mtv wrote:
Yep, and she runs right down to Hardware Hank, picks up the part and ships it out.



MTV

I was thinking Home Depot, but hey, if it's STCd, all's good.

mtv wrote:

Zzz wrote:

OregonMaule wrote:I fly a 2000 M7 235 on spring gear.

The M7 Maule and Cessna 180 are different. I have many friends with both. If money is an issue buy a Maule. For any given amount of buy in cost you will get a newer and better condition Maule. If you want to easily load and unload your SWAG, get a Maule. The Maule with spring gear, 235 Lyc, 29 inch AirHawks true out at 150 MPH. 8.50s true out at 156 MPH. 35s True 125 MPH

If you have deep pockets and want to impress all of us poor guys, by all means buy a Cessna 180-185. Make it like new with state of the art avionics, leather, custom paint, Bushwheels, and the rest of us will live vicariously through you.

Cheers...Rob

Plus when you need Maule parts, you call their HQ in Moultrie, GA and talk to a nice lady and tell her what you want. It's easy, it's real, it's friendly.

Yep, and she runs right down to Hardware Hank, picks up the part and ships it out.



MTV

And you get it maybe 6 months later. Sometimes over a year later... and if they send you the wrong parts it's like pulling grizzly teeth to return and get a refund. Not her fault, but still a major PIA.
But maybe they just don't like us Canadians...

I think it can happen with any manufacturer and it being your 'unlucky' turn! I had a similar issue ordering a bushing for the trim on a Champ I owned at the time. Wrong part delivered to me. Actually, it was out of spec, took nearly a year to get it straightened out. If it were experimental, I would have gotten a piece of steel tubing and cut it to the correct length. Which is all they did, only they took their sweet ass time!

WWhunter wrote:I think it can happen with any manufacturer and it being your 'unlucky' turn! I had a similar issue ordering a bushing for the trim on a Champ I owned at the time. Wrong part delivered to me. Actually, it was out of spec, took nearly a year to get it straightened out. If it were experimental, I would have gotten a piece of steel tubing and cut it to the correct length. Which is all they did, only they took their sweet ass time!

Ya I know it can happen with anyone, just hasn't happened with anyone else for me yet. Didn't even get a sorry. And the fabric work they did on the parts I got was apparently completely normal for them according to Brent. Almost half the pinked corners were up in the air, but I guess that's how they do it and just sand it down... oh well. Im a bit bitter I guess.
But in reality not all parts are available right away from Maule. There is certain things that you have to wait for until the decide to make some. That was over a year wait for landing gear oleo springs.
My other complaint with Maule is the lack of STCs for them. Lots of field approvals, but that does us no good in Canada. So lots if mods cost a lot of extra $$ to get a LSTC.
When it comes down to it they are good planes. Different then a Cessna. Some differences are good, some are bad. I like my Cessnas, and if going with a Maule type plane I'd build an experimental like a bear hawk.
Just my personal opinion.

My hangar neighbor has a 235 hp Maule.
I've flown in it, and like it, it seems pretty comparable to my own C180.
If I didn't have the 180, I'd sure consider buying a Maule.
Like someone pointed out, for the same money or not much more, you get a lot newer airplane.

I think after-purchase ownership costs for comparable airplanes ("apples to apples") are gonna be about the same.
Maules are generally newer, so they tend to break less. Except for exhaust systems, engines, etc .….
Insurance for Maule is more. I insure my $70K C180 for $1050 / year.

FWIW I (foolishly) keep track of all of my airplane costs,
and my total ownership costs after 4 years & 400 hours in the 180 are right around $100 an hour.
That's burning about 80% mogas, doing owner-assisted annuals, and a hangar which costs me about $100 a month.
That doesn't include any "maintenance reserve", but does include some upgrades, including a seaplane prop.
BTW fuel costs are about half of that hundred bucks.

Which hangar/airport is that? I'm probably going to relocate to Port Townsend/Port Angeles next year and will need a place to setup shop.

A number of years ago, I was handed the keys to a brand new Maule M-7-235 on floats, and told to go put some hours on it and provide an evaluation of it for possible future purchase of more Maules.

Not long after, I took the airplane out to conduct some radio telemetry tracking of black bears. This involved a seven hour flying day, with me flying and a biologist assisting with tracking and spotting duties.

The biologist this trip was a young woman named Laura.....who was a VERY intelligent and capable biologist. She was also a super aerial observer.....never got airsick, and great vision. But if Laura said ten words in a day, it was a chatty day for her. But when she said something, it was nearly always worth cataloguing. This wasn’t her first flight in a small airplane, by the way.

At mid flight, I landed on a lake for fuel and a lunch break. We were sitting on the lake shore eating lunch but she was staring at that (bran new) airplane intently.

So, I asked her “So, Laura, what do you think of this airplane?”

Her response: “I’m just hoping they built the wings better than they did the door latches.” Cold, But a valid concern.

I’ve always remembered her comment, and have never been confident that they did.

At the end of the evaluation period, I recommended that we buy more Maules. I was the only evaluator who did.....no sale.

MTV

I’m with you on the door latches. And they did design new ones

akschu wrote: Which hangar/airport is that? I'm probably going to relocate to Port Townsend/Port Angeles next year and will need a place to setup shop.

