My Journey to PPL in an M5 235

[Ozy]

Hello to you all, I have at last started on my journey to get a GA license. I come from a gliding background and still occasionally take part in soaring. Having out-landed more than once and been towed out by the tug on a short rope, this experience has sparked a love of off field landing, although in gliding it is seen as a failure of task to outland. The whole experience is fascinating, from finding a suitable field, estimating the wind strength and direction and planning the approach, to a hopefully successful landing without the luxury of a go round is for me a great adrenaline rush. So off field landings are my eventual goal in GA.
I started flying a C150 locally for 2hrs and transitioned to the C172 and soloed after 5hrs. I have been researching taildraggers for about 18months prior to starting my PPL and recently purchased a1980 Maule m5 235, recovered and refurbished in 09. The Maule, because of the 4 seats to take family and 235 mainly because from my research the upshot was,"You can never have to much power,"especially with the short wing.
The trouble is there are no schools locally who teach in taildraggers or have Maule experience. I found a school in Sydney that teach in taildraggers (Citabrias 7GCBCs) and have a lot of Maule experience, but and a big but, is that it is around a 1000ks away. So every couple of weeks I will fly down in a commercial jet and spend a week with them,until I can fly her home, the Maule is kept in their hangar. At this point I have 5 hrs in a Citabria and a couple in my Maule, she was still undergoing the fresh annual, for the sale, when I arrived. Initially I was nervous about flying the Maule, from what I had read, but after the experience in the Citabrias plus the input from my crusty old Maule instructor, she feels very nice and I like the fact that you really need to switch on as a pilot, must be that adrenaline thing
I have found that the stories and pics/vids from this web site and the BCP web site to be inspiring and informative from a skill, experience angle. The fact that I can access so much personal experience with a click of the mouse still amazes me, and it's with this in mind that I thought I would log my journey from beginning to beginning. Next week I head down again with the aim to solo in the Maule and start some navexs.
All the best John

[maules.com]

Ozy, your experiences as you acquire them will be good to see, as was the rebuild of Islandflyer also on this forum.
We will of course need a picture of the storied Maule.

[Ozy]

If I can figure out how to post them.

[Ozy]

Well another commute down to the big smoke and back has been completed. It's usually around a 4 n a 1/2 hour trip each way. Well the powers that be decided to do train track work and turned it into a 6 hr epic, it kinda feels like the Maule god is just checking on my dedication to the cause, remember David Carridine in Kung Fu where the master made him wait at the gate in rain, sleet and snow well just call me grasshopper, master.
This aircraft is a handful, slowing her down during downwind for ccts was a challenge, have finally got that part under control. I have been mostly doing three pointers in fairly still air on paved with some on grass, like the grass better but want to be confident on bitumen. He's got me at 70 knots on final clean and 60 with flaps 15/ 30. Says I can get it slower as I get more confident. Had an intro to wheelers and nailed a few but bounced a few as well, if I get to bounce twice I go round don't want a third. A xwind with about an 8 knot component was experienced for a day, and the instructor saved me and the plane on more than one occasion. All in all I felt more comfortable flying the Maule after experiencing the adversity of the xwind day, I've come to the conclusion that every landing is a potential go round, until she's down and stopped. I sometimes feel like I've bitten off more than I can chew, but I am chewing like mad and the times it all comes together are such a buzz that I feel I'm Maule addicted. I am trying to load some pics hopefully they'll get there one day.
http://www.backcountrypilot.org/gallery ... 24x681.jpg
http://www.backcountrypilot.org/gallery ... 24x681.jpg

[Ozy]

Yahoo!! After 10hrs and many, and I mean many circuits I have soloed in the M5. There is a bit of staining on the seat back from sweat, no not the seat pan from c*@p, although at times there was a bit of puckering happening. For me the thing that has given me confidence in landing is setting the internal go around switch. There's a point now at which something just doesn't feel or look right, and so on with the power and lets try that again. Again there was a lot of variable winds, from 12kts on the nose to 3-6 kts xwind, nice still mornings, even had a 3 kt tailwind at one stage,(my Maule does not like tailwinds and neither do I) just before the tower changed runway direction. It was a lot of fun to have a high approach and slip it down, as well as skidding hard low level from downwind onto final and then getting rid of the drift, now that was a high work load, re: sweat and puckering Still can't say I've greased any on, just some bounce a little less than others, but I am having a ball learning to find that zen moment in the Maule. Having just one up in her the takeoffs are very quick and she just feels nicer, and the bounce is a little less on landing, still working hard on getting them as smooth as possible with a little power but it's tricky, practice practice practice. The instructor has advised me that we'll do some circuits at a heavier weight, so I can feel the difference. Just getting him out made an impact on handling so getting some extra weight in will be interesting to feel. As of now I have 3 hrs solo, the next time I head down in two weeks I have a 3 1/2hr exam, then will be starting my navexs, seven in all with two solo then the PPL flight. I expect all of it will take a couple of weeks. Looking forward to the time I jet down and Maule home. I forgot to take the wifes camera down this time, so the instructor is going to email me the solo hand shake pic.

