Man that is a gorgeous plane! Thanks for sharing a picture. Did the factory build that or someone else? What is the empty weight? What kind of cruise speeds do you get?

Isaac wrote:Man that is a gorgeous plane! Thanks for sharing a picture. Did the factory build that or someone else? What is the empty weight? What kind of cruise speeds do you get?

Shaun Tubbs at Performance Air in Caldwell, Idaho built the airplane for me.

We really wanted to get down to 1500#, but we didn't quite make it. I think it ended up at 1523#, which is still pretty respectable as equipped.

Up at 70-75% power, it'll make 125 mph. I'd assume similar to what you're flying now?

That's Awesome! It looks like we had the same concept on what a maule should be. Shaun did a beautiful job! I hope the factory can come in at a similar weight. I think if Maule can pull this off they will find a lot of commercial operators in Alaska wanting one. Our current Maule is a little heavier than yours and 5 mph slower.

easily the best looking airplane I have ever seen.

I want those doors, is there a kit you can buy? drawings? how do I get them?

Roamer

(sorry not trying to start a thread drift)

I hate to go (slightly) off topic, but I can't see the images posted above. I just get the speedo image with the instructions to go to photobucket.com/P500 and then that tells me I need to sign up to store/share images.

Do I also need to sign up ($100/yr) to view images, 'cause that ain't happenin'.

Thanks, & sorry for the trouble.

Did you already switch to Odyssey battery? -15+pounds.

WOW! That is a beautiful bird! Love the candy apple red. I'll have those doors! And those wings if I could pull it off...

Why not the 260 as its not any heavier?

Isaac wrote:We went with the M7-235 over the m9 because the M9 is to heavy to operate out of the place we use and we wanted the extended oleo gear rather than the spring gear due to the rough strips we land on.

We went with the slow turning 235 because of the great reputation of being reliable, more prop options, less expensive and I understood it was 5to 8 lbs lighter than the 260.

DirtDobber, i would love it if you were willing to share more pictures and anything you learned from your rebuild that you think would be helpful in our build project. We want the lightest, legal, bushready plane we can get.

Okay, here goes... I'll apologize for the links instead of pics in the post. I can't seem to get a photo site to work with me without spending $400/year.

One of my favorite mods is the extended baggage. However, this requires moving the flap cables back and some other welding. The battery (Odyssey) is moved to the firewall to allow a flat floor all the way back. I talked to Brent about doing this at the factory once on a replacement fuselage for me, and it didn't sound too promising. He started using words like TC, DER, FAA, Engineered Drawings.... Shaun got a field approval for this one.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/v75qkrxea09u6 ... M.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/djzr25uf9hi7q ... M.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xmf268vjg0lnl ... M.jpg?dl=0

Getting to lay out the panel and every switch, breaker, control knob, etc was very nice. This took hours and hours of staring at my mock-up panel and arranging and then rearranging. I am very happy with the end result. Everyting is in a place that makes sense to me.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ae8968iy11g06 ... 9.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kyh3oe6vyl81i ... M.jpg?dl=0

Of course, the seaplane doors are really awesome....ya, really awesome, for so many reasons. We put Kydex interior liner panels all the way around and left the headliner out. Shaun painted the under side of the fabric in the top so that it looked nice. I put the boot cowl glass on both sides. I thought it would be most valuable for taxiing off airport and watching for obstacles, but I also find myself looking through these windows a lot in flight as well. I don't think you can have too many windows.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pkcibjtr9nnvd ... 7.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pg8p4p1dpr3hj ... 9.JPG?dl=0

The powerplant was going to be painted, might as well paint to match...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/84fmh3qlgmm1x ... M.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3e8d8kgxe1y1m ... M.jpg?dl=0

We put carbon fiber floor boards in and used Carbon Concepts wing tips. That USB port is right in the middle under the front seats to give the back seaters a place to charge stuff.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/oleiftux7ew8a ... M.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7dgtbwp9m2xzu ... M.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/izlbh87h2b9sm ... M.jpg?dl=0

But anyway, it turned out nice and it gets used like it should. Great performance and utility. It is a fantastic work horse.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g9u9xftpodw23 ... M.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3u3r66q5tsux4 ... M.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ftx5sgby76aq ... 7.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cvejjz6to7sab ... M.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ojlzy12jy2sfp ... M.jpg?dl=0

Wow, I just don't have enough words. Splendid!

Dang.
You didn’t just raise the bar, you changed the scale.
Well done.

Ross, you have had the incredible fortune to be able to do to a Maule what all the rest of us WISH we could do! Great job!

Isaac, it seems to me that the 260 HP plant would be to your advantage in the ops you are in. The extra 5 to 8 lbs on the nose helps provide a better CG for the loads your going to carry and what not to like about 25 extra HP?

Thank you for the pics and info Dirt Dobber! That is excellent! Do you know the thickness of the wing skins? I like your panel. We are going with the basic required flight insturments with an electric turn coordinator. We will have a panel mounted IPad mini as the GPS with garmin pilot and Garmin GTX 345 as a source of AHRS and ADSB all utilizing the ipad. We will have the Odessy battery as well but under the seat. We plan to have it painted like our current plane with the addition of black leading edges and black landing gear. The plan is to pick it up in late March early April.