maule mxt-7-180 real world performance?

[FlyBall John]

Hi all! First post here as I continue through my aviation journey hoping to pin down and buy my next plane.

Short version of my mission is that it could be filled by a 182 or a 160hp tri pacer or most likely by a tri-maule with 180hp. The main draw for me and the maule is that I will be able to end up with a much newer airframe than either of the other two options.

Main questions are on X/C performance and fabric life. What kind of cruise figures are folks seeing with the MXT-180 with CS prop? When hangared, How many years should one budget to have the factory fabric last?

Thx!

[gbarrier]

Fabric seems forever

[Mountain Doctor]

Hangared and cared for the fabric will last as long as you do.

The problem is holes punched in the bottom when operating off airport and/or on gravel.

I have had to deal with several myself. I now use only pavement and grass most of the time.

As far as performance my FP 180 cruises 75% in standard conditions about 135 MPH. It is on the slow side of the adequate spectrum but works.

The CS should be 10 MPH faster with better takeoff and climb performance and easier in flight power/RPM management. You also gain about 40-50 pounds useful load due to increased max gross weight.

The down side is weight on the nose (62#, IIRC), and money ($10,000 when I ordered mine) and maintenence and a potential point of failure.

[FlyBall John]

Hangared and cared for the fabric will last as long as you do.

The problem is holes punched in the bottom when operating off airport and/or on gravel.

I have had to deal with several myself. I now use only pavement and grass most of the time.

As far as performance my FP 180 cruises 75% in standard conditions about 135 MPH. It is on the slow side of the adequate spectrum but works.

The CS should be 10 MPH faster with better takeoff and climb performance and easier in flight power/RPM management. You also gain about 40-50 pounds useful load due to increased max gross weight.

The down side is weight on the nose (62#, IIRC), and money ($10,000 when I ordered mine) and maintenence and a potential point of failure.

135 with a FP seems pretty good to me. Is that a cruise prop? What kind of TO performance will it give you?

[MauleWacko]

[FlyBall John]

You can get a newer 182 also. When an airplane is advertised as excellent condition and no accident history, but in public records it shows there was a nose gear collapsed and flipped over. I would really look at it well or move on. Being you are looking at a MXT-180. There is one for sale on ebay as I just described.

Not too new on the 182...I’m going to keep it under $100k and it seems most of the 182s out there that are $55-$75k need a new motor and or panel making them essentially $100k or more.

[chris_01]

As far as performance my FP 180 cruises 75% in standard conditions about 135 MPH. It is on the slow side of the adequate spectrum but works.

wow - that sounds really fast! Have you done any modifications? Which prop is it?
I have mine only since a few weeks, but won't do much more than 110mph..

I agree that with the FP prop the in flight power/RPM management keeps me busy when flying under the thermal clouds as I'm constantly changing settings to not over-run plus trying to keep mixture on a sweet spot. That is different with a CS prop..
Question here - what is the max continuous RPM on the O360 C4F with FP? Max rpm is 2700, that's clear, but will it hurt to run it 2700 for an hour? Can't find anything about it in the POH. That would certainly increase the cruising speed as I tried to stay around 2400rpm.

[bushcub]

Flyball John
I have owned and flown a '96 MXT7-180 with a CS prop for 3 years now. It weighs 1541 with 8.50 mains and 7.00 nose wheel. The fabric will last a long time if it is kept in a hangar. The paint is the weak point as it is brittle and can get stone bruised especially on the belly. I live in the high DA world (NM) with morning DA's in the 7500 - 8000 range and have been into 10000 plus DA strips. The plane does very well. Normally I fly at around 2200 lbs or less (2 humans, survival gear and full mains) with the CG about mid range and am off in around 700 ft (about 500 if I do the full flap and rotate T/O) and climbing about 900 fpm. It trues out at about 120 mph at 65% power and 9 gph at 6500 ft PA. I'd love to fly it at sea level sometime!
It is my third Maule (had an M4-220 and M5-220). Once you learn that it doesn't fly like a Cessna, you will find that it is a very capable plane. The nose gear is very strong and unless you are planning to land on boulders and need 31 inch bushwheels, it will handle anything even remotely called a landing site.

BTW, my full coverage insurance is 740/year.

PM me with your phone number if you want to pick my brain

[CaseyM]

These real world figures were something I also was seeking before I bought my Maule.

I have a 1997 MX-7-180C. 180hp lycoming with a CS prop and 15gal ea. Aux fuel tanks (70gal usable fuel)
While mine is a tailwheel variant, the numbers should be at least in the same ballpark.

8.5-9.5 gph Fuel burn in cruise (I plan for 10gph for easy math and always have more landing fuel than planned)
110kts (127mph) average cruise 23â€￾/2350
115kts (133mph) 25â€￾/2500 ... to me, the added fuel burn (~10-10.5gph) isn’t worth 5kts

Takeoff roll fully loaded (73gal fuel, people and bags) on pavement is safely 800-1000ft @ 800ft msl.
Landing with same configuration ~1500ft on pavement not using brakes.

