after several talks with the factory, I have learned they are thinking about resurrecting the long-wing that was in production from 84-94. I believe there is viability to this project, but perhaps I am biased since I own a long-wing M7. I have owned several bushy type planes (carbon cubs, huskies, Maules, super cubs etc), but I have always kept my Long-wing maule in the stable. For me it just fills so many buckets of needs I can't imagine not having the option to use it. Other than the carbon cub it's pure STOL performance is as good as any other production airplane in the configuration that I have it in, it has a 950 LBS useful load, and I have done 800 nautical mile legs in it (albeit miserable).

For obvious reasons the idea excites me, and I was wondering if anyone else would is interested in this? I am not a dealer or officially connected to Maule in any capacity other than being close with the family, so I have no dog in the hunt, just curious. If you want to see a long-wing maule in action here is an old video I posted a few years back:



well that didn't work...maybe this will:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uctFNjywIQc

Are the 84' to 94' wings longer than the wings on your M7 or are you wanting Maule to build long wings to put on short wing Maules, like the M4 or M5's. Either way I think its a great idea. Its nice to have a little extra wing!
By the way your videos are great! Keep the education on STOL and Maules coming.

Chris

Wonering what the difference is between the universal wing and the long wing? I have an '84 M-6 235. when I bought it I was told that it had M7 wings on it. I assumed that I had the universal wing. mine have the square tip and not the droop.

curious as I would like to measure mine and find out

thanks

Roamer

DUSTERMAN wrote:Are the 84' to 94' wings longer than the wings on your M7 or are you wanting Maule to build long wings to put on short wing Maules, like the M4 or M5's. Either way I think its a great idea. Its nice to have a little extra wing!
By the way your videos are great! Keep the education on STOL and Maules coming.

Chris

Thanks for the kind words!

I have the long wing M7 which measures 33'5". This was the biggest wing they put on the maules (and the one they are considering resurrecting). this would be the straight m7-235 and the m7-235A models (and the turbine). They now have a 32'11" span commonly referred to as the universal wing. Believe it or not that small difference in span does wonders to the slow flight. I have owned a universal wing M7 and it was close, but not quite to the capabilities of my long-wing especially when modded. They are considering putting a Longing 33'5" in a small body and keeping the M7 rudder cord...To me this would be the best of both worlds. If they managed the weight right they would in theory have a 1000+ LBS payload. and have great performance when light.

I had a long wing M7. I believe 1993 was the last year and it is more like 33' 8 span. If it was good I wonder why maule went to a universal 32'11". I was not impressed with the balance of the aircraft or the adverse yaw it had being short coupled and a few other things I'll keep to myself. The thing to do would be to go even longer on the wingspan and add about two feet on the fuselage otherwise leave it be a universal. It fly's like it fly's no matter what it's a maule. The best thing if they are looking for sales would be to reintroduce what they started with, a "Strato Rocket". I would take one of those over a M7 any day. Now that is a balanced flying machine .

Patrick,
I had a few hundred hours in a "long wing" M7, am now going on 200 hrs with universal wing M7 exact configuration except f/w batt conversion in long wing
Comparison: (my experience), long wing does land about 2-3 kts slower but tail seems to stall before the wing if you get too slow.
Universal feels more balanced, now that I'm used to the univ, kind of like it, I have yet to run out of elevator on landing, even when pushing the envelope. Do miss the 3+ kt difference though.
Univ. wing cruise a little faster? I can't tell but you think it would.
Like to hear your thoughts. If it gets too deep, maybe take the conversation to the maule forum.

I also appreciate your videos, keep up the good work!

I fly an M5 with the long "turbine" wing. I don't have any time in a universal wing Maule, but the combination of the slightly lighter fuselage with the big flaps and long wing are incredible for STOL.

I don't think my maule flys badly, but it for sure does not fly like a cessna! It is just different, and those that don't care to embrace this will not be happy in a maule.

The one thing that I think may apply to this conversation is the experience I had when squaring the tips on my Pacer. The stock, round wing pacer flew more "balanced" then after we squared the tips and effectively lengthened the span slightly. On the Pacer, it was not approved to lengthen the aileron when squaring the tips, so this was part of the problem. But the slightly longer wing did not want to side slip, for example, and the control harmony was off compared to the stock wing. But, the extra wing area and lift, made a difference, especially with the increased angle of attack from bushwheels, and the airplane landed shorter and got off the ground shorter with the squared wing.

