32 Vol.3 No.9 / September 2014
INTRODUCING THE THATCHER CX5
to build, own, and operate. A CX5 truly can be built for under
$25,000 without any extraordinary ef ort.
I T 'S A L L IN T HE DE TA IL S
Mr. Thatcher is an artist. He's created oil paintings of vari-
ous aircraft for aircraft owners and others. He has an eye for
form and detail; he's even been known to lay out rivet lines
freehand. Mr. Thatcher's planes are well thought out. As an
example, the fi berglass wing root fairing fi ts the fuselage and
the wing so well that it goes almost unnoticed. The little verti-
cal fi n fairing, though very small, makes the transition to the
fuselage smooth and pleasing to the eye. Some of the artistic
details of Mr. Thatcher's aircraft are also useful aerodynami-
cally and structurally. The rear portion of the wing root fair-
ing is pleasing to look at but also adds structural rigidity to
that region of the fuselage.
RECEN T P ROGRE S S ON PA R T S A ND K I T S
Greg Westberry of Cloudland, Georgia ( Westberry Manufac-
turing LLC
), has an agreement with Mr. Thatcher to provide
parts that Mr. Thatcher doesn't provide. So far Mr. Thatcher
provides windshields, canopies, welded controls, exhausts,
and a nose gear for the tri-gear versions of the CX4 and
CX5. Greg developed a complete CNC hole-matched kit for
the CX4 and has most of the CX5 ready. Additionally, one of
Greg's wing kits was used for static load testing. One wing was
mounted on a load test fi xture and loaded to both positive 3.8g
and 5.7g levels. Negative loading wasn't conducted, nor was
the center section tested.
Fiberglass parts (wheelpants, wingtips, wing fi llets, and
the cowl) are made by and available from Earnest Martin
(
www.CX4community.com/emartin.htm ).
K EEPING INFORMED
The CX4/CX5 Yahoo group (membership almost 2,000),
https://groups.Yahoo.com/neo/groups/CX4/info , is a great bunch
of people who post photos of their build progress, and they re-
spond well to questions from anyone in the group. The CX4 and
CX5 Builder Community News site,
www.CX4community.com
(by Todd Henning), is a super website with a wealth of informa-
tion, including photos, videos, builder lists, pilot reports, and more.
While the Thatcher CX4 plans are available for both tricycle
gear and conventional gear (tail wheel), the new CX5 is only
(currently) available in tricycle gear. However, the plane was
designed with conventional gear in mind, and plans will soon
be available for either confi guration. For more information,
including the price of the plans and a list of available premade
parts, please visit
www.ThatcherCX4.com/parts.htm .
In addition to being the founding editor of the Experimenter e-news-
letter, the current editor and publisher of Contact! Magazine, and a
regular contributor to Kitplanes, Patrick Panzera is an experienced
homebuilder, EAA technical counselor, AirVenture forums presenter,
EAA Young Eagles pilot, and an instrument-rated private pilot.
After the CX5 was complete and painted, it was trucked from Pensacola, Florida, to Jack Edwards National Airport, Gulf Shores, Alabama, for FAA Phase 1 fl ight testing.
Photography courtesy of Dr. Glen Bradley