Landing and CG

[Andy Young]

So I've been struggling to land my M6-235 smoothly ever since I got it. My landings have been fine/safe/reasonably kind to the airplane, but not many greasers in there. It almost always seemed that just as I was getting ready to set it down nicely, it would "kerplunk" onto the landing surface. Then I loaded it to the gills to fly up to Alaska for the summer, moving the CG from near the forward of the envelope to near the rearward end (still within). Lo and behold, it landed like a dream, every time, all the way up! I think I'll start keeping some sgnificant weight in the very back from now on, even when I don't need to carry any cargo.
Yes, I do have the elevator gap seals, as well as VGs.

Andy

[NZMaule]

My landings have been fine/safe/reasonably kind to the airplane, but not many greasers in there.
Andy

Good one Andy, now I don't feel so self conscious about my landings with you in New Zealand!
My suggestion is to leave out the passengers (especially other pilots) and you'll grease it on every time!
But that goes against the CG theory?

[Andy Young]

Yeah, I think the opposite is true with your 180; it has a rearward CG when empty, whereas my 235 has a forward CG empty. Honestly, I was impressed with your landings when we visited. Sorry we never got a chance to catch up again before we left; we breezed through Chch rather quickly on the way out.

Andy

[maules.com]

Andy, try to restrict use of elevator trim.
This puts positive load on the yoke so you have constant 'feel'.
If the load changes, then you have allowed the airspeed to change.
This will be noticed before you could see it on the ASI.
If you have a lot of elevator trim rolled in, you are discarding use of much of the elevator authority plus making quite a handful if you had to go around.
The other issue on landing the Maule is the wings AOA relative to the angle it sits on the ground on tyres up to 8.50x6.
A full stall attitude places the tailwheel on the ground long before the mains.
This is not so with the tri-gears as the tail can get much lower.
In fact the trigear can be lifted off earlier than the taildragger but also can be stalled at takeoff whereas the taildragger without large tyres or extended gear cannot.

[aero101]

My 180 is very nose heavy especially with low fuel and just pilot. I carry a 40lb survival kit at aft bulkhead which helps on wheels, and is absolutely required on floats or they will have a tendency to dig in. Actually it's good to be set up that way as it allows for bunches of stuff in rear while remaining in envelope.

[Andy Young]

Jeremy,

Thanks for that thought on the trim. I had read this hint from you before, so I only put in about half of what is available between the "Take-Off" line and the rear stop. Makes the control yoke feel about like a Cessna 206 does when it's empty and trimmed all the way back .

Jim,
I didn't realize that the 180 could be nose-heavy; posts I'd read here indicated the opposite. I do agree that having a forward CG when empty is a great thing, in terms of beng able to use the cargo-carrying ability of the airplane, and I'm happy to have it that way. My old PA-12 was modified such that it was out of the envelope forward when empty; made it possible to actually use all of the extended baggage space.

Andy