I do have a CFI who is tailwheel rated...but I am almost 100% positive he has no experience with Maule or with bush wheels (I would probably have to put regular tires on during primary training). That being said, I am not opposed to going somewhere to get training but funds are limited...especially if I bought that airplane!

I think Bishop might have a Maule CFI guy, on the other side of the Sierras, I thought Columbia had a Maule CFI guy. I think you really want a Maule guy - yeah, it's a tailwheel and there are similarities and a good tailwheel CFI will get you somewhat safe - but a good Maule guy will get you proficient, show you the envelope, and save you heartache. A prop strike and/or ground loop will put you down between 3 and 6 months. Avoiding that is priceless.

You do have the option of buying the plane and getting your certificate in a Cessna 150. Yeah, it's money, but you can be assured that some Cessna 150 will have high flight availability, and you can still journey to your plane and get some relevant hours. Also, you keep the bushwheels on the Maule.

I haven't had any problems with my IO 360 since I bought it 7 years ago. Yellowmaule also has the IO 360 and he loves his also.. If you want to see a few pictures of the plane go to Alaska Bush Wheels site.. there are several on the ABW site.. and the bigger bushwheel tires are more forgiving than say 700's or 800's..go to the Maule owners site and look for IO 360 threads and I wouldn't put any stock in what someone heard about a plane they have no direct experience with... I love my M4.. It's been described as a Pacer on steroids by my friends... I can load it with all the camping gear I need and it never is anemic or has been marginal... It's no speed machine but then if you own a Maule you're comparable to a Jeep driver...good luck...

The insurance will go down as your hours go up. Probably end up around 1300-1400

I have ridden in that Maule. Good machine.

Is John getting out of flying or getting a different plane?

Cheers...Rob

Just had a beer under the wing of that plane yesterday.
It's a nice, well cared for bird. Hate to see it go.

He is just changing missions.

OregonMaule wrote:The insurance will go down as your hours go up. Probably end up around 1300-1400

I have ridden in that Maule. Good machine.

Is John getting out of flying or getting a different plane?

Cheers...Rob

I sent you a PM

I bought an M5 235c and got my ppl in it had no Maule time at all in fact had never even seen one except pics, until I did a pre buy on the M5, had 300 hrs in gliders. It is a steep learning curve but well worth the climb. I love this aircraft and the adrenalin it can provide. My insurance was 3100 for the first year but will have a significant reduction next year. Mate just go for it and deal with the consequences with a positive determined outlook, once you've got it there's no turning back. All the best and good luck.

I would urge you to think this idea over carefully. I don't have a lot of Maule time, but have some. I think a Maule would be a real handful for a primary trainer. I asked my CFI about this idea, he just looked at me funny. I don't know you or your potential skill levels, I think you will get discouraged rather than encouraged to fly more and more. It's really hard in life to go from nothing to everything in one bite, I have watched friends borrow boatloads of money to buy a really successful, multigenerational business that took decades to get that way, only to lose it all. I have a friend with more money than skill level that went from a 120 Cessna to a 185, and promptly bent a really nice airplane. Same thing with a chap I know, 150 Cessna to a Bonanza that ended up in a ditch.
I don't mean to discourage you, you may be able to make it happen. I would recommend renting several planes to get a feel, I did all my primary in a super cub and a citabria and loved the tail wheel. Either one of those are plentiful to buy, and your extra insurance bill on a Maule will buy a lot of fuel thru either of those. My advice is to start at the bottom and pay the dues and work up, but keep dreaming of bushwheels and one day you will see them come true. Good luck

Jim

Buying a plane is like getting married ..............

Take Your Time
Find a Good One
Love it Lots
Go get her
Stick with her


p.s. a good one ain't cheap but can be a easy keeper

I would certainly not tell you to shy away from doing your initial training in a taildragger (I wish I had done it that way) or buying your own plane to train in (ditto). But I will say that $60,000 is a lot of money and a 210 hp Maule is a lot of airplane for just getting started, both in terms of the initial investment, operating and maintenance costs, insurance and, especially, the learning curve. My advice, for what it's worth, would be to get a classic taildragger to learn in and build time and then go for the real bush plane once you've got a few hundred hours under your belt. Taking a quick look at Trade-A-Plane, I see a several Cessna 140s, a Porterfield Collegiate, a Luscombe 8A and a Piper PA-20 Pacer, all in-annual with time left on the engine for under $20,000. That's not even counting the ones that are even cheaper because they need overhaul or restoration or the many taildragger homebuilts that would work like Kitfox, Avid, Merlin, etc. or a classic like a Pober Junior Ace or Pietenpol.

