the Fly-Offs. Behind me Pascal and Etienne. Way back there you can see Gudmund. Go Team Canada! GO! Five minutes to the first launch. The air slows down and warms-up. Feels good. We are very close to a thermal. I hope I could fly now that I know where it is but the five minutes seem to last forever. When the horn goes-off the air is cold and the wind has picked-up. So far the cycle has lasted more or less 15-20 minutes. There must be a thermal far upwind. I bet on that. Twenty seconds level at full power, then ten up. The CAM cuts-off at 100 meters. Oh My Goodness! That is so low! If I don't find that thermal I am done. But there she is, nice and strong, and my eBD gets higher and higher. Time and landing are pretty good! Second flight: same air, same plan. But this time two gliders hit each other on launch and I see them coming towards my glider. I turn right and I try to get as far as I can to avoid the collision. When adrenaline leaves my brain, I realize I am far on the right into a huge sink. Forget the plan, I am low and I need to find a thermal. When I glide over the field I am not low, I am dramatically low. I bet on the club house and CD tent. The left tip pops up for a second over that tent and I decide to try circling left in what seems to be a little thermal. Luck is with me this time: it is indeed a thermal and I scratch that air for minutes. Unfortunately I don't let the model slide downwind enough and I loose the thermal flying upwind of it. Landing is good but a lot of guys have gone upwind and are still high while I am on the ground. After the conclusion of the round I realize that it is Stephane's Omerta that has been hit during launch. One of his tips gets repaired "quick and dirty" before the last flight. Last flight: the plan is to go upwind but, this time, avoid traffic at launch. I switch-on the engine at the horn and launch before my neighbours. I go upwind far. Very far. Motor off. I explore what seems to be very calm air. Too calm. I am not going up at all. I fear I took the wrong decision. But it is too late to change plan. I insist and after a while my right wing goes up. I counter full right and I start going up. Feels good. Very good!!! The eBD goes up like crazy now and in a matter of a few minutes it is way too high, to the point of being uncomfortable. Spoiler out. That doesn't seem to affect the model at all. I spin it to force it coming down. It works. I am so focused on trying to get down without disintegrating my wings that I do not realize that the air has changed. I am drifting in the direction I remember the wind was blowing, but indeed it has changed. When I decide the glider is at comfortable altitude it is also into sink. After all, close to a huge thermal there is huge sink, and my manoeuvre put the model into it! And here's the fatal error. I try to get out of it pushing, which is good, but downwind, which is stupid, and I soar into sink inevitably down to the ground. I am not the only pilot that got surprised by such a sudden change, but a few have read the air well and they are still up there. Kudos to them. Wow...what a ride! The day is over and the CD calls us for the ranking: 4th Pascal 6th Luca 8th Stephane 9th Gudmund Well done!!! I am proud of us!!! Last picture for the Montrealers and then back home. See you out there soon!!!!!!!!! ...
Landing Practice
9 June 2014 After having destroyed my Omert-Aspire two weeks before going to Polecat ALES 2K14, I was left with my brave and loyal eBD which I could not fly much this year. It was pretty clear that practice was much needed!!! The Bubble Dancer is a fantastic flyer but, with its characteristic spoiler, a difficult one when it comes to spot landing. I then asked Duc to put together a training session specific for landing. Steve joined in, and we headed towards the field on a late afternoon. Note for the Montrealers out there: do not hit the 40E at 5pm on a monday; it took us more than 2 hours to get to the field! A great deal of patience on the road was gratified by a fantastic flying session though: Duc prepared a 2 minutes drill that is going to become our standard when it comes to Landing Practice. So simply, yet so effective: 5 seconds of motor for 2 minutes of flight and a precision landing. The thing is the altitude you are getting by those mere 5 seconds is not much, certainly not enough to comfortably glide the 2 minutes to the landing. You have to read the air and, if conditions are as light as what we got that day, scratch it until the moment has come to prepare for landing. Another nuance of the drill is that focusing on staying up, you get in that state of mind that sometimes leads pilots to "forget" that the time has come to land and get stressed out so that they loose their cool for that precious few seconds preceding landing. In an hour flying session you can pack in 30+ landings. Which is a huge amount compared to what we usually do when we go to the field on a typical, casual, sunday at the field. And here comes the obvious truth of the day: if you prepare well, you land well. You are going to say: "Thanks M. Watson, any other triviality today?" Well, in fact, I am dead serious: if you don't get into the downwind leg at the right time and the right altitude there is no much that you can do to recover. Any too late/too soon at this point means being too late/too soon on the spot. If you try to stretch or shorten the sequence after that point you will probably miss the pin. So you are better off sucking up the fact that your are not going to be on the spot at the perfect moment, instead of getting your last 20 seconds erratic ruining the time AND the spot! You find here the .mp3 with our personal Siri talking to you through the landing practice!!! Ou alors ici en Francais. ...
MATS has got an Aircraft Carrier!!!!!