I would be thrilled if I had access to long wings from Maule. They are getting hard to find if you need a set.

A video is worth 10,000 words........Here are a couple of long wing maules out playing.

Love the videos!
What did Greg end up doing with his maule?

Some more long wing porn...

Steelroamer wrote:Wonering what the difference is between the universal wing and the long wing? I have an '84 M-6 235. when I bought it I was told that it had M7 wings on it. I assumed that I had the universal wing. mine have the square tip and droop

thanks

Roamer

That is a common thing that I have heard, it has the same span as the universal, but the flaps and ailerons are different. Also the surface area is somehow slightly larger than the universal. I coveted and wanted your plane when I was looking years ago, but one never came on the market, so I settled for mine. Once I got the weight pulled out it was probably similar or slightly better wing loading to yours.

The plane they are considering would be kind of a hybrid of yours and mine; it would have the small fuselage and my wings. So more like the gentleman who posted the dueling maules.

What did Maule do with the flaps & ailerons to accommodate longer or shorter wings? I was watching recently as Flyhound taxi'd his MX-7 by me and noticed that the flaps look huge, but the short little ailerons almost look like an afterthought stuck on way out at the end.

I've got an old Affordable Flying magazine at home with a pirep on the M4-220 Maule, hard to tell from the photo's but it looks lke the flaps & ailerons are much closer in length to each other than on that MX7. A photo in that article of a later-model Maule (caption says Lunar Rocket, so an M5?) taking off out of the Maule hangar shows longer flaps / shorter ailerons-- but they don't look as long & short as Fly's MX7.

If maule is really thinking about this they could make a good flying airplane. They are one of a few still in the works and could do it. The price tag would be the thing for today's world though. The root was the m-4-220. It was fast had good rudder,pitch and alerion control and would drop like a rock.I miss mine somedays. Going with a longer wingspan changed the tail design. It took me a while to like the looks being I owned a longwing m7 I still thought it was ugly and lost the look of a round tail. Going with the long wing it needed rudder and the m7 got a inch in the cord. It still needs more. The longwing added adverse yaw and it will alway's hunt. The M7 long wing with the IO-540 was nose heavy and was pitch sensitive when loaded. My m-4-220 would out climb my long wing. It was light and had close to the same hp. Remember A rocket goes up with out wings. No way can a short wing land shorter than the longwing,same for take off. The usefull load is not great but for a small airplane it works. Maule made that new M-6 a few years back and nothing seemed to bubble with that. Making the longwing availible would be great for one that need replacements. Just throwing another Mr. potato head together might not do it. How is the M9 doing? You guy's should pull all the pluses and minuses out and come up with something that works.
A longwing round tail with a better rudder and elevator or longer fuslage. It needs the sleek IO cowling without the train tunnel underneath. Oleo gear Extended from the factory, a 86 inch propeller, skylight. At least 75 gals of fuel in two tanks, can the outboard tanks, use larger fuel lines and can the boost pump and give it some usefull load.Make it simple. I would have to have one. Problem might be that you can do that with a experimental that a lot of folks are building here on the site now.
Maule could still do it and do like American Legend Cub did and offer it in a 51% kit that could be built experimental and have factory parts support and your engine choice.. I do not have the time to build a scatch built airplane. I do have time to put a longwing round tail experimental kit together from maule and think most would also once some were built and out flying and flying really nice as in wow!. I really liked the Maule and would like to see them continue on. That's my thought for the day. Now it is time to go fly.

That old M4-220 pirep called it a "flying hot rod of the first magnitude". It cited 300 foot takeoffs at a 3000' elevation grass strip with pilot & CFI aboard.

A few years back, Maule came out with the M4-180V. This was a round-tailed model, like the original M4, but with a 180hp Lycoming & only 2 seats. It was priced very attractively-- around $100K for the fixed-pitch version, and about 10 grand more with a constant-speed. Per the FAA registration database it looks like Maule only made about a dozen. I was really surprised that it didn't catch on, I thought it was pretty good competition for the CC-18 and Husky, esp since the price was quite a bit less. They kinda screwed up not providing some sort of a baggage door, esp considering the aft barn doors on the 4-seaters, but I wouldn't think that was a deal killer.

learntolandshort wrote:

Steelroamer wrote:Wonering what the difference is between the universal wing and the long wing? I have an '84 M-6 235. when I bought it I was told that it had M7 wings on it. I assumed that I had the universal wing. mine have the square tip and droop

thanks

Roamer

That is a common thing that I have heard, it has the same span as the universal, but the flaps and ailerons are different. Also the surface area is somehow slightly larger than the universal. I coveted and wanted your plane when I was looking years ago, but one never came on the market, so I settled for mine. Once I got the weight pulled out it was probably similar or slightly better wing loading to yours.

