Husky vs. Maule

[morrisond]

Hi,

I'm in the process of finishing my license and will be looking at buying this fall. I've narrowed it down to two planes an Husky A1C-200 or an Maule M7-180 with the spring gear. Other than the obvious 2 seats vs. 4 what in your opinion distinguishes the Maule vs. Husky?

Flying Qualities, build quality?

Reliability of Systems?

Anything else?

Thanks.

[montana maule]

I have only 20 hrs. of instructing in an A1A, so I have limited experience in the flight capabilities of the aircraft. What are you going to use the airplane for? You can't load an 8 man rubber raft, frame, and 8' oars in a Husky, or two more people and camping gear.

They are both simple to maintain and parts are readily available.

If purchase price is important then Maule has the advantage.

Rick

[morrisond]

I'll mainly just use it to fly myself back and forth to my cottage from the city(my family will spend the summer there), it's only 90nm by air, but can be a 3-4 hour drive on a bad day in traffic.

Will use it for sighseeing over cottage country, would be kind of nice to have 4 seats but not critical.

How do you find flying the Husky vs. the Maule in terms of how much fun or challenging they are to fly?

[AK Mauler]

It really is a tough comparison because they really are quite different aircraft. I have not flown a Husky but have seen a few in Alaska and have flown a few cubs. I would say the Husky has the edge on performance and may be a little higher up on the fun meter. I fly a MX7-180 and it is a nice simple aircraft that does everything well and is great for weekend trips. If you like to fly with a friend or companion, the side by side arrangement is much preffered. The larger cabin also feels better on long cross country flights. I think the cruise speed and stall speed are similar. The Husky comes with a constant speed and is available with the 84" MT that would make for great short field performance. My plane is a fixed pitch and short field performance is fine for what I do. All I can say is fly them both and see what you think. Try and get your tailwheel endorsement in a Maule if possible.

[morrisond]

Thanks for the answer. Would you suggest getting the Tail Wheel endorsement(I actually don't need one in Canada) in the Maule doing to it being a little bit more tricky than the Husky to Fly?

[rjb]

After I got my certificate in a 120 HP Citabria, I got checked out in a
180 HP constant speed Husky A1-A and flew several short cross country
trips (~100nm). I now own a 180 HP constant speed Maule. The Husky
was the most cramped for pilot and passenger. The Citabria was the
lightest on the controls. Neither are particularly fast and sightseeing
or being ablt to land on any big lawn should be high on your list of
priorities. If you want to fuel once for a short weekend trip, carry a
passenger and some baggage for a weekend trip, the Maule with its
baggage doors is tops.

Taxiing any of them in strong wind requires care. I feel the same level
of tenseness in each of them. In terms of landings, I think the steel spring
gear of the Citabria gives the biggest bounce for any mistake.

Side by side has a very different look on landing than tandem. If you get
your tailwheel endorsement in a tandem plane, you need to put in lots
of landings to get the new sight picture of side by side.

N9951