2 June 2014 I have to admit: in more than 20 years of RC modelling I have never seen something like this! Awesome job Mario!!! ...
Omerta 2 Wingtips out of the bag
1 March 2014 Jacques has delivered the second outer panel of the wing of Stephane: the finish is superb. Stiffness and weight at rendezvous. Kudos to Jacques! His production rate is impressive and the final product is up to snuff in all departments. Bravo! More on the latest wings here!!! ...
Central Panel Bolt Beam - How to install
4 February 2014 As the good old saying goes: a picture is worth a thousand words. Here it is a nice sequence to illustrate how to install the bolt beam into the latest central panels for our ALES ships. The full sequence is here!!! ...
eBD full kevlar fuselage pod
30 January 2014 A new BD fuselage is available with a full kevlar layup. These units can be used with Bubble Dancer wings or, with little adjustments, with the newer Omerta wings. As a matter of fact the new Omerta mould was designed with a longer nose than the BD to allow for proper trimming of the airframe, since the first trials came out tail heavy. The BD fuselage is a bit narrower than the Omerta so that it is difficult to install 2500 mAh 4S LiPo batteries in it. But If you plan on using 3S LiPos or lighter 4S LiPos this fuselage is perfectly fine! So now we can choose which fuselage to use, depending on the aeroplane geometry and radio setup. Way to go! ...
New ALES fuselage and wings for our 2014 ALES ship: the Omerta mk2
9 January 2014 Steven has cured a new fuselage pod using the mould we manufactured for the Kuda. This time the layup is all kevlar (with the local exception of the pylon area which is reinforced with carbon cloth) and has a canopy on the upper side. Since the original design for the Kuda sported a nose cone, Steve had to modify the parts after cure to create the canopy and its landing. And, the first wing panel of the Omerta mk2 is out of the bags, trimmed and ready for servo installation. More on the new wing and fuselage here!!! ...
Paul's BD coming along!!!
5 January 2014 Paul has started building his eBD. As a warm-up he decided to build the horizontal stabilizer first. And here's the result: 19 gr ready to be covered. Great job!!! ...
Member Cards holders
3 January 2014 As decided during the AGM, each and every member is now required to wear his MATS and MAAC card in a visible way at the field. Card holders will be sent to each member upon receipt of inscription fees. The holder can be clipped easily on your T-shirt, trousers or hat at your best convenience but must be visible at all time. Please notice that the upper lip of the holder can be taped to avoid any water to get inside damaging your cards, and to make sure that cards will not slip away and get lost! ...
Winter Flying at Les Coteaux
29 December 2013 Roland and Mario have been flying in the freezing cold this winter. Warm clothes, big determination and a great deal of courage make the incredible happening!!! ...
AGM 2013 - President's report
21 December 2013 MATS is a Radio Controlled Modelling Club dedicated to silent flight since the very beginning of its history. For many years gliders were made airborne using ground equipment like winches, elastic catapults, hand launch and dedicated tugs. A number of competitions have been run using pure gliders and ground equipment following formats as the TD, SLF and F3J standards. For years the source of great improvement and evolution came from enhancements in structures and from new airfoils. That evolution seems to have reached the best achievable level. The next evolutionary stage has been set by new electronics: the availability of new radios, on-board altimetry, new battery technology and brushless electric motors have changed the game yet another time. It is now possible to have affordable propulsion set on-board to take off with a very attractive power to weight ratio and to limit the altitude at which the engine will stop turning. In actual terms these new technologies remove the greatest hurdles that the members of MATS have faced together with the rest of RC Gliding community: carrying and installing winches at the field, laying down hundreds of meters of cable, sustaining the tension at launch, retrieve the cable at each launch, and reverse the whole process at the end of the practice day. The need of large flying fields has vanished with the introduction of the new technologies. Keep reading... ...
Polecat ALES 2K13!