The plane they are considering would be kind of a hybrid of yours and mine; it would have the small fuselage and my wings. So more like the gentleman who posted the dueling maules.

Would anyone know the difference in measurements between the two wings, I guess flap and aileron measurements? I would like to know which wing I have. Seems to me I measured my flaps at 10'6" each (going by memory here and it is less than great)

thanks

Roamer

You have to learn from good and bad to make something work. I find it interesting to see folks that own a maule do not know much about them. That is where some of the "I have a Maule and it is the best comes from", I know I had it once also. Taking a discussion to a one type aircraft site will not bring out anything bad. If you try to say anything bad you get pounded on by fool's with blindfolds on. As hotrod180 said from a guy looking in the box, looks like things did not go well with the newer M-4-180. He is right. As I said how is the M9 doing? If Maule is serious now is the time to put MR. potato head away and make some real changes and come out with a seller. How many of you can afford a 200K plus airplane, I for sure can't. They need to look at who is buying and what is used today for this type of aircraft in GA. Mission work, bush work, Youtube videos etc. I would bet the kit would be a success, look at Van's. Yes all of your video's are awesome flying work. The long wing is like free style moto-x and works well for that and you have to know a maule to know what I mean by using mr potato head it is not anything bad just true. I did still that comment from a mechanic though, it makes sense when you understand it. A maule is a good plane you just have to put one together like Greg did with bushwacker. There is a hint for a kit built experimental. I'll take one so I can afford it as I go along. Just thing of the part sales increase they would have, oh shit not parts from maule ( those who have been there waiting know what I mean). Having longwings will be a big plus for any factory ones that need to be replaced from being bent from playing around but I do not see a huge demand for just another longwing M-10 to just play around in for 200K plus, just my third cent.

If Maule introduced an EAB kit plane (or two)...

I bet the home builders and after market guys would come up with all sorts of cool mods, carbon fiber parts, glass panel setups with latest generation avionics, etc.

Some major changes such as a stretched wing and fuse might be easier to bring about via Experimental route.

I think the BIGGEST thing for me...pardon the pun...would be the introduction of a WIDER cabin in a four place STOL Experimental. The normal 42 inches are way tight, 44 okay 46 cool, and 48+ the best . Given the choice between a 42 inch vs 46 inch cabin, the plane with the wider cabin works for me,

The Cessna 180/185 and Bearhawk 4 Place are great designs. I am sure Maule has studied them well.

well that didn't work...maybe this will:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uctFNjywIQc[/quote]

Awesome!! thx for sharing

Steelroamer wrote:

learntolandshort wrote:

Steelroamer wrote:Wonering what the difference is between the universal wing and the long wing? I have an '84 M-6 235. when I bought it I was told that it had M7 wings on it. I assumed that I had the universal wing. mine have the square tip and droop

thanks

Roamer

That is a common thing that I have heard, it has the same span as the universal, but the flaps and ailerons are different. Also the surface area is somehow slightly larger than the universal. I coveted and wanted your plane when I was looking years ago, but one never came on the market, so I settled for mine. Once I got the weight pulled out it was probably similar or slightly better wing loading to yours.

The plane they are considering would be kind of a hybrid of yours and mine; it would have the small fuselage and my wings. So more like the gentleman who posted the dueling maules.

Would anyone know the difference in measurements between the two wings, I guess flap and aileron measurements? I would like to know which wing I have. Seems to me I measured my flaps at 10'6" each (going by memory here and it is less than great)

thanks

Roamer

If you have 10' 6" flaps you probably have 33' 8" wings, the largest they made. Huge flaps were accommodated by shortening the ailerons to 55". Ailerons had about 1.5" of cord added in attempt to compensate for reduced width. Thought it was called the "B" wing.

Those long-wing maules are made out of unobtanium. I've been looking for several years now as you know. Many wrecked M7's now have universal wings on them - when they should have had the option to go back to the original 33'5" long wing.

I think it's a fantastic idea. I hope they follow through.