First flight today

[Chris in Milwaukee]

Today was my first flight in the left seat of the MX-7-180A I'm going to be buying. I spent a few hours with the person I'm buying it from, becoming familiar with the plane and how it handles both on the ground and in the air.

The overall experience was very nice. The first thing I noticed was how heavy it felt on the ground. I've been flying a C-140 for the past year or so. That plane is super light with a solid tailwheel, and it's essentially a point-and-squirt type of plane in taxi. You think it, and it does it. The Maule has to think about it for a minute before it makes a move. That's a good thing, I suspect, since a good punch on the rudder may not send you off into Neverland in a hurry like the 140 would.

The tail is quite heavy on the Maule in comparison to the 140 (sorry for the continuous comparisons; it's my only frame of tailwheel reference). The 140 tail will come up quite quickly. The Maule tail takes a bit more time to come up during the takeoff run than the 140 does.

It took a bit of effort to keep the mains pinned during the takeoff run. The Maule really wanted to fly! As a matter of fact, when it got off the ground, it went up pretty quickly. It's winter in Wisco so I really didn't have to keep an eye on the engine temps, but climbing out at the recommended 90mph really had nice visibility over the nose. I was at pattern altitude in no time at all.

Landings. Oh, those landings. It really wasn't that hard doing a three-point landing. Typically in the 60mph range before the flair, and it came down nicely. I found it was quite easy to balloon in the flair, so I guess I should let it slow down a little bit more. It'll take a little bit of time for me to get where I can judge the height above the ground better. My first one or two were a little bit firm, but manageable. I tried a wheeler, but bounced the hell out of it. I'll get the 3-pointers figured out with some consistency, then I'll work on the wheels.

The usual air work was really a no-brainer. Stalls, slow flight, steep turns, all that were pretty uneventful. That little controversial tab on the rudder that connects to the ailerons is an interesting little thing. I thought for sure I was going to have to lead with a fair amount of rudder pressure like I do with the 140, but not so much. Kinda cool.

I'm sure I'll learn to love the vernier throttle. It's pretty nice once you get it in the sweet spot where it's a fine turn left or right to change the RPM a hundred revs up or down. When it's at the high end or the low end, it take a fair amount of turning to get it to affect much change.

Flaps are pretty easy. I took off exclusively with the second notch and landed on the third. I didn't try the zero-degree notch for takeoff. It was a calm winter day, so I didn't think much about crosswinds or their effect on things, and how I would adapt to it. Pretty much the perfect day to get some Maule time!

And good times were had by all.
~Chris

[Mountain Doctor]

Congratulations and great report!

[DeltaRomeo]

I have flown an M5 210C with a vernier throttle, and yes, if you depress the middle of the knob it will got to any range you like, but since our M5 has a straight cable, I like it a lot better. Some guys have been frustrated enough with a vernier throttle that they replaced it with a straight cable. I would rather have a vernier cable for mixture control, but it is a little crowded in that section of the panel.

Now all you gotta do is justify spending money on lots of avgas!

[onfinal]

Hi Chris,

Sounds like you are in for a fun time!

I do not know much about C-140s, my tail-wheel experience coming from a SuperCub prior to my Maule.

In the Maule I taxi using differential braking for all slow speed turns and only get on the rudder bar once she is trundling along, for those small corrections to keep us on the straight and narrow.

Like you, the vernier was a new experience for me. I now hold it so the button is depressed by the 'heel' of my palm with the thumb and middle finger around the black part of the knob, this keeps the button pressed in. My index finger is resting on the shaft against the stop. Sort of like the palm pushing in, with the index finger countering that push. I can get big movements (take off) and refined tickles (landing) with this arrangement.

Happy days....

[xcflyn]

I hated the vernier throttle, BUT . . . found a dowel I smoothed out nicely, cut to length, painted it black and epoxied to the end so I naturally can press it in when doing adjustments. I absolutely love it now, fine tuning when wanted and standard operation when I don't. No friction lock to futs with. Truly made all the difference in the world for me.