[Andy Young]

Is your CG near the front limit when you're doing these landings? If so, adding some weight in the rear (baggage area) will make a dramatic difference in how easy it is to make a smooth landing.
Also, watch those skidding turns; easy way to end up in a low-level spin.

Andy

[Ozy]

Thanks for the C of G tips Andy, I'll give it a go. The instructor reinforced quite verbally about the danger of spinning in those skidding turns. I wouldn't try them on my own until I have a lot more experience up.

[Andy Young]

Sounds good; I've just never heard of anybody intentionally skidding a turn. Slipping, yes; skidding, no. That said, there are plently of things I've yet to learn, even after 3000 hours, so....

[Ozy]

I had a good tailwind on down wind so when i turned to me it felt like a skid in relation to the ground, it's not what the instructor described it as but what a witness on the ground related to me afterwards. The instructor reinforced airspeed and AOA at low level, where if you washoff to much speed then stalling and spin in is a possibility with no chance of recovery at a low altitude. I more than likely got it wrong in describing it, with only 13hrs I am used to getting it wrong.

[Andy Young]

Ah, I see. I know what you mean now, and have often felt the same thing. You get halfway through the turn, and it starts to feel like you are sliding sideways across the ground. Then, for the second half, it feels like you are not moving much at all; just pivoting in space. As I'm sure your instructor told you, this is a case where it's important to use the ball and airspeed to ensure you stay coordinated and on speed. Fun stuff!

Andy

[Ozy]

+1 on the fun stuff part

[Ozy]

I have feared exams since high school, so it is with a huge sigh of relief that the PPL theory exam is now done and dusted, oh and passed. It seems crazy how phobias from years ago resurface, even with 35 years of life experience under the belt. I seem to have a love/hate relationship with the Maule, kinda like two steps forward and one step back, still wonder if I have done the right thing sometimes, then I come on here and watch some videos for inspiration. Winter is a windy time here, so have had a fair bit of xwind, on a navex the other day one of the strips had a pretty gnarly xwind, around 12kts and I messed up badly , the instructor took over and wheel landed, which is something I don't seem to have had enough training in, so will endeavor to practice practice practice. Have three navexs completed out of the seven, and loved flying cross country. The patroller doors are fantastic for sightseeing, and reading from ground to map. At one stage we had 150kts gs with a tail wind, plan at 120kts, this thing really hoots along.
I don't have a JPI so was wondering how to lean the io540 off instruments, one instructor said to lean back two graduations from peak egt, which got me back to around 9.5 to 10 gallons, the other said that was to lean and to just lean back to 11 or 12 gallons an hour preferably 12. This was at around 4500' to 5500' ,23 sq. They both seem to end up fairly similar do the numbers sound ok?
I am learning the analogue way of nav and back it up with the GPS, it's all good fun even if it does get busy with frequency changes and instructor diversions. I hope only two more commutes, the next one is to have a couple more navs and a solo nav or two, then hopefully one more for PPL and the trip home.

[rick]

Hang in there and make sure if you don't understand why something happened, ask the instructer. Only fly when you feel good. In 99 I purchased a new Maule and took some instruction from Ray Maule at the factory. I had one incident were he had to take over because I was not in to it being sick with some kind of bug. Learned a good lesson that day, and I was on the ground taxing. It took me a while to get used to the power,being a high country pilot. It,s a rocket for sure. Sea level is a whole new ball game. Things happen a lot faster. I think the Maule is a fantastic airplane and just like a sport car, if you don't pay attention it will bite you. It is hard not to be intimadated by something you are not totally familure with. In time, I know you will be glad with the choice you made. Thanks for your post and good flying.

[Andy Young]

Leaning: This is a controversial topic, but here's what works for me, based on the Lycoming factory telling me repeatedly that their engines should be run at peak EGT when below 75% power (I also have the Lycoming IO-540):
In cruise, 23 squared or below, lean until the engine noticably loses power, then richen slightly until you feel the noticable power surge, and stop there.
I do have a six-cylinder EGT/CHT, and have found that this simple procedure gets me right to peak EGT, which is right where I want to be.

As a side note, I fly for an air taxi in Alaska; we've been running our Continental IO-520s that way for a few years, and have seen no resulting problems.

Andy

[Ozy]

Thanks Rick, I'll hang in there for as long as it takes, when it's all going right and I am buzzing along I feel like a kid in a lolly(candy) shop. Funny you say that about not flying when you feel a bit off. The day of the nav that I messed up the landing I had a bad nights sleep and woke with a mongrel headache, popped a couple of panadol which didn't help much, and went on the nav, map reading was dodgy and concentration was poor. After a break back at the airfield I did a couple of ccts, on one I found myself in a bit of a daze on final, slapped my face around a bit and made it a full stop. This plane needs my full attention at all times. A lesson learned.
I am about to watch an EEA video about leaning, I'll give your technique a try Andy, thanks.
Probably the wrong place to post this question, but what about the popping that some times happens on deceleration, does that have any detrimental affect on valves, etc?