Hammer wrote:

daedaluscan wrote:I know nothing about Maules. But I do know that you should make this decision as rationally as possible. Don't get attached to an aircraft before you buy it. If you buy an aircraft that needs recovering be sure that the aircraft after the recover is a better deal than another one that does not need to be recovered/rengined/newpanel/whatever.

I am almost sure that you could find another one that someone else had recovered and it would be cheaper - and you would be flying now.

+1

This isn't meant to be insulting in any way, but it doesn't sound like you know enough about this make and model of airplane to buy one without seeing it. The airplanes we own don't makes us happy...its the ones we almost owned, but didn't, that make life a joy.

Not saying anything against this particular airplane, but LOTS of people sell a couple years or a couple hundred hours before a major event (like new fabric) because they've had the time to puzzle out the pros and cons and they don't want to deal with it. That can work out OK for someone who knows what's involved, knows what else is likely to need repair/replacement when the fabric comes off, and bargains appropriately, but it's often not a good deal for someone who doesn't.

A1Skinner wrote:Like Zzz says, recovering isn't a big deal if you get it for the right price and the bones are good. But even if the bones are good, getting seemingly minor parts from Maule can be a major wait. FWIW.

Prosaria wrote:

A1Skinner wrote:Like Zzz says, recovering isn't a big deal if you get it for the right price and the bones are good. But even if the bones are good, getting seemingly minor parts from Maule can be a major wait. FWIW.

It’s never just a recover, that fabric hasn’t been off in 52 years. You are doing yourself a disservice if you think you can slap some new fabric on and be good for the next “insert whatever number” of years. But yes, fabric is the easy part. Probably shy of $5k for the materials.

gbflyer wrote:There's another one in Fairbanks on floats. Might be worth a look. From the pictures, looks like it's at the shop on Chena Marina across the pond from my buddies place. Those guys do good work. Could be wrong though. It's on Alaskas List. If I could talk my flyin partner into a real airplane again I'd be on a smoker to go look at it.

merrymunks wrote:

gbflyer wrote:There's another one in Fairbanks on floats. Might be worth a look. From the pictures, looks like it's at the shop on Chena Marina across the pond from my buddies place. Those guys do good work. Could be wrong though. It's on Alaskas List. If I could talk my flyin partner into a real airplane again I'd be on a smoker to go look at it.

Thanks gbflyer. That one is about 14 M4s newer than the one discussed in this post, from the S/N. My concern would be that it's been sitting for several years- recovered in 2014, 3 hrs ago. 3 hours in 4 years... My CFI, who's also an A&P, has repeatedly cautioned me about Continentals needing to be run on a monthly if not weekly basis to keep the seals viable. However, I am booked for a float plane rating course in August, so you never know Please let me know if you hear of any other tailwheel Maules for sale up there...