ALES models are being built at terrific pace by our members!!!

Right away a new ship is added to the MATS fleet of ALES electric gliders.

18 June 2012




Have a look to the new Projects section of the MATS website!!!

14 June 2012



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2012 Flying Season has begun!!!

First flights at the MATS Flying Field
April 2012

A small group of temeraries have defeated the cold weather and joined at the flying field at Les Coteaux for the first flights of the season. It was very windy, at moments stormy, with some bumpy thermals but no clear pattern in the sky. Nobody was able to stay up there for long periods of time, but it was great fun altogether!!!

Our pilots were sporting some full house models (Aspire and Kuda 4M) which were winch launched and some electric powered models.



Jacques took the sky with his new eBDJ, a brand new electric glider based on the Bubble Dancer design specifically tailored for ALES competitions. The ship sports a MEGA 3S motor, which proved to be very powerful. The model behaved really well: it is a RES ship characterised by a wing span of 3 meters with AG airfoils; a modified BD fuselage and custom made tail feathers. Despite the lack of ailerons the glider was able to roll rather axially, making the ship able to fly very well altough the very strong winds.

 

Different variants of the Drela's BD are coming out of the men' caves of the MATS pilots: Stephen is in love with "V" tails and he is going to install it on a built-up wing.

 

Luca is assembling a creature that Steve put together with a a build-up wing (winch proof) and a custom X tail BD fuselage.

   

We also had a new entry in our Pilots ROASTER! His name is Luka and he has proven to be a fast learner at the sticks of the Aspire of Luca, who was coaching him for his maiden flight. Welcome to Luka and we hope to see him out there again soon!!!

 

Last but not least, Jacques enjoyed the public with the flights of his F22...the hilarious take offs from the ground...and the unplanned "finale" which consisted in a crash...I am sure it is already being repaired and will fly again soon!

 

See you out there!!!!!!!!!!

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ICARE Interclub Series 2011 - FINAL RANKING

The last round of the Interclub series 2011 has been held and the results compiled!

The Champion for the year 2011 is Gudmund Thompson from ORCC, who wins the trophy for the second year in a row!
Second on the podium is Jacques Girard from MATS, followed by Stephen Barry from MATS.

  


For all details about the Season 2011 of interclub Series go to our dedicated page!

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Interclub Series - Round MATS #2 - 8 October 2011

The last round of the Interclub series 2011 has been held in Montreal at the MATS field. The Contest Director of the day was Jacques Girard who run the event very somothly. The forecast for the day was quite windy with peaks of 40Km/h from the west in the afternoon.

Jacques managed to get the contest through 6 round before the wind turned to be too strong for us. The first 2 flights were at 5 mintues, then two at 7 minutes and the last ones at 10 minutes. The air evolved during the day: the first flights were in cold gusty air with bubbles scattered upwind. The 5 minutes have not been a problem for anybody. The 7 minutes flights have been a little more difficult with the warmth of the day reorganizing the sky for more structured but turbulent thermals. The first 10 minutes round was quite challenging and eventually the 1000 was won with a 4+ minutes flights! The last round has been flown in the "ususal" Les Coteaux sky!

  
  

The Contest Director at work compiling the results for the day and the Interclub 2011 final ranking while everybody packs at the end of a great day of soaring!

 
 

And the podium for the competition of the day is:
Luca Valle 5228 pts
Aurele Alain 5190 pts (99.27%)
Gudmund Thompson 5178 pts (99.04%)


See you next time!

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Interclub Series - Round ORCC #2 - 17 September 2011

We gathered at the Sod Peterson's farm in Ottawa in a fresh, windy late summer day. The day turned into a shiny sunny day progressively offering good thermal activity for everybody.

The field was restricted on one side so that for more than half of the launches we were winching downwind. This created a number of glitches while thermalling: it is amazing to observe how habits are stronger than pure rational observation. I believe nearly everybody at a moment or another put the glider into circles believing we were actually flying upwind as usual ending up with funky stalls!

