A note of information re the seats.
The old style and new style seat tracks are not the same span and thus the keepers on the top tube of gear truss also have a different span.

maules.com wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 29, 2022 1:39 pm

A note of information re the seats.
The old style and new style seat tracks are not the same span and thus the keepers on the top tube of gear truss also have a different span.

Thanks for the tip jeremy. I noticed this when I got my new fuselage. It is set up with the same seat track width on both sides of the plane. My old fuselage, as well as my previous M7, had different seat track widths on pilot vs copilot.

Also, my new fuselage has the pilot/copilot seat adjustment levers both on the righthand side. Old fuselage and M7 had the pilot one on left and copilot on right.

Essentially my new fuselage uses the same seats for pilot and copilot. Can you confirm that this is how new maules/seats are made or is my new fuselage a one-off?

Thanks.

asa, Pilot and copilot seat tracks both normally have the same span between them.
The keepers on the cross tube control this. There was a time when the fiberglass seat pan was cut away at right front corner on later type pilot seat to allow for flap lever movement.
The adjustment lever has to be in line with the welded stop protrusion on the gear cross tube.
There is a SB I believe regarding the rearward movement limit. Apparently some aircraft escaped the factory with that small piece not welded in so do check that or one could end up in the back on takeoff.

Have been working hard to get the old fuselage stripped of all reusable parts so I can put it in long term storage (it's kentucky, so that's a barn) and pull the new fuselage into the garage and begin building it up.

Currently the only thing left on the old fuselage that will be used is the oleo internals, hopefully I can pull the oleos tomorrow. Today was pulling brake and fuel lines, panel, finish drilling out rivets in the belly pieces. I'm completely re-doing the panel but I kept as many harnesses in tact as possible, ending up only cutting 3 wires. Took a little longer this way but could be useful in the future.

I also dropped a big order off for powdercoat yesterday. Unfortunately due to long lead times, those won't get done until I'm gone to Alaska for the summer. It was the tailfeathers and various control pieces like the column, torque tube, flap handle, etc. I should have enough other work over the next month that I won't miss them.

Also just submitted the order for JPI EDM900 engine monitor. Saw they were running a Sun n Fun rebate so I pulled the trigger. Pretty excited.

Brain removed:


Current status of old fuselage:

Be sure you hold onto that ashtray for re-use in the new plane…

Past few days...

Old fuselage is completely stripped of meaningful (and most unmeaningful) parts.


Moved new fuselage into garage from storage. This marks the turning point from disassembly to assembly. Big day. Keeping the old one here for a bit longer just in case, then it'll go in storage.


Finished installing all the fuel lines in fuselage. I put the old floorboards in to keep stuf out of the belly while working. They fit pretty well overall, thinking I'll just sand/urethane them and use these rather than making new.


Mockup of panel. I had this in CAD but decided to transfer it to arts and crafts to see how it "felt".


til next time...

A massive project is many many tiny projects. Some of those tiny projects:

- Inspection holes complete


- Static lines and ports complete. For punching small holes in oratex, I've found I prefer heating a metal punch of appropriate size up with a torch, rather than the recommended soldering iron technique. Personal preference.



- This is my 4th airplane which means this is the 4th time I've painted my tailwheel black... Maybe one day I'll just live with grey or white but that day is not today.


-Vacuum pump? We don't need no damn vacuum pump.



And the start of a not-so-tiny sub project, but at least now it has the expensive fun garmin things in it. When I learned that uAvionix has no intention of getting Maaules on the TailbeaconX AML and my mechanic was not interested in seeking a field approval, I immediately pivoted and got a used GTX330 from eBay. Can add the normal tailbeacon later for ADS-B.

Swap that 330 for a 330ES. Pull an RS232 line from the nice garmin GPS thingie and much better ADS-B than your other option.

gbarrier wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 24, 2022 3:57 am

Swap that 330 for a 330ES. Pull an RS232 line from the nice garmin GPS thingie and much better ADS-B than your other option.

Doesn’t the 330ES require a WAAS input? Like from an IFR GPS. That gps in the picture is just an Aera660 in a panel dock. Would be amazing if I could do that but I think it’s not an option. Please correct me if I’m wrong, I have very little money invested in that 330

Yes, the 330ES requires a WAAS input for ADS-B Out. It doesn't have an internal WAAS GPS option like the GTX 335 or 345.

Very true. Couldn't tell what the GPS was. Running the bill up a little for a GNC335 would make it all better.

gbarrier wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:34 am

Very true. Couldn't tell what the GPS was. Running the bill up a little for a GNC335 would make it all better.

Ah yes, $7k more for no added capability - seems right up my alley.

Sure would be nice to redesign that V bracing at the rear bulkhead so you could actually stretch out and sleep back there if you needed to. Be a great time to pop in some extended baggage!

I agree. I was given a small extended baggage by a friend but it doesn't fit my fuselage quite right. May rework it to fit or may leave it out.

Tailwheel overhaul complete. Does the plane need a tailwheel right now? Not at all. But sometimes I feel like doing something different.



I need to get the fuselage onto its gear so I can remove the wooden stand so I can put the firewall on so I can fab the boot cowl so I can.....

First step was getting the belly skin installed. Made a new one out of 0.025" 2024 alclad. Currently cleco'd in place. Going to make/fit a stainless cowl/exhaust egress skin (0.018" SS) between this and the firewall prior to setting the rivets. Not painting this skin or the egress skin. Silver is close enough to silver.




Also in the name of getting the fuselage on it's gear was swapping the spring cartridges from stock oleo to the ABI extended oleo. Took longer than expected. But it's done! Hopefully the gear will be on tomorrow if farm duties don't take my time.

Got the old firewall, cowl egress tunnel, and boot cowls fitted and cleco'd to the new fuselage. I will be making new boot cowls and egress but wanted to fit the old ones prior to using them as patterns. Over all they fit pretty well considering every maule is different. I'm doing all this prior to installing controls and such up front so I can have better access. When I have all the new ones made, I'll set them aside and install all the control components, panel, etc.

All those skins and firewall in place:


First up was the "Engine Air Egress Tunnel" as maule calls it, the green forward belly skin in that picture^. Mine was painted galvanized steel as Maule did back in the day. These days Maule uses stainless so I made that switch. I have access to a small 3-in-1 sheet metal brake but these bends wouldn't work in that so did it by hand. Turned out pretty well, fit the first try. Aft rivet holes are match drilled in place.









Also, I got a kick out of this. Noticed that my tubing flare tool and my M6 flap handle use the same grip. Hell yeah, spare parts.


Took a break tonight to fly with a student in his v tail bonanza. Good stuff.