SL#43 (up-gross) installed by great A&P/IA in TX

[AndrewK]

Recently I had the up-gross kit (Maule Service Letter #43) installed in my Maule bringing my max-gross from 2300# to 2500# and want to give a quick shout-out to James Lewis from the Bridgeport, TX area for doing this work on my 1979 M5.

James is an A&P with inspection authorization (IA) with lots of sheet metal experience and he (along with the help of fellow Maule pilot and James' father Jim) made quick work of the task at hand. I specifically sought out James' help with this work not only because of his bizjet repair and aircraft restoration shop experience but because he had already performed an up-gross kit installation on Jim's M5.

Although my plane is far from perfect, I am very picky about who works on it and I was quickly impressed with James' professionalism and attention to detail which both show in the quality of his work. Also, when he came across a minor hiccup (odd angle, tight space or something from a previous repair) he quickly came up with a solution and had the right tool(s) and know-how to proceed and complete the project.

In case anyone is unfamiliar with the up-gross kit process, an over-simplified description of the modification is that those of us with older M5s (pre-1980 I believe) can gain nearly 200# of useful load by reinforcing the original wing spars. I was very glad to find someone that is both very skilled with this type of work and had already performed this install in the past because I did not want just anybody drilling into my spars.

With all that said, if anyone is in need of an up-gross kit (SL #43) installation, or any A&P/IA work, I highly recommend giving James a call at 817-675-6870. It is always great to know we have another resource that is familiar with our favorite airplanes.

Andrew

[dhc2daddy]

Ive been thinking about doing the upgross on my M5. How many hours of labour did it end up being?

[AndrewK]

How many hours of labour did it end up being?

Once the wings were off, the actual modification took about 14-16 hours.