Fellows (and ladies)-

Jeremy and I had a lengthy discussion about a week ago concerning Maule insurance and the factors surrounding the high premiums. One of the things that we both agreed heavily on was the fact that good Maule instructors are becoming hard to find and the minimum requirements for a sign off are often times very inadequate. By good Maule instructors we mean that they have at least 100 hours in a Maule and are very thorough with their checkouts. For example 8 - 10 hours of dual instruction with a minimum of 100 landings in various wind and runway conditions prior to signing off a new Maule pilot.

Soooo in an effort to try an help us all, we discussed the creation of an instructor list as well as a Maule transition / recurrency training program. Eventually we will try to create a searchable database from the list, but we can only get out of it what you all help us put into it.

Please do not take this lightly...it can benefit us all when it comes to safety and insurance rates.

I will start the list with a good Maule instructor that I know of.

Nashville, TN
- Sam Swift (615) 604-8557

I believe George Kirkish in Vashon Island WA (near Seattle) does instruction in his Maule. Don't have his number but he's online Island Air Service or something like that.

Eric

Springfield Flying Service
Chris Miller
http://www.letsgofly.com/
10767 Airport Rd.
Columbia, Ca. 95310
209-532-4103
(O22)


Chris has a Stearman that he gives dual in and has been instructing tailwheel pilots for years. Husky's, Maules, Luscombe, you name it. Give him a few hours and you will not be sorry. Be ready for a workout, he is not the kind to ride along while you teach yourself, that's for sure.

zero.one.victor wrote:I believe George Kirkish in Vashon Island WA (near Seattle) does instruction in his Maule. Don't have his number but he's online Island Air Service or something like that.

Eric

Here is George Kirkish's website, by the way he has over 20,000 hours of tailwheel, much of it instructing and a high time Maule pilot/instructor

http://www.island-air.com/

I know this as he is my instructor and we have a ball in the cubs. I have time in his Maule also.

Here is my contribution:

Lance Bartels
Cherry Hill, Indiana
Phone: 812-988-6525
email: [email protected]

I have known Lance for several years now. He has his own Maule (among a number of planes that are all tail draggers), a 1,900 grass strip, and large hangar where he instructs and repairs aircraft. Great guy! He instructed me in my Luscombe then later transitioned me to my Maule. He was the primary reason I bought a Maule.

Jim O'Neal in Fairbanks, has an M-7-180 and will do ski instruction also. Haven't flown with him yet but got a couple of good reviews from other folks.

Though I think he is on floats for much of the summer

Hi,
I am Stan Burks from Mississippi. I have a couple of thousand hours in the MAule and I instruct when I can. I will be glad to fly with anyone who needs help.

These are the guys who taught me. Carric Scott (Scotty). Has been flying for over 50 years. Still flies a Citation regularly. Thousands of hours in all kinds of TW aircraft. Works out of KTTD Troutdale, Oregon 503.539.1123 Number 2 Dick Baily very good TW CFI. Dick is about 50 years old. Works out of KTTD Troutdale, Oregon 503.703.1663 Hope this helps...Rob

Got another good one for the list:

Tim Coleman down in southern MN is a great Maule guy. He's an airline guy who does floatplane, backcountry and tailwheel stuff on the side. Very knowledgable and thorough, but also very laid back. Have had a bunch of instruction from him. Learned alot and had a blast.
He has a website...luckystaraviation.com (hopefully that's right..I'll edit if not) I'll put this on the maule forum also.

Great forum.

Ed

David Shapiro, owner of Bridger Aviation Services in Three Forks, Montana instucts in a 1991 M-6-235. (406) 285-4264

The person who helped me become proficent in my maule is Jeff Brown,1-603-502-8031 cell. He flys out of Hampton Field, NH. 7B3.Jeff has thousands of hours in tailwheel planes and hundreds in Maules. My MX7-180C was about to be sold until I found Jeff,nowjust try to get it away from me.

Alaskan Bushwheel
1-800-442-8473

We now have a AP/IA CFI on staff here that can do installs and then check you out on your new gear.

Several thousand hour Maule pilot with lots of time in the back country.

Call for info.

Might seem unrelated. Steve Wolff in Cresswell OR does training in their S2B Pitts. Although I was training for my Pitts, his instruction helped in all my tailwheel landings. His training allowed me to regularly land at Majerle STOL, a 1000 ft strip in my S1C. Some people consider the Pitts family short coupled as well.
Just a thought.