17-18-19 June 2013 The echo of the ORCC crowd going down to Carslisle, PA to fly ALES the last two years in a row intrigued us quite a lot. Plus this is possibly the biggest ALES event of the year, so there is no better place to learn a new discipline than immersing oneself into a high level competition like this one. Therefore we decided to travel down south and visit our friends across the border, and see how our gliders and piloting skills compare to the latest and greatest standard out there. The flying field was great. The crowd was very kind and joyful camaraderie was the rule! Logistics was impeccable. Almost 50 pilots showed up, coming from all over North America: from the east coast, including a well populated Canadian group, to the west coast, including a Mexican Pilot! All kind of different models were present at the event. ALES is probably the discipline with the most varied set of competitive machines, radios, electric motors and batteries out there at the moment. We have seen the most expensive moldies flying together with the cheapest foamies available on the market, with all the range of variations in between these two extremes: home brews, partially home-brews, modified RTFs; you name it we saw it!!! Etienne has shared with us his pics and aerial views of the contest! Here you have a picture of the Quebec Air Force fleet, coming from MATS, C2VM and Les Ailerons, quite a few machines out there. Thanks to Etienne for bringing all the equipment in his big van. I cannot imagine how the trip would have been if we would have brought all of that gear in the car!!! As you can see, Omerta was well represented with Jacques and Stephane sporting 3 models of the type. Our Omertas intrigued quite a few fellows on the field. In fact a few times the Omerta outflew the latest Maxa, that was quite a satisfaction for all of us as designers and builders, I reckon! A few pics of the commercial machines present at the event! Very well made home-brews: both models flew very well during the whole contest! And here our pilots at work: The Quebec Air Force fixing stuff at the field. The boxes you can see were only part of the gear we had with us. We could repair anything, from electrical wiring to main structures. Nice preparation boys! Unfortunately though, we had to use that gear way too many times during the three days, jeopardizing our final results. The Lesson has been learnt and we are preparing the new material for new year setting reliability as a key criteria in our design choice and manufacturing techniques. Unfortunately in one occasion, we could not do much to help our friend Bernard. He lost sight of the glider for a moment while the model was a great altitude, when he put back his eyes on the machine he was flying somebody else model and inevitable happened: a 300m vertical dive that left the machine like follows: A band of techie-crows gathered around the cadaver to inspect the exposed structure and manufacturing technique. Turns out the Aspire has a sandwich fuselage, which explains the extremely high stiffness / weight ratio fuselage and quite a sturd double webbed spar for the main wing. Sad but interesting!!! One of the best part of the trip: nice food, conviviality, real time scoring updates and the One and Only Miss Peggy, cooked to perfection by a dedicated crew that kept our bellies well fed during the three days. Thanks to the whole team for the great work!!! And here we are, wrapping up the event: the well deserved podium, Deni Maize giving the final speech and asking for the name of next year roast pig to the winner. Nice tradition! And here we come Montreal: the motor is roaring, while chatting about gliders design changes, reliability improvements, new flying tactics and passing through one of the biggest storms I have ever seen!!! See you at Polecat 2K14!!!! ...
NC Router - Marco's latest home brew
April 2013 Marco has been working on a CNC machine to build precise wooden parts for his (and our!) gliders. The result is a set of ribs and spars for our next generation electric gliders. Kudos to Marco for this great achievement!!! ...
Built-Up Stabiliser 22 grams ready to fly!
27 March 2013 After a number of tests the under 25 grams stabilizer has been put to life. A rudder also has been made using carefully balsa, carbon and kevlar. The structure has been covered by "heavy weight" oracover waiting for some light mylar to come in for the next units. More pictures of this new achievement on the Projects page! ...
Built-Up Stabiliser - The seek for minimal weight
26 February 2013 Jacques and Marco have been working on a light version of the stabilizer for the Omerta project. The first step took form removing foam from a traditional bagged part. The material behind the spar was removed and ribs were added as per the shape of the airfoil. The result was promising but our fellows were not satisfied. Marco then cut with his CNC machine a set of ribs and a full built-up version was created. This one weights only 23 grams, only 3 grams more than a full balsa Bubble Dancer stabilizer. Our boys are still not satisfied even considering that our stabilizer is bigger than the BD design. They are looking at another evolution...have a look at the Projects page for more details! ...
Electric motor selection
27 January 2013 An interesting website showing how to select your electric gear for applications ranging from basic electric gliders to fully aerobatic monsters. A spreadsheet is also available: plug your numbers and find the best configuration for your future electric plane! Have a look by clicking here! ...
First production Omerta glider ready for radio gear installation!
16 January 2013 Congratulations to Marco who has finished the assembly of the airframe of his Omerta! Together with Jacques they have finalized the last few details and Marco is now able to install all the radio gear to get to the ready to fly stage. ...
Brand new Omerta's coming to life!
10 January 2013 A new set of wings and fuselage is almost ready to fly. The bright yellow and orange unit belongs to Duc: with a colour scheme clearly devoted to long distance high visibility, I wonder if Duc is planning long flights drifting downwind for miles and miles! The new fuselage has been painted in the mold before assembly giving a neat finish. Marco has put a great deal of efforts in sanding, pin hole filling, sanding, filling. . .you see what I mean. . .and the result is brilliant. His fuselage is crystal white and the finish is spotless! Also his addiction to sparkles has need up with a special paint for his canopy, indeed and again. . .brilliant! Last but not least, the new Rudder XL is finished and ready to be installed: servos are installed and linkages have been routed inside the thickness of the fin. The hinge is as smooth as can be and the overall finish really neat. It has to be said that the current building technique and manufacturing sequence have been developed by Jacques and then put at profit to all MATS members willing to take advantage of it. Let's be honest, without his irresistible drive for results we would not be here dreaming of enjoying our afternoons at the field and (why not!?) winning the 2013 ALES events with our home made electric gliders!!! ... |
Last update 15 June 2016 |
||
Contact the
webmaster |