Light fuel load and solo on grass, the takeoff and landing numbers get much much better, and more fun.

Trigear t/o/l results may vary.

@vamaule on here would have some great input on trigear numbers

[MauleWacko]

[Mountain Doctor]

As far as performance my FP 180 cruises 75% in standard conditions about 135 MPH. It is on the slow side of the adequate spectrum but works.

wow - that sounds really fast! Have you done any modifications? Which prop is it?
I have mine only since a few weeks, but won't do much more than 110mph..

I agree that with the FP prop the in flight power/RPM management keeps me busy when flying under the thermal clouds as I'm constantly changing settings to not over-run plus trying to keep mixture on a sweet spot. That is different with a CS prop..
Question here - what is the max continuous RPM on the O360 C4F with FP? Max rpm is 2700, that's clear, but will it hurt to run it 2700 for an hour? Can't find anything about it in the POH. That would certainly increase the cruising speed as I tried to stay around 2400rpm.

135 MPH/ 117 knots is the Maule number they gave me when I bought the plane and represents the best case scenario.

7,500' DA WOT is about 75% max power. Works out to about 2,700 RPM so redline. Maybe a little less.

In real life I see 110 knots. Depending on the wind and altitude and a dozen other factors I route plan 110 and it's about right.

The plane is all stock and in no universe do I consider it fast, but I also drive a Bonanza.

It's fine to run at 2,700 RPM all day as long as you are not continuous above about 75% power.

[LCDRLES]

I have a customer on the field that has an MXT 7 180 with a fixed pitch prop. I have about 25 hours in it and have never got it faster than 115 mph. Great little airplane, but slow. I might not know how to fly it, though.
My M5 180C with constant speed will out climb it, out cruise it and out top end it. The M5 will cruise 130-132mph at 23â€￾/2350 at our high DA’s pretty easy at 4500-7500’ MSL, and burn 9-10 gph.
It seems to me that a constant speed would really help it.

[andy]

Mine is a MX-7-180 taildragger with a CS prop rather than a nosewheel Maule, but it's not too different in performance. I plan for 95 mph cruise airspeed at 9.5 - 10.0 gph, 22" and 2350 rpm. The 31" tundra tires add a lot of drag. I can go faster, but the fuel burn rises much faster than the additional airspeed and an extra few mph don't matter as much as the fuel cost.

Takeoff at 2100 lbs and sea level is around 600 feet. Climb is around 960 fpm. Here's a link to a performance table that I created for my airplane based on real world experience with extrapolations using FAA data outside my normal operations envelope:
http://maulepilot.com/mauleperformance.pdf.

My airplane had about 2332 hours on the airframe when Maule Flight rebuilt it with new fabric and paint in 2010. I kept it hangared most of the time. The old fabric was fine except for some separation of the tape at the seams on the horizontal stabilizer and on the fuselage under the horizontal stabilizer. The paint was a different story. There were lots of cracks and peeling areas. I tried repairing some of them but it was a losing battle and the appearance suffered. I think that paint is more a limiting factor than fabric life. It's really hard to strip paint off fabric and repaint. Most owners replace the fabric and paint. That will cost about $35,000 these days.

[Mountain Doctor]

I have a customer on the field that has an MXT 7 180 with a fixed pitch prop. I have about 25 hours in it and have never got it faster than 115 mph. Great little airplane, but slow. I might not know how to fly it, though.
My M5 180C with constant speed will out climb it, out cruise it and out top end it. The M5 will cruise 130-132mph at 23â€￾/2350 at our high DA’s pretty easy at 4500-7500’ MSL, and burn 9-10 gph.
It seems to me that a constant speed would really help it.

These are some of the reasons I wish I'd bought the CS.

[Mountain Doctor]

Maule updated their painting process a little before my plane was built (2002) and as I understand it, it's much better.

Mine is a MX-7-180 taildragger with a CS prop rather than a nosewheel Maule, but it's not too different in performance. I plan for 95 mph cruise airspeed at 9.5 - 10.0 gph, 22" and 2350 rpm. The 31" tundra tires add a lot of drag. I can go faster, but the fuel burn rises much faster than the additional airspeed and an extra few mph don't matter as much as the fuel cost.

Takeoff at 2100 lbs and sea level is around 600 feet. Climb is around 960 fpm. Here's a link to a performance table that I created for my airplane based on real world experience with extrapolations using FAA data outside my normal operations envelope:
http://maulepilot.com/mauleperformance.pdf.

My airplane had about 2332 hours on the airframe when Maule Flight rebuilt it with new fabric and paint in 2010. I kept it hangared most of the time. The old fabric was fine except for some separation of the tape at the seams on the horizontal stabilizer and on the fuselage under the horizontal stabilizer. The paint was a different story. There were lots of cracks and peeling areas. I tried repairing some of them but it was a losing battle and the appearance suffered. I think that paint is more a limiting factor than fabric life. It's really hard to strip paint off fabric and repaint. Most owners replace the fabric and paint. That will cost about $35,000 these days.