Hi All!

Just joined the forum today after trolling for a while to help me hone in on something to buy.

I am still deeply in the lust phase, but am ready for some (possibly harsh) reality checks before buying. Me - new private last fall, only about 15 hours of TW this summer in a Citabria, and am pretty sure there is no difference in construction between my radio control planes I've been building for the past 30 years and a Maule

I have convinced my girlfriend we need a plane so we can take weekend trips mountain biking in the UP without sitting in traffic.

I've missed out on a couple of planes that looked good for sale, but was hoping to meet up with someone locally and actually sit in one eventually?

cheers
Matt
Ann Arbor

Welcome,
I have a mx7-180 just east of greenville if you want to check one out.

Just east of Greenville. Fairplains Airpark? I have an M5/210C at Big Rapids. We should meet up sometime.

Yep. Fairplains. Lemme know if you heading that way, ill meet you there

Lots of people have done it with low time. I learned to fly in a J3 so had 25hrs or so of TW when I finished my ticket. Picked up my first Maule a week after my check ride.

Main thing is to know your limits, don't be one of those people bending airplanes that aren't made any more and driving insurance rates up.

I only had about 20 hours TW time when I bought my M-5. I agree don't fly beyond you limits, and don't just expect that you can do everything that you have seen a video of a maule doing either. The insurance company is going to have a training requirement of some sort. Once you get through that don't think you don't need any more help. Get some solo time and have someone get back in the plane with you again. We all at some point start to get sloppy, and having someone hop in with you and keep after you about it is the best way to stay honest. I always ask my buddies to tell me if I am getting sloppy about something and they expect the same from me. The maule is an honest airplane, you take care of it, and it will take care of you!

I got my tail wheel endorsement in a Citabria Aurora. 50 hours tail wheel time later I bought my Maule MX7-180 and had about 1 hour of dual in it before flying it home from Georgia to Northern Virginia. I wasn't really ready for the Maule and it took me a while before I consistently landed without bouncing or floating. I tended to approach too fast in the Maule (70 - 80 mph) and floated a lot. One thing that helped was to do stalls in the Maule at altitude in all flap configurations (the Citabria had no flaps) and write down the stall speeds on a reference card. That allowed me to slow down more on final approach (55 - 60 mph) without worrying so much about a stall. Because the Maule's tail was so much heavier than the Citabria's it tended to droop on a standard angle final approach at slower airspeed. The solution was to make a steeper approach with full flaps at 55-60 mph. Crosswind landings in the Maule were more challenging than the Citabria due to the Maule's heavier tail. Sideways drift on touchdown tended to whip the heavier tail in the wrong direction. The solution to that problem was to detect sideways drift by watching the relative movement of the airplane and the surface during touchdown and eliminating all sideways drift with aileron and rudder. Another thing that helped my landings was to get experience with grass, gravel, packed dirt, up-sloped and side-sloped runways.

Once you own a Maule, you start yearning for modifications that improve its off-airport capability: big tundra tires, heavier duty landing gear, better leaf spring, Scott or Baby Bushwheel tail wheel, vortex generators, dual-puck brakes, etc. The great thing about these airplanes is that all of that is available either as options under Maule's type certificate or by STC. Money is the limiting factor.

As others have said, don't do extreme things in the airplane until you have enough experience. For example, don't try to land on a 1,000 foot airstrip until you can consistently land and take off in 500 feet on a longer airstrip. Practice precision landings on a spot at a longer, more open airstrip before you try to tackle a short, one-way strip at the base of a mountain. Practice crosswind takeoffs and landings as much as you can before trying to land in a gusty 20 knot crosswind.

I tend to be fast on final in the Citabria, where I am rewarded with lots of bouncing. Actually, the plane is a lot more settled in either the flare or a wheel landing with a bit of power, but that doesn't appear to be the exact same thing as being fast. It never wants to be fast - that just translates into bouncing.

I'm somewhat conservative - I got in touch with someone fairly nearby that I think can help with a CFI checkout at the point I see something that I can both afford and want to pay for. The reality of living in Michigan and wanting to fly places to do things virtually requires I continue and complete my instrument rating, and that any plane I buy for travel is also equipped for instrument flight.

Near as I can tell, "short" fields in Michigan are between say 1500 and 2000 ft, so I don't have much business wandering into anything truly tight for a long time.

The cargo carrying is more of a factor than the STOL aspects.

Based at KTTF.
My Maule is still down. Be back in the air in 4-6 weeks.
Be happy to take you up and show you what they’re capable of.
Plenty of grass strips within 10 minutes of the airport.