The thermals were still quite strong and as the flight log shows the altitude we climbed to were quite impressive: 400+ meters!



The event has been won by Daniel McRae with 5200 pts, followed by Luca Valle with 5145 points (98.94%) and Brian Buchanan with 5098 points (97.88%)


See you next time!

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Interclub Series - Round C2VM #2 - 27 August 2011

This round of the Interclub series 2011 has been run by Daniel McRae taking advantage of a beatiful sunny day.
Early in the morning, there was not much confidence about thermal activity and the time goal was set at 7 minutes. We soon discovered that thermals were actually stronger and much more well established than we thought. It was great fun to enjoy long smooth flights, and the contest turned into a precision task.

Not necessarily a landing task: it is now pretty clear to all pilots that missing the landing puts you out of podium (unless that flight is your throw-out!) but this competition was actually won by Daniel flying 6 seconds close to the perfect score during the whole day!!!

Consistency is the key in the three departments: mechanical reliability (winch an glider must work ALWAYS and ALWAYS the same way), air reading and landing!

  
  

The podium is:
Daniel McRae 5497.62 pts
Luca Valle 5494.97 pts (99.95%)
Jacques Girard 5380.92 pts (97.88%)

Have a look to the updated results of the competition!

See you next time!

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Interclub Series - MATS #1 - 6 August 2011


Have a look to the updated results of the competition!

See you next time!

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Interclub Series 2011 - FIRST ROUND - C2VM #1 - 16 July 2011

The new season has started after a fex cancellations due to bad weather.
It was a beautiful day and the contest was run flawlessly by Daniel McRae from C2VM at the MATS field at Les Coteaux.

All pilots did a very good job, and the podium sees the three pilots in less than 2% from the maximum score:
Gudmund Thompson wins, followed by Daniel McRae at 99.95% of his score and Brian Buchanan at 98.12%.

Have a look to the updated results of the competition!

See you next time!

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Interclub Series 2010 - Trophy Ceremony

The Trophy for the 2010 Interclub series has been officially handed to Gudmund Thompson by Daniel McRay!

Congratulations again!

 
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Interclub Series 2010 - Final Results

After having competed for the last time on October the 3rd at the MATS flying field, the podium of the Interclub Series 2010 is finally decided!!!

Congratulations to:
Gudmund Thompson 3918 pts
Pascal Thiou 3911.9 pts
Brian Buchanan 3865.8 pts

You can download the detailed ranking of each competition of the year by clicking here
or visit the Interclub TD Series page by clicking here.

See you out at the field of the Interclub Series circus next year !!!!
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MATS - Interclub Series 2010 - #2  - 14 August '10

Nice weather for the second round of the Interclub Series held in Montreal on the 14th of August. Light wind and plenty of strong thermals for everybody. A couple of rounds with the best flight at 6+ minutes were the challenge of the day. In fact, those rounds were flown in the sink between two strong thermals. None of our heroes tried to look for the thermal downwind, everybody hoping that the convection would be kind enough to bring some "warm" good air under their wing. Overall the perfect conditions for a thermal duration contest.

 

The competition kept going on a good rhythm, with all the competitors launching and thermalling every 15 minutes.

C2VM - Interclub Series 2010 - #1  - 17 July '10

Nice competition today, despite the fact that some of the models have been damaged. A bit of troubles for the strong wind and some mid-air have marked the competition.

F3J scoring rules have been adopted this time and this generated bigger differences in the ranking. The most experienced pilots have taken advantage of this!

All our congratulations to Pascal Thiou (C2VM) for another victory. 

Steve Barry (MATS) that showed what a RES Bubble Dancer can do even with strong winds placing himeslf at the second place!

Brian Buchanan (ORCC) got a thermal and spiraled it all along the field and up to the sky for the longest flight of the day and eventually giving to him the third place on the podium.

Have a look to the updated results of the competition!

 

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ORCC - Interclub Series 2010 - #1  - 19 June '10

 

Updated results of the competition will come soon!

 

...

