Recent going rate for an M4-220C and MI members...

PaulMaul · Post by **PaulMaul** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 4:21 pm

Hey everyone,

I'm new to this forum and new to flying (I'm still a student pilot with about 20 total hours). I've been looking for a plane since I started my training and have pretty much decided on an M4. The other top contender is a Pacer, but I hate the lack of pilot-side door, and hardly any Pacers out there are IFR. Then there's the fact that if I get a Pacer, I'm just going to want to upgrade to a Maule down the road anyway...

In the past few months of searching for planes, I had a line one one M4 that was sold by the time I contacted the seller, and there is one other that has been for sale for a few months. The price has come down a little over that time to $39900. I'd like to make the seller an offer, but since I haven't been watching the market long enough to see a few sales, I have no idea what a fair asking price is. The plane is on Barnstormers, and it's the only M4 on there right now.

I'd also like to know if anyone knows anyone near or in Michigan with Maule experience that can do a pre-purchase inspection on the plane....

Thanks for the assistance

PaulMaul · Post by **PaulMaul** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 4:27 pm

I just read the AvWeb article posted in another thread in this subforum about tailwheel Maules. It says:

"Prices range up to $32,000 for a 1973 M-4-220C. The first M-5s run from around $34,000 with the first Lycoming O-540 variant about $39,000."

Is that fairly representative of the market?

By the way, I'm based in Chicago and would be very interested in connecting with other members around here. I think I'll be based out of KLOT.

FARMAULE · Post by **FARMAULE** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 5:23 pm

Personally I think the one on BS for 39k seems like a hell of a deal to me. I'd be all over it if I was in the market? Find out if it has sealed struts or not. That will be another 4K if not or you can continue to have the old ones inspected at annual. I'm sure your already aware but take a look at insurance if your on a tight budget. I paid 3400$ my first year. I love my M4. The Franklin sounds mean too if you haven't heard one. Good luck

captnkirk · Post by **captnkirk** » Mon Oct 26, 2015 2:41 pm

I loved the Franklin but it is an orphaned engine just be sure you are willing to deal with that. Find out if the local shops can help maintain it, parts can be hard to find.

flyfish1 · Post by **flyfish1** » Mon Oct 26, 2015 4:57 pm

I have had my M4 for 5 years and have had good luck with it. The Franklin is an orphan but Susan Prall at Franklin down in Texas and Franklin Aerospace along with Southern Aero in North Carolina have had everything I needed. A new crankshaft may be a different story. I am attaching a link of my M4 coming out of Dewey Moore ID this summer. I was hauling our gear down to Cabin Creek to make the takeoffs out of Dewey Moore lighter. It sounds pretty good going through the canyon.

https://youtu.be/yzrH_a1YLzI

This site has been a great help to me with all things Maule and Franklin related.

PaulMaul · Post by **PaulMaul** » Mon Oct 26, 2015 5:18 pm

Yeah, I initially was avoiding Franklin Maules, but there are some guys out here who run them in some other planes and they don't think there is much of an issue (yet). And I guess there are the Polish engines now...?

Not sure how cost effective it is to ship engines across the ocean...

PaulMaul · Post by **PaulMaul** » Mon Oct 26, 2015 5:21 pm

flyfish1 wrote:I have had my M4 for 5 years and have had good luck with it. The Franklin is an orphan but Susan Prall at Franklin down in Texas and Franklin Aerospace along with Southern Aero in North Carolina have had everything I needed. A new crankshaft may be a different story. I am attaching a link of my M4 coming out of Dewey Moore ID this summer. I was hauling our gear down to Cabin Creek to make the takeoffs out of Dewey Moore lighter. It sounds pretty good going through the canyon.

https://youtu.be/yzrH_a1YLzI

This site has been a great help to me with all things Maule and Franklin related.

Awesome video! That's exactly why I want a Maule (planning on moving West in the next couple years so I will have a lot more opportunities to do stuff like that).

PaulMaul · Post by **PaulMaul** » Mon Oct 26, 2015 5:22 pm

FARMAULE wrote:Personally I think the one on BS for 39k seems like a hell of a deal to me. I'd be all over it if I was in the market? Find out if it has sealed struts or not. That will be another 4K if not or you can continue to have the old ones inspected at annual. I'm sure your already aware but take a look at insurance if your on a tight budget. I paid 3400$ my first year. I love my M4. The Franklin sounds mean too if you haven't heard one. Good luck

Yeah, I'm still waiting on an insurance quote. It should be... interesting. But I'm semi-prepared for it.

Undaunted · Post by **Undaunted** » Tue Oct 27, 2015 3:49 am

Prebuy in MI? Call Maule and talk to Brian. He had previously given me a name of a Maule expert in MI to do a prebuy. I don't remember the guys name but I talked to him and he was a great source of information even though he was not able to do mine, due to the timing of his schedule.

NW of you is GALT Airport, 10C. There is an instructor there who flies a Maule. He may also know of a mechanic that is very Maule savvy at that airport. BTW he is on this forum and active, I am blanking on his username here...I think it has the name GALT in it.

Good luck

PaulMaul · Post by **PaulMaul** » Tue Oct 27, 2015 3:14 pm

Undaunted wrote:Prebuy in MI? Call Maule and talk to Brian. He had previously given me a name of a Maule expert in MI to do a prebuy. I don't remember the guys name but I talked to him and he was a great source of information even though he was not able to do mine, due to the timing of his schedule.

NW of you is GALT Airport, 10C. There is an instructor there who flies a Maule. He may also know of a mechanic that is very Maule savvy at that airport. BTW he is on this forum and active, I am blanking on his username here...I think it has the name GALT in it.

