On the ball

[Layne]

Throwing this out there and not to sound too stupid, am I the only one that has issues from time to time keeping the ball where it should be?
Eg. Just under gross in my M7, in 5000' terrain, winds from every direction being surrounded by hills with big rock not too far away, setting up for landing. Pulling moderate bank angles at 100mph I have a hard time keeping the machine in coordinated flight? Right bank with wind from the left, ball to the left, having some trouble keeping the wing from banking harder right. Nothing that gets away from me, just looking for better judgement. Am I just reverting to old high speed low wing technique and throwing too much bank and not enough rudder? God knows these things love their rudder. For intrest sake, Pink Mountian air strip on the Alaska highway is the spot I am referring to.

[andy]

Rudder input can be a little confusing due to the rudder servo tab coupled to the ailerons. It's supposed to reduce the amount of rudder input in a bank but sometimes it's not intuitive if you're used to other taildraggers that don't have it. If you're used to very little rudder input like most nosedraggers, just about all taildraggers need more because of the aft shift in center of gravity.

[aero101]

The maule is a rudder kind of airplane, generally have to lead aileron inputs somewhat with rudder, and sometimes the rudder servo doesn't really apply proper coordination, but requires active use of feet... If in windy / gusty conditions, it is normal for the ball to bouce around some and not stay centered. I would suggest practice dutch rolls and coordinated turns on a calm day to get a good seat of pants feel vs ball centered and after a while it will become second nature?

[crbnunit]

After flying taildraggers without the servo tab I find myself applying way too much rudder and skidding around truns unless I pay attention.

[a64pilot]

See if you have rudder centering springs. I think the M7 does. The Maule used at Brown's Seaplane base had a loose rudder centering spring. My instructor was complaining about not being able to keep the ball centered on the Maule and when I looked one spring had come loose from the fuselage tube it was clamped too.

[Layne]

See if you have rudder centering springs. I think the M7 does. The Maule used at Brown's Seaplane base had a loose rudder centering spring. My instructor was complaining about not being able to keep the ball centered on the Maule and when I looked one spring had come loose from the fuselage tube it was clamped too.

Checked it all, looks good! Will check the spec when I roll it in for quick inspection and oil change. Thanks for the info!

[Layne]

Thanks for all the pointers! Dutch rolls are kinda fun! Maybe not for passengers. After lots of circles, clearly do not need as much bank as I was inputting and more rudder. Practiced my canyon turns after that, man will these things turn!

[calmflight]

After all this discussion I finally realized why I always land to the left of the centerline. Even with a Left cross wind. Now I keep right rudder in all the way and boom, right down the middle. Gotta love it.

[stevesMaule180]

Aero101 said it better than I could. (a few posts down)

[TomD]

I would suggest practice dutch rolls and coordinated turns on a calm day to get a good seat of pants feel vs ball centered

Dave Wiley liked to cover the turn coordinator and attitude indicator and have me do dutch rolls until my butt became the turn coordinator.

Funniest thing to watch ( probably not so much for the guy in the back seat ) was me trying to fly a Carbon Cub the same way I fly my Maule. I think the only time the ball was in the center was on its way to one end or the other of the tube.

TD

[aero101]

It's a good thing to practice staying coordinated in as it's killed many people up here with the by now somewhat famous Alaska Moose turn, stall, spin. (Supercubs are famous for it) If it happens unexpectedly at low altitude it can be a somewhat sudden and considerable drop of the uncoordinated wing where if correct and immediate action not taken you'll find out very quickly how much gravity sucks!! Just go up to altitude and try a couple of uncoordinated cross control stalls in your maule, probably good to do a couple with instructor on board if you've never done before? I usually instruct it as part of approach to landing stall with a steep turn (with distractions) to make it more realistic of exactly what can happen if not paying attention. Just make sure you've got some altitude under you when trying it!! Another good one to try is stall from the side slip, this kind of practice could save your bacon, and also will allow you to figure out where that danger zone is in these conditions as far a airspeed? And corrective action is always, ailerons NEUTRAL, TOP RUDDER, then elevator and finish recovery!! Any other aileron movement can make the stall / spin worse and maybe not recoverable in right circumstances...