I'm based at Jefferson County 0S9.
Feel free to PM me for a conversation about the area.

I skipped forward a bunch of replies, so if someone stated it.. forgive me.


I keep a log, in a book type format. As of this afternoon, after spending $97 for not that many gallons of gas, I have spent roughly $160/hour since I picked my 180 up in March. That covers about 110 hours I've flown in it thus far.

Now, that includes active cost's not passive. By that I mean, I don't calculate an overhaul reserve.
I've spent about $18000 just to fly it, and fix the inevitable breaks. Plus a few small upgrades (Rosen visors and EI fuel totalizer).

I've also lost count of the amount I've spent collecting avionics to install in the next month to make it a great IFR bird. I think close to $10g's.


Now: if the choice is to eat Mac n cheese 6 days a week, and ramen on the 7th to afford it. We should talk over beers.

Nark wrote:We should talk over beers.

Speaking of cheap beer, king st IPA is only $69 a keg. So what does that calculate out to? 26 minutes of flying? Priorities.....

The Maule is super cheap to fix. We did several damaged ones in the shop. We had one customer, whom we nicknamed "Sant Claus," he owned a Christmas tree farm, well several actually. He would fly from one to the other, but his strips where narrow. He dinged the outer 2' of the wing drifting left. So we fixed it, new aileron and lot of bits and pieces along with a wing tip. I seem to recall with paint it came to $11,000. Well flying home, he did it again, almost exactly the same place. The lads did #2 quite quickly. He always flew it in with lots of silver aluminum duct tape wrapped over everything. He was also almost 90 years old and had type ratings in over 20 aircraft, B25's Ford Tri-motors and a lot of other esoteric stuff, I seem to recall he had like 12,000 hours. All in all I think we did 3 repairs over a few years, just for him. He also had an RV, but was a completely different story on what happened with that one.

Had it been a 180, it would have been substantially more, depending on the model/year. There are a lot of junked 180's out there, so getting salvage parts is quite a bit cheaper. They also share parts with a whole host of other Cessnas.

All in all, the difference in price or operating costs kind of run down to what the bird will do for you. I personally am not real wild about Maules, I also don't like okra and Guinness beer. Everybody has personal preferences and it is kind of more what you expect from your airplane and how they fly. I like how 180/185's fly, a lot. Your preference may vary. I would suggest paying for a few hours in each and then decide.

I saw the word silver coming up in the sentence, and was hoping it would be followed by the word tinsel. Aluminium duct tape could be substituted for tinsel, but tinsel would be really funny!

OregonMaule wrote:...If you have deep pockets and want to impress all of us poor guys, by all means buy a Cessna 180-185. Make it like new with state of the art avionics, leather, custom paint, Bushwheels, and the rest of us will live vicariously through you.

I had to laugh at this one, I've seen plenty of pimped-out Maules too.

Hammer wrote:….Maul's are less expensive to repair if you bend them....

I would agree...IF it's a fabric repair vs replace sheet metal thing. Otherwise, maybe yes maybe no.
Some years ago, a guy ground-looped his Maule landing at my home airport.
The local shop bid for & got the repair job from the insurance company.
The head mechanic told me he was amazed at how cheap the replacement parts were compared to the Cessnas he usually worked on.
He told me later he figured out why-- almost none of the parts would bolt right on.
They all required some sort of mod or tweek-- sometimes minor, sometimes major.
He called the factory to complain and was told that Maules are built one at a time, so the no-fit issue was pretty normal.
Apparently they weren't too apologetic about it either.

As far as choosing between brand x & brand y based on repair costs....
just figure that repairs are gonna cost a bunch if you bend your airplane.,
so learn to fly it well enough (and exercise enough judgement) that you don't bend it.

Just read this thread.

Have seen useful load mentioned several times but no how you would get that load into the plane.

I have helped wrestle a drum of fuel into the rear of a C180 which was no fun. Since the whole right side of a Maule opens, getting big stuff into the back is super simple. I have seen loads in the back of Maules that are "interesting" such as engines loaded with a forklift.

Been flying my M5 since 1994 and only regret is I think the longer wing would be a real advantage over my short wing.

TD

No experience with Maules but I know exactly what my 180 costs. 800 hours over 8 years. I keep it in a hangar in a mid-sized city, have good insurance, keep it certified for IFR, and pay good shops for all my maintenance. It costs me $10K a year to say “I own an airplane” and $1 a minute to fly it.

That doesn’t include engine reserve or any other mods I’ve done. And it’s worth it to me!

My expenses are real similar to Slowmovers. The breakdown is as follows:

Hangar: 3k
Insurance: 2K
Annuals/Routine maintenance - averages about 5K per year.

I fly about 100-120 hours per year and estimate the average hourly costs over the last 11 years to be around 160-165/hour without an engine/prop reserve. I am planning on reducing the maintenance costs in the coming years by doing owner assisted annuals. I am also hoping the maintenance costs will be going down in the coming years because I have literally replaced everything since purchasing the airplane. I am certainly not counting on it either.

The breakdown on the Maule will have higher insurance costs and lower maintenance. Probably a lot lower hourly costs but in the end it costs a lot of money to own and maintain an airplane. I am grateful I can afford it right now at this point in my life. In the end you should fly what your budget can afford, what makes sense for your mission, and what you enjoy flying.