Good luck

Thanks for the leads, I think I'll call them both...

PaulMaul · Post by **PaulMaul** » Tue Oct 27, 2015 3:18 pm

I found these in the NTSB database. The owner alluded to the second incident when I inquired about why the engine had a major overhaul at 560 hours on the airframe, but he didn't mention the prop strike, and he didn't mention the first incident at all...

I'd like to know what repairs were made when the plane struck a tree...

#FAA1
Accident/Incident Occurred on: 1985-06-21
Narrative: STRUCK A TREE ON FINAL AFTER ENCOUNTERING A DOWNDRAFT. IMPACTED GROUND BESIDE RUNWAY. SOME THRESHOLD LIGHTS OUT.

#FAA2
Accident/Incident Occurred on: 2005-08-15
Narrative: (-23) ON AUGUST 15, 2005, PILOT IN COMMAND ^PRIVACY DATA OMITTED^ WAS OPERATING N102MD, A MAULE M-4 AIRCRAFT, ON A PERSONAL PLEASURE FLIGHT FROM DAY AIRPORT (6H4), JACKSON, MICHIGAN TO METROPOLITAN AIRPORT (UMP), INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. AT ABOUT ELWOOD, INDIANA THE PILOT ENCOUNTERED DRIZZLING RAIN, AND LOWERING CEILING AND VISIBILITY. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE WAS VERY FAMILIAR WITH THE AREA HAVING TRAVELED THE SAME ROUTE ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. HE SAID HE KNEW THAT HE WAS IN THE ELWOOD AREA AND THAT THERE WAS A SOD FIELD AIRPORT IN THE AREA. THE PILOT ^PRIVACY DA^ SAID THAT HE MADE A VISUAL SCAN OF THE AREA AND SAW BELOW HIM WHAT APPEARED TO BE A LANDING FIELD. IT WAS A NARROW STRIP OF FIELD BETWEEN A CORN FIELD AND A SOY BEAN FIELD. HE LANDED WITHOUT INCIDENT BUT DURING THE LATTER PART OF THE ROLLOUT HE ENCOUNTERED A DITCH WHICH COLLAPSED THE LANDING GEAR AND BENT ONE PROPELLER TIP.

PaulMaul · Post by **PaulMaul** » Wed Oct 28, 2015 11:41 am

The seller sent me a bunch of logs that I'm going to sift through and compare with the accident records.

Also got an insurance quote: $1900 for the first year. Not even as bad as I expected...

PaulMaul · Post by **PaulMaul** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 5:21 pm

Lots of repair work mentioned in the logs, but I'm OK with that as long as it was done right and the price reflects it...

I still don't have the log entry for the most recent annual which is still being written up, or any of the logs between 2007 and now, but I suppose I'll have them in the next day or so.

I did determine that only the right front strut is sealed, the others aren't. The seller didn't know that though, I had to dig it out of the logs and then he confirmed it with his mechanic. The seller doesn't seem to know much about Maules and doesn't seem to have really flown this plane much (or ever)...

PaulMaul · Post by **PaulMaul** » Wed Nov 04, 2015 5:50 pm

Finally got the rest of the (recent) logs. Nothing crazy in the most recent annual. They did the inspection on the 3 unsealed struts. Compressions are 70, 64, 74, 70, 78, 70. The previous annual was in 2011 and 30 or so hours were put between then and now.

I was waiting for these logs before contacting Brian for a pre-buy inspection, so I'll give him a call tomorrow.

There is another M4 on BS in Idaho for about the same price. It's a bit farther away from me, but it has sealed struts and is in a drier climate. More recent MOH and a TOH 30 hours ago. Also hasn't been flown much in the past 5 years though...

Are any of you Idaho guys familiar with N92W in Nampa?

n2020u · Post by **n2020u** » Thu Nov 05, 2015 1:24 pm

PaulMaul wrote:Finally got the rest of the (recent) logs. Nothing crazy in the most recent annual. They did the inspection on the 3 unsealed struts. Compressions are 70, 64, 74, 70, 78, 70. The previous annual was in 2011 and 30 or so hours were put between then and now.

I was waiting for these logs before contacting Brian for a pre-buy inspection, so I'll give him a call tomorrow.

There is another M4 on BS in Idaho for about the same price. It's a bit farther away from me, but it has sealed struts and is in a drier climate. More recent MOH and a TOH 30 hours ago. Also hasn't been flown much in the past 5 years though...

Are any of you Idaho guys familiar with N92W in Nampa?

Welcome PaulMaul!

I'm from California...land of the large runways... but have ventured up to Idaho almost every summer for the past several years. I fly a remanufactured 1968 M-4-220 and have always made a point to look at every Maule I run across on my flying adventures.

If I recall I saw 92W in the Nampa area around 2011-ish? I think it's based there as well. It seemed as though it was in good shape. It had a "bench" style rear seat instead of the sling that you find in most Maules. Also, it was sitting on the ramp looking rather 'squat' as though the oleos has been extended about half of their travel. Jeremy may have more info on this; it could mean the aircraft has a lot of toe-in/out (wheel alignment) or that the oleo springs are worn out...might want to look at that portion of the airplane.

All that aside, the M-4 will bring you tons of fun and will not be an airplane that you "grow out of". It's got a very wide range of capabilities; as do all Maules.

PM me if you have any additional questions.

Take Care and Good Luck on the future purchase!

Garrett Grant

Recent going rate for an M4-220C and MI members...

Recent going rate for an M4-220C and MI members...

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