Sonex Xenos Aircraft - A yellow car with wings. That's how a visitor to Sonex engineer Pete Buck's hangar described the company's Xenos powered glider. That's an amazing thing to say about an airplane with a wingspan of 45 feet and a height of 19 feet 9 inches. But on closer inspection (and after a year in the new production) I think the visitor may have caught his breath.
Why? Well, the bright yellow color is the obvious reason and the fact that Xenos is standing close to the ground. But this plane doesn't hug the ground—it wants to fly.
Sonex Xenos Aircraft
Xenos and his short-winged brothers - Sonex and Waiex - did not come to the building site out of nowhere. Sonex, Ltd., the company that designed and manufactured the Xenos kits, is the work of designer John Monnett, who runs the company with his wife, Betty, son, Jeremy, Pete Buck, and a few other employees.
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In 1971, Monnett launched his first commercial design house - the Sonerai, a VW-powered Formula V racer - and it was quickly followed by a two-seater version. Both were of composite construction, with an aluminum wing and tubular steel fuselage covered with fabric. Their length speaks about the identity of the models; plans for two are still available today from Great Plains Aircraft Supply.
Monnett's interest in climbing led to the creation of the Monerai, a compact tubular steel glider with fiberglass under carriage, aluminum wings and a V-tail. The Moni powered parachute followed and helped establish the first design for the current line of aluminum aircraft.
The Xenos was developed as a concept two-seat version of the Moni. Demand from Europe and the upcoming Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) segment in the US led Monnett to introduce the short-wing, fast Sonex design. With its low price, sports performance and easy-to-assemble kit, this design has become popular. Today, 83 of them and about 700 others are being built just seven years after the design was presented.
Xenos' wingspan of 45 feet results in a generous glide ratio of 24:1, with no engine to maintain a limit that pilots can be very unfamiliar with.
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Although the industry has been facing LSA legislation for the past several years, Monnett and Buck believed in the potential of the powerful aircraft. While many potential LSA buyers may not be interested in a powered parachute, I think a closer look at the Xenos will change their minds.
"But why," you ask, "should I pay more for the slow, hard-to-maintain long-wing Xenos when all three current Sonex models are LSA compatible?" A few reasons:
For this article, my goal was to visit Buck and compare the Xenos during flight. Buck's N212XS powered parachute is based at Mountain Valley Airport in Tehachapi, California. Located at the southern end of the Sierra Mountains that flow into the Tehachapi Mountains, it is one of the best places to hike in Southern California. Winds from the San Joaquin Valley fight the winds of the Mojave Desert. A windmill produces wind for electricity.
The author says that the Xenos cockpit is difficult for two people, but can be built as an excellent one-room cockpit for the XXXL pilot.
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The Glider Builders Association holds its western convention in Tehachapi once a year. During this event, I joined Roger Tanner, CFI glider, to fly Buck's Xenos. Tanner, like Buck, has a real job besides playing with cool airplanes. Tanner flies to a test school at Edwards Air Force Base, and Buck is an engineer at Lockheed Martin. Buck's day job is the reason his six-cylinder, 120-hp Jabiru-powered Xenos didn't return to Oshkosh for the Sonex factory with its four-cylinder, 80-hp AeroVee-powered sibling.
The Xenos sits low on its chassis with a titanium rear drawer, and it's very easy to get under the side-folding canopy. The Y tail is the only obvious unusual feature on the plane. The standard V-shaped tail with controls is supplemented by a small flap attached to the rear of the fuselage. If you can't see it, the tail looks normal. Considering the limited curves of one plane, where curved components are limited to the extreme ends - such as tips, weapons, and turret - this is an attractive plane. It looks great in yellow and I think the color was an inspired choice (more on that later).
When I got to the Xenos test, Tanner reminded me that using a test is important, even if it's a simple one. 20 seconds later we were turned on by the confirmed double and we were ready to taxi. The hardest part of the pre-takeoff check was putting on the headphones. This is required under power, as the Xenos is a sheet-aluminum aircraft with a breathable, cool engine.
Hailing the taxi was a piece of cake. Low descent, low wingspan, light weight and direct control make handling the ground easy even for a novice. And getting up was easy. It took a bit of leg work to keep the nose straight and after 3-4 seconds we were off the road and climbing. We prepared to cruise at 10,000 feet at about 70 mph and headed for the mountains south of the airport, where we would have 2,000 feet to avoid shutting down the engine and getting lift.
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During the climb we encountered bumps and at altitude we backed off to lower the engine temperature for climbing conditions. After less than a minute, we turned off the engine and stopped the propeller. The 60×52 fixed pitch Sensenich strut, which is small enough that it wouldn't look out of place on a large RC model, didn't seem to cause much drag. This saves the cost of the feather prop. After a few minutes, Tanner remembered, "We can get rid of the headphones."
The thermals felt small and I (less than practice) had trouble centering and turning fully when lifting. The best thing for me was that I didn't have to think about flying. It felt so natural and comfortable that after only 10 or 12 minutes of flying I could focus entirely on chasing thermals.
We stopped for a while and then stopped. As the wing begins to stall, a soft but distinct sound is heard. With the wings straight, it looks like it's hanging in the air, but the ailerons are still working. At high altitude the nose came down, but removing the stick from the rear port got us flying again.
Tanner set up and ran Xenos testing and there is a link to his report on the Sonex website. My guess is that it takes a very stupid or determined driver to run into the Xenos stall/spin issue.
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I used to have an HP-18, a kit-based high-performance ino glider. Designed for the 15 meter racing class. During one flight I had a temperaru at 14,000 feet and the upper wing broke. I flew before c.g. and he was able to recover well; I went back into the thermos and stopped it again. I wasn't on oxygen and so no doubt I was slower and dumber than usual, but there was no warning of these obstacles. I asked myself, "is it the plane or is it you?"
After using it up, I decided to sell the HP-18 to someone who would fly it often and is an experienced pilot. It's one thing to fall from a hot spring at 14,000 feet, but it's quite another to do the same thing 200 or 300 feet up a mountain scrambling for lift. In pure high-speed flight, the landing rocket would come close to stopping. But in a glider, the slower and tighter you can turn, the better you climb. You are often pressed to the edge of the barn as you try to ride the hot, explosive and violent winds of the hot air to the bottom of the clouds. The Xenos has a huge edge for me due to its low speed handling characteristics.
To see the cruise, we headed north over the mountains to the north towards Lake Isabella at 10,500 feet. We went 130 mph at about 6.5 gph. According to Tanner, tilting can reduce fuel consumption by about 1 gph. Specifications provided by the Xenos company indicate that the aircraft is 20-30 mph slower compared to the Sonex and Waiex, depending on the engine and flight conditions.
I let the Xenos fly on their own for a while. The air was still breezy and I was amazed at how calm it was. We heard bumps, the plane went up and down with the wind, but the nose kept pointing where I wanted it to go. No wandering, scratching or tail wagging. Like a car with wings.
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Back in the field, I tried something I call power-assisted lifting. I put the engine to go
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