DB flew yesterday for the first time with a full load of water — and, still not at gross weight. I did my best to take some air-to-air photos but this proved to be harder than I thought … or, I’m just terrible at it. I’ll try again today. The Concordia thermalled and cruised well…
After Dick’s second test flight in Concordia on May 25th, we interviewed him (still in the cockpit) and his wife and lifelong crew, Sarah. Tow pilot Ted Beckwith and Soaring Café Publishing Editor Bill Elliott also appear in the video. We apologize for the wind noise in the second clip. Unfortunately, we didn’t have our…
Here’s a video of Concordia’s first test flight on May 25, 2012. We’ve also included several photos that didn’t make it into our May 25th post. We apologize for the quality of the in-flight photos, which were extracted from a video taken from the tow plane. As anyone who’s tried air-to-air photography knows all too…
We are delighted to report that on Friday, May 25, 2012, at approximately 9:00 AM CDT, Dick Butler successfully completed the first test flight of Concordia. With his wife Sarah running the wing, DB launched from runway 18 at William Northern Field in Tullahoma, Tennessee and made a short tow to verify that the controls…
This winter, Chris Woodward has been a regular in Dick’s workshop, applying a lightweight plastic film called SolarTrim to Concordia’s control surfaces. Last weekend, we interviewed Chris and asked him to explain the process and the rationale for using SolarTrim rather than gel coat or paint.
n the year 1999 I purchased a new ASW22BL after taking a leave from soaring for 15 years. The first shock I had in purchasing the ship was that it cost three times what my first ‘-22 cost in 1980, and the second was that it had basically the same performance. What I realized was that in the open class of competition sailplanes there had been no significant improvements in performace for the last 20 years, while the other sailplane classes had made significant performance increases from advances in both aerodynamics and structures.
During our visit to Dick Butler’s workshop on February 19th, Dick graciously accepted our request for an interview. He talks about the status of the project and a few of the many remaining items that have to be tackled before Concordia debuts on the world stage in July.
If you’ve been following the Concordia reports here in the Café, you know that Heinz Weissenbuehler and his team at M & H Soaring spent about six weeks finishing the fuselage at their workshop in Elmira, New York. Like all of you, Bill and I had seen photos of the finished fuselage, but when we saw and touched (nee caressed) the fuselage in Dick’s shop last weekend, we were blown away by the quality of the finish. I’ve never seen another sailplane with a finish that matched Concordia’s. Heinz and his staff did an extraordinary job on the fuselage. The photos and videos below don’t begin to do it justice.
Rand and I had the pleasure of visiting Dick Butler yesterday and got a glimpse of the fully assembled Concordia. DB has made the US Team for the 2012 WGC in Uvalde, TX and he is now working feverishly to complete the Concordia in time for the Worlds. The pictures below are of the Concordia…
“Nothing ever built arose to touch the skies unless some man dreamed that it should, some man believed that it could, and some man willed that it must.” — Charles Kettering ——————————————————————————————————————- The Soaring Café is delighted to have the privilege of presenting the Concordia Project from inception through design, building and flight testing. Dick…
