Going slightly off topic here, but what Maules have rudder trim springs in the tail? My M4 just has a single spring connected to the right rudder pedal.

1:1 Scale wrote:Going slightly off topic here, but what Maules have rudder trim springs in the tail? My M4 just has a single spring connected to the right rudder pedal.

M7.

Can anyone recommend a good pre-buy mechanic for old cessna singles in Anchorage? Birchwood, Hood, or Merrill?

I guess we would prefer a lake hood mechanic since that is where my partner wants to base the aircraft.

Just buy a Maule. Or a good Pacer.

A 182 is a true four-place aircraft, more than you are looking for based on your description of 2.5 seats.

Have mostly been looking at 170's and Pacers. I am finding the condition of the aircraft for sale up here a little disenchanting. Duct tape, lots of corrosion, dented leading edges, beat to hell stabilizers, interiors covered by what looks like paper grocery sacks, insect nests. Inoperative avionics. Oh and still asking 50k. All because it has a tailwheel? I guess it's a seller's market.

Ended up with a C-182B. Looking forward to flying around AK with it.

There's an Aeronca Sedan for sale on this forum right now. Could be a great airplane for what you want to do.

Frankly, I wouldn't want to leave ANY airplane outside in Anchorage without being somewhere in the neighborhood to care for it during wind events. I've seen too many airplanes wrecked that might have been saved had the owners cared enough to be there.

Might consider Fairbanks for basing a plane. Fewer wind events.

MTV

Thanks! Between the partners on this 182 we should have someone available to batten down the hatches and do some babysitting when the wind in anchorage gets too gnarly, we all live within 10 minutes of hood/merrill. This will be a learn-about-ownership and learn-about-ak experience for us, hopefully this old C182B is good for that.

Congrats. Post some pictures of your old girl.

Narwhal747 wrote:Ended up with a C-182B. Looking forward to flying around AK with it.

Great choice of airplane! You are going to have fun with that.

Kurt

Narwhal747 wrote:

airplane2.0.jpg

panel.jpg

Congrats! Great looking airplane.

akaviator wrote:

Narwhal747 wrote:

airplane2.0.jpg

panel.jpg

Congrats! Great looking airplane.

x2! Looks like a great airplane!

Great colour scheme

Looks very capable with the long legs and big shoes. Nice buying.

Excellent choice if I might say so. Congrats!
Maybe you could elaborate a little? Looks like it might have a Sportsman, VG's, nice paint and a large nose fork. What else??

That is a great airplane. Enjoy!

On The Fly wrote:Excellent choice if I might say so. Congrats!
Maybe you could elaborate a little? Looks like it might have a Sportsman, VG's, nice paint and a large nose fork. What else??

Thanks for responding!

I think you hit the high points. C-206 nose fork. Sportsman STOL kit, and VG's like you say. It also has bubble side windows for the front seats and an 18 gallon aux tank on the floor of the baggage area, plus an extended baggage STC. Flashing landing lights. 4 place headset jacks. There is an STC for the battery to be mounted forward of the firewall, iirc. It currently has a very basic 121.5 ELT but we are going to upgrade that to a 406. Standard McCauley 82" 2 bladed aluminum propeller. Digital Tach and CHT/EGT. #1 radio does not seem to work so we need to replace that. I think the tires are 8.50 x 6's all around? Maybe you guys can tell by looking. Unfortunately I have been working a lot and haven't had the time to really sit down with the logs, STC's, and documents since the purchase.

I flew it for the first time on Monday....first takeoff from a 1300 ft gravel strip with tall lines/trees + rising terrain on the ends in moderate turbulence and a 10-20 knot Matanuska wind giving us a 10-15 knot crosswind. Boy, trees sure do look close to your wingtips when takeoff on that sort of narrow runway and crab into the wind a bit. It was my first time on a non-paved runway, unless you count my helicopter landings. I wouldn't have wanted to do that in a Maule or even a 180 given my lack of recent light airplane experience, nor would insurance have allowed it. It definitely need 600-700 feet for the ground roll and I can't say that we cleared the obstacles by more than a few hundred feet, hard to say. We were hauling 450 lbs of pilots plus full fuel in the wings though. The previous owner flew it in there with me sitting right seat, he had it stopped 600 or 700 feet past the threshold without too much braking.

I'm Trying to get a feel for the actual V speeds on this airplane and its modifications. It seems to climb at 1000+ fpm at about 60 mph IAS and flaps 20! At the book speed (granted, for a stock 182b) Vy of 90 mph, good luck getting 500 fpm! I did not get a lot of stick time to experiment since I was giving my partners their insurance checkouts (I have 130 hours of 182RG time from 16 years ago). It is not a fast cruiser.....maybe 120 mph at the 23" and 2450 rpm full cruise power mark, but that's not what it's for.

I tried to stall it power off and with full back pressure and trim about 1/2 nose up it would not stall. It just starts descending at 500 fpm while the IAS reads about 50 mph. Maybe if I had cranked in some more trim, or for sure if I had rolled a bit, it would've stalled. In the same vein, it kind of tends to run out of elevator in the landing flare and lands on all 3 wheels due to the nose-high stance. Maybe keeping the baggage fuel full and/or a few spins of the nose trim on final would help. Definitely close to forward CG with grown men in the front.