I have been providing Maule specific training for several years. My location provides a low traffic density enviroment with mountain and open country landing areas. www.montanabyair.com

Rick Geiger 406-949-5709

I guess I can throw my name in the hat, too. I have owned by M-7-235 since 2005 and I am a CFI, CFII (obviously a tailwheel instructor) currently based out of KSAC. My Maule is IFR-equipped and certified, but if we are going for a tailwheel endorsement, I prefer to teach out of your airplane due to familiarity with your own equipment and save the wear-n-tear on my own.

You can PM me for contact details if you want to just fly around or get a BFR, IPC, or a full tailwheel endorsement.

BTW - I am a terrible instructor. Really. I don't teach "back country" flying. I leave that to the real experts like Jeremy. I am too conservative (read:chicken)... I will give you enough to stay alive and learn. That's it.

CHEERS!

I got an email from one of my students that I should respond to this posting. My name is George Kirkish, I live on Vashon Island, and have been teaching here at TIW (Tacoma Narrows), and BFI (Boeing Field) since 1996. I teach primary students in one of my J-3 Piper Cubs, and have been teaching Maule flying as here as well. Over the years I have owned 4 different Maule aircraft, everything but the 420 Alison Turbine. I have flown the 160, owned the 180-A, the 180-C, the 235-C, and currently own the 260-C. If I ever sell this one I'll probably buy another Maule too. I have about 10,000 hours in Maules and have flown numerous times across the US from the factory in Moultrie, Georgia to the Pacific Northwest. Currently I have about 25,000 hours TT with all but about 300 hours in taildraggers. My home airport, 2S1, Vahon Muni, is a 50' wide X 1900' grass runway on a little island in the Puget Sound, with 200' fir trees on both ends.
I teach out of the old school of stick and rudder flying. One of the first things is "dutch rolls", then 1/2 dutch rolls, slow flight, boxes, stalls, occillation stalls, then falling leaf stalls. Once those are mastered we can then proceed back to an airport and work first on 3 point landings with and without x-winds. I come at wheel landing thru long extended wheel takeoffs where we work at controlling the roll out then shift over 10' each side of the center line then back again. Then work on getting up on 1 wheel, lower it back down then up on to the other wheel. Once you have gained proficiency at that we can work on what I call "fun and games with flaps". We work on popping flaps "ON" on take off and lowering flaps off on landings. This can give you a lot of control, and will improve your landings. It will increase the number of "greased" landings as well. Your wife or girlfriend or whoever you fly with will be impressed!

I can take you to whatever level of skills you want to have. Here in the Pacific NW we can land on the beach, high mountain strips, short strips, soft strips, long 10,000' strips, grass. sand, dirt and paved. Tell me your goals and I'll make sure you get there.

www.island-air.com or email [email protected]

I'll second George Kirkish. Got checked out with him about 10 years ago
and still occasionally run into him. Vashon Island was probably the
LARGEST strip we flew into that month, other than runs up and
down the length of Bremerton, etc. He's probably got permission
to land on every straight piece of dirt in the San Juan islands.

I remember a 1500' OVC day in which we flew around with the stall
horn on for about 45 minutes. (have the VG kit)
I think I got better stall and slow speed training with him than in any
of the primary training I did with 5 different instructors.

George probably has more takeoffs and landings than anyone I know.
Many of his flights are 10-15 minutes at a pop. He lives on one island,
mechanic on another, fuel at another airport, and meets students
at another.


allan

Before buying a Maule, I wanted to fly one to see how they handled and to ensure I would be comfortable flying it. I made arrangements with Maule flight to get a couple of hours of dual on my way to Sun-N-Fun. To my great surprise, my instructor was Ray Maule. It was a great 2 hours, so I'm going through with my purchase of an MX7-180-C

I've tried posting a picture of Ray in front of the M4-180V we used, but the image posting process keeps telling me it can't determine the size of the picture. I give up for now.

Any instructors in AZ by chance? I am in AZ and am hoping to find someone to airline to AR with me to nab a plane and bring it home while I build the experience I need for insurance.

Does anyone have a current list? I'm looking to buy a Maule for the first time and need to get some instruction in type. I live in Michigan so local would be great, but anything on the east coast or so would probably work.