 

MATS - Interclub Series 2010 - #1  - 15 May '10

Once again we renewed with the Interclub serie with a wonderfull opening at the MATS flying field. Gorgeous condition with 17-21C sunshine. Calm winds to begin with but slowly increase to a good breeze by the time we were over.

 

There were a total of 9 pilots: 3 from MATS, 2 from C2VM and 4 from ORCC. Many thanks to those that travelled a long way to be there today.

 

8 rounds were flown, probably a record for a one-day competition.

No big mishap with the planes, only a few bruises.

One round was dropped such that maximum total attainable score was 7350. And guess what? Pascal Thiou struck again with a first place ( 6881 points ) after being away for a whole year. I am convinced that this guy was a bird in a past life or he fixed the software ( designed by him) to insure a win every competition. A bunch of us would agree on this! Congrats to Pascal!!!

 

Yet this is not a total domination as Pascal could have scored 7300 points, has he been in good shape..... So boys, keep practicing as Pascal has'nt said his last word and will not let us take away the trophy.
Right behing him was our good friend from C2VM as well Dan McRae ( 6491 points ).
And only 10 points behind, Dick Mills from ORCC ( 6481 points ).

This was a day of pure pleasure.

 

Next competition will be held at C2VM. Keep an eye on your message for more on this.

 

Jacques Girard, CD

 

Have a look to the updated results of the competition!

 

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SupraKuda NEWS! - 25 April 2010



Click here for the latest news about the SupraKuda

...

The Projects section is now on-line!

During the AGM a new project has been kicked-off. The MATS website enriches with a new section called "Projects". The new section is meant to share new (or already running!!!) projects with regular updates on the development progress.

By now you will find a description of a new Full House TD glider: the Supra Kuda.

Check it out!

...

AGM 2009

The AGM has been held on December the 12th 2010.
The activities of the year 2009 have been discussed and the new ones for 2010 planned.





The topic of Safety has been addressed and some changes have been proposed to the Flying Field Rules.

Particular attention has been given to the scarse participation of club members to the Family Day and the MATS 2M2C Championship 2009. Family Day has been confirmed for 2010: the Executives will share the organisational efforts with the rest of the club for the next edition.

The 2M2C Championship has been confirmed too; being the focus of this competition to allow Thermal Flyers sharing some good time together at the field in a relaxed competition environment. For this reason the 2M2C format is confirmed as a NON man-to-man event based on 2 Channels 2 Meter wingspan gliders only. A question has been raised whether the use of "Wood-ies" against "Carbon-ies" is fair. The experience of last year tells us that woodies have actually better performed than composite gliders: it seems that "air reading" is the key to success for such a competition, much more than the glider used to fly them.

 The competition is based on a 3 to 5 hours operational time depending on the number of pilots. Each competitor can launch at every moment using one of the winches made available by the organisation. The flights have to be of a certain lengths (e.g. 3', 5', 5', 5'. 7') and made in the given order. To alleviate the load of installing the winches at the field the CD can also switch to bungees. There will be at least one event run on bungees instead of winches.

And it is time for trophies!!! The longest flight with an electric powered glider has been awarded to Peter Kruzeleck with the time of 44 min 04 seconds. Peter flew a 100 Watt model originally built by Walter Burlone (Peter stands with it in the picture, beside Jacques and his co-pilot and mentor Karl).



Stephen Barry has been awarded for the longest TD flight with the time of 57 min flying an Allegro derived model which he built. His craftmanhip skills have been rewarded with the Excellence Trophy too. The trophy has been introduced to prime the excellence in whatever domain of modelling within the MATS activities (Stephen holds one of his brand new homebuilt elevators in the picture).

 
 
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ORCC - Interclub Series #4  - 17 October '09

It is a cold saturday morning, and we sit together with Jacques, Duc and Dan  for a traditional, and very much needed!, cup of coffee right before hitting the road towards Ottawa, for the 4th event of the Interclub Series.

When we arrive at the field, the air is really cold. We set up the winches. The following Pilots meeting is straight forward. Unique novelty is: dorking is allowed, as long as it is not brutal.

