pulling my Maule into the hangar today I noticed something again that I have noticed in the past but didn't think much of... standing directly behind the aircraft I notice that the vertical stab doesn't exactly line up with the center of the aircraft line... It points slightly left of center... is this normal or should vert stab line up with the center of the fuselage... plane flies straight though with a slight bit of right rudder trim...

I think that is normal to compensate for torque, P factor. Mine is the same.

Come on Maulers, all is written in the required reading before flight.
POH, Maint Manual, Eng Ops handbook, W&B.
If everyone read their books I'd probably get no phone calls and wonder what I'd done wrong.
1.75" left of centre for yaw factor.

OK I looked for any info on that but couldn't find it anywhere... Did find that rudder trim should be neutral when landing and in cruise flight though... Sorry Jeremy just missed it...

Thats an 'oops' iceman. I just looked through the 1969 version of M4-210 maintenance manual and that dimension is not mentioned there at all.

So I guess having to have my rudder trim almost all the way out in flight to keep the ball centered in flight is not right?

988, that depends on whether the rudder trim cable and bungee spring and bell rank clearance are adjusted correctly. Many are not. Connections are behind right kick panel.

my rudder trim is out about 1 and a half inches in straight and level which keeps the ball in the center...

Iceman -Mine is the same and stays centered. For what it's worth...

How do I know if they are correctly adjusted?

just fly it....

Taildragon wrote:Iceman -Mine is the same and stays centered. For what it's worth...

only thing I learned different from searching for Jeremy's answer was rudder trim neutral on landing.... never bothered doing that on landing which is probably why I usually have to tap left rudder a bit more at touch down... makes sense... anything to help avoid that visit to the right side of the runway....

To rig the rudder trim, remove right kickpanel.
Make sure bellcrank and spring are not fouled in the insulation or the panel.
With T handle control fully in, and rudder aligned with vertical stabilizer, and rudder cables taut, there should be just a tiny bit of slack in the spring.
Adjust by releasing outer cable clamp and sliding outer cable to correct position and tighten clamp enough to hold outer cable but not bind inner cable.

Thanks. I will check it out next time I'm at the airport.

I will have to make this adjustment as well.

Even with the T handle all of the way out, the ball is still not quite centered.

How accurate is the ball anyway? In the 767 I fly at work the thing is useless.