New to Maules, a few basic questions
Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2021 11:21 am
I'm a 900ish hour pilot, but up until now, always in clubs/partnerships. I'm now in a position where the broad availability of having my own plane could make sense (it will never make financial sense, but at least psychological sense), and I came across a 1999 MT7-235 that looks like it's a good fit for my mission. A couple of basic questions from the group here:
I do want something that will fit the whole family, and looking at the weight and balance, we can get me with my wife and our two young kids in with fuel in the mains only and be just under gross max weight, but the kids won't be young forever. I saw this: "Maule will receive a retroactive STC to bump the gross weight to 2800 pounds—the same as the M-7’s beefed-up big brother, the M-9.", but that is referring to the 2015 model, not sure it'd go all the way back to 1999, but the extra 300 pounds would make a difference for me.
Also, I don't even have a seaplane rating yet, but it is my long term ambition to fly on floats eventually. Can the tricycle gear be swapped out for floats just as the conventional gear version?
3rd, the plane I'm looking at is IFR, but it only has VORs - just so that I'm prepared for the sticker shock, if I did want to add something like a Garmin GNS430W so that I can fly real approaches, what sort of ballpark in cost am I looking at? Also should I want to add an autopilot down the road is that even possible?
Finally, if there's anybody in New England (I'm in central Mass near Worcester) who can offer a ride in a Maule before I commit to anything, I'd gladly pay for the time.
I do want something that will fit the whole family, and looking at the weight and balance, we can get me with my wife and our two young kids in with fuel in the mains only and be just under gross max weight, but the kids won't be young forever. I saw this: "Maule will receive a retroactive STC to bump the gross weight to 2800 pounds—the same as the M-7’s beefed-up big brother, the M-9.", but that is referring to the 2015 model, not sure it'd go all the way back to 1999, but the extra 300 pounds would make a difference for me.
Also, I don't even have a seaplane rating yet, but it is my long term ambition to fly on floats eventually. Can the tricycle gear be swapped out for floats just as the conventional gear version?
3rd, the plane I'm looking at is IFR, but it only has VORs - just so that I'm prepared for the sticker shock, if I did want to add something like a Garmin GNS430W so that I can fly real approaches, what sort of ballpark in cost am I looking at? Also should I want to add an autopilot down the road is that even possible?
Finally, if there's anybody in New England (I'm in central Mass near Worcester) who can offer a ride in a Maule before I commit to anything, I'd gladly pay for the time.