When launches start, the air is still very cold and the first two rounds are not an easy task. ORCC pilots launch pretty high and manage good times. We defend the Montreal colours pretty good: the intensive training of those wednesday afternoons is paying off!

A flying time of seven minutes and landing on the spot is not a given for everybody...though!

Noon is coming and the air is warming up. I can feel the thermals passing on the field even through the 5 layers (yeah 5!) of clothes. I am more confident now; the BarryKuda will be the appropriate weapon in these conditions even against the bigger Moldies.

Gudmund spots for me and does a great job, we hit a pretty strong thermal and after almost 7" circling and hitting the spot, we get the round. Very good for my self and a good help for Jacques, who has failed his last two landings. Having beaten Danger Dan by approximately a minute, the counter is back to zero between the two of them. We will discover this after the announcement of the partial scores at lunch time.

  

After the good news, Jacques gets a robust "ramanzina" (i.e. a huge telling off!) about those darn landings...




The weather turns great after lunch; plenty of thermals develop, and a lot of people scores 1050 points.
There is even the time for a smiling picture when the glider is so high in the sky!!!

 

Problem is, when it looks too easy, it is not so easy. One MidAir at very high altitude between Gudmund's Hera and Aurele's Starlight, puts Aurele down on the ground. His glider is seriously damaged while the Hera can keep flying. Another MidAir, this time very close to the ground, ruins, for another couple of pilots, the very happy end of a fantastic flight (sorry guys, I do not remember who was...drop me a line and I will correct this).

The day is not over though, and plenty of good flights are ahead of us!
Gudmund shows how well he knows the handling characteristics of his glider. His circles are flawless and landings right on the spot. He's the only pilot with 4 perfect rounds out of 6!



It is worth mentioning the 4th flight of Duc with his "not so straight" Mantis. He circles for a three good minutes over the trees and eventually takes off with an actual bubble, making the time and the landing spot!

And the day is over, calculations are done and the podium disclosed:

Jacques Girard - MATS
Daniel McRay - C2VM
Gudmund Thompson - ORCC
Brian Buchanan - ORCC
Dick Mills - ORCC
Colin Sutherland - ORCC
John Blenkinshop - ORCC
Duc LeVan - MATS
Luca Valle - MATS
Aurele Alain - MATS


Thanks to ORCC for organising this event, it has been a great pleasure!!!

Luca

You can find the detailed results of the event as well as the ranking for the InterClub Series 2009
by clicking here

...

MATS - 2M2C  - 13 June '09

It was a great pleasure for me to be the CD of the MATS 2M2C competition for the first time.
A number of improvements are already written down for the next time!!! Very nice day, quite windy. We set up the winches based on the weather forecast but the wind never turned into the announced direction. Therefore we ended up launching downwind all the time.

At the field we got 7 pilots and their gliders. We got three Allegros: build-up forDuc and Jacques, bagged for Mark. Duc came out of a major failure on practice the week before, so his model was not quite ready to go. Tim and Ken showed up with a couple of very effective wooden built models (sorry I do not know the names of those). Ken launched his glider hardly: those wings were bending quite a lot!!!. He knows that machine very well and did a great job with it. Tim was more gentle on the winch but circled those thermals really well and got back the disadvantage of less initial altitude. Steve was flying his first BarryCuda: an Allegro wing mounted on a pylon fuselage and a V tail. I was flying the latest evolution of Steve's BarryCuda. Simple dihedral, cross tail. Amazing penetration and handling for such a light glider.

Here's the ranking, congratulations to everybody!!!
Mark Gervais    (1483)
TimSmith    (1461)
Ken Starkey    (1442)
Luca Valle    (1371)
Jacques Girard    (1356)
Duc Le Van    (1301)
Stephen Barry    (1162)

Have a look to the spreadsheet with the details of each flight!

See you next time!
Luca




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ORCC -Interclub Series #2  - 6 June '09

You can find the results and pictures of the event by clicking here

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MATS Tune-Up - Interclub Series #1- 23 May '09

You can find the results and pictures of the event by clicking here