The XE5

The XE5 is a new design by Dick Baxter.

It is a rubber powered free-flight cantilever biplane. I was fortunate enough to be included in a "beta test" of this new plane. My version uses flat bottom double covered wings and weighs 18.1 grams without rubber. On the morning of it's first flight the grass was wet everywhere, so I utilized the large parking lot of a dome stadium near my work. The "dawn patrol" image on my links page was taken on the very first toss of the plane (excluding a brief lapse of logic in my living room). How's that for confidence? The plane flew for about one minute using 500 turns(less than half of what it will withstand)on it's 1/8" two strand motor. With no additional weight it balances perfectly in the middle of the top wing. Per Mr. Baxter's suggestion it uses 1/16" of up trim to compensate for the flat bottom wings. It could use some more positive rudder influence to keep it in the immediate vicinity.
I have since made several flights with only a little left rudder for adjustment. The longest flight was just over 2 minutes. Average flights on 800-900 turns are just over one minute. It reaches a cruising altitude of about 20' and makes lazy left circles (it hit about 50' during the two minute flight, and was getting some help from mother nature). I'm considering reducing some of the down and right thrust that I started with, and I'll explore a 3/16" motor soon too.

Update 10/23/98

I have since changed my thrust setting to zero downthrust and a hair of left thrust. My logic followed that I was getting very long flights at low altitude, so the down thrust must have been overcoming everthing but the initial power burst. The first test of this set up went great, flying a nice tight left circle under power. The climb was great, reaching an honest 50-70' on a motor that had been in my hot car trunk. Two days ago I launched it with 1000 turns in dead calm air and got 1:58 seconds. That is still running with the original 1/8" motor I started with.

The picture above was taken 10/22/98, showing my 7 year old Michael launching the plane. We didn't bother to count winds or time the flights, as this was just a fun flying session. As with any of Dick's designs the plane doesn't care who launches it, and always turns in a great flight.

Link to obtain plans for some of Dick Baxter's designs can be obtained from Thayer Syme's page

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