A good friend of mine is getting his private in an M4-210 and doing great. He had 15 -20 hrs before getting into the Maule, but it was a fairly easy transition. Just takes time and practice.
He also was able to insure $55-60k hull value for $2k with 20hrs TT and zero make and model. Shop around before you decide $3-4k is the best deal.
I have owned the 210hp Conti and had great luck with it. Smooth as silk and very efficient. A Maule is the least expensive airplane to maintain that I have had experience with (however my experience is limited).
Having owned Maules on both 8.50s and 31" ABWs, I would definitely recommend taking off the Bushwheels for training. Save them until you have a couple hundred hours, for a few reasons. The forward visibility on the ground is less with them on. 8.50s are lots cheaper to wear out during lots of training landings. Having them on may tempt you to get ahead of your skill level and try to land somewhere you aren't quite ready for as a fresh pilot.
Having said all of that....I think that training in a Maule, with the right instruction, is a great idea. And when you're done training, you have a heck of an airplane to go play in.

I'm gonna swim against the current here...I used to go along with the idea of doing your primary training in a taildragger if you planned on flying one later. But now I think maybe training in a rented C150 or C172 is a better way to go--- no new-ownership issues, no coming back from your long crosscountry to a 40mph crosswind, etc. Learning all the stuff you need to get a private license is quite a chore-- just get your ticket the easiest way you can, in a nosedragger, then get a taildragger & do your "post-grad" training in that. Like a friend of mine says, he got his license in a 150 and then learned to fly in a Cub.
After quite a bit of flying a borrowed C150, a guy I know at my airport just bought his first airplane-- A Cessna 210. He's getting a crash course in the high costs of owning a high performance airplane. Let's see...bashed the elevator backing it into the (narrow) hangar, leaky fuel bladders, electrical issues. I hope he doesn't have any engine issues (or even worse, a gear-up "oops") or it's probably gonna be sitting for a while waiting on funds.
If you are dead-set on buyng a taildragger, I would second Scolopax's recommendation to take a lok at Brent's Pacer or similar. IMHO it's a lot more suitable choice for a first airplane, esp for a brand new zero-time student pilot.

Do whatever you want. I was told by so many people that it would take me forever to learn to fly in my Luscombe but I was too hard headed to listen; the Luscombe was a trainer in its day so figured all the naysayers were just wimpy trike pilots. I know a guy that learned to fly in a turbo Cessna 210. Just find a good instructor and buy insurance. Avemco was the only company that would even touch me and it cost

Definitely learn in a taildragger if your end goal is to fly taildraggers.
I know all pilots are different, but I solo'd my 140 in 8 hrs, and my partner (a few hundred hours in nose-draggers) took nearly 20 just to get his TW endorsement. He had a lot to "unlearn".

However, I would learn in something cheap. My 140 runs on car gas and burns 5gph. Thats only $17.50/hr at todays gas prices. You can hardly get that Maule from the hangar to the runway for that price runnin avgas. You can cram in lots more quality hours for a fraction of the price. Get a couple hundred hours in it, get a good feel for what you really want (that may change after you fly a bunch), sell it (it will likely have not lost much value, if any) and then spend your life savings on something you really want (and then spend the rest of your life just trying to feed it).

Of course, if money is no issue, then follow the advice above and do whatever you want!

But, whatever you do, make sure you have lots of fun. After all, thats what planes are for, right?

I learned a lot about lift and drag and planning ahead by training in an old C150 with pretty marginal performance on a hot humid summer day. I like to think that makes me a better pilot no matter what I am flying now. While the Maule may have the performance to overcome adverse conditions, it will perform better if you already know where to find lift, minimize drag, and plan ahead. You may not learn these lessons, or learn them as well, if you train in the hotrod.

BeeMan wrote:I learned a lot about lift and drag and planning ahead by training in an old C150 with pretty marginal performance on a hot humid summer day. I like to think that makes me a better pilot no matter what I am flying now. While the Maule may have the performance to overcome adverse conditions, it will perform better if you already know where to find lift, minimize drag, and plan ahead. You may not learn these lessons, or learn them as well, if you train in the hotrod.

Well said, I did mine in the 180hp Maule and I agree with you now that I have the 235 and I am happy to have had the experience with the lower hp to learn to be a PILOT

RWM, please let me know who your buddy is insured with.

Hottshot wrote:

BeeMan wrote:I learned a lot about lift and drag and planning ahead by training in an old C150 with pretty marginal performance on a hot humid summer day. I like to think that makes me a better pilot no matter what I am flying now. While the Maule may have the performance to overcome adverse conditions, it will perform better if you already know where to find lift, minimize drag, and plan ahead. You may not learn these lessons, or learn them as well, if you train in the hotrod.

Well said, I did mine in the 180hp Maule and I agree with you now that I have the 235 and I am happy to have had the experience with the lower hp to learn to be a PILOT

x2. There's so much to be learned from flying underpowered aircraft.

FARMAULE wrote:RWM, please let me know who your buddy is insured with.

I'll be talking to him shortly and I'll find out for you.

Zzz wrote:x2. There's so much to be learned from flying underpowered aircraft.

There is, but.....

If you buy to learn, strictly as a "learning" aircraft, that's fine. But once that learning curve is over, you're stuck with, and limited to gutless, and really missing out on honing skills to the next level.

Not to mention missing out on playing with the big boys in some cool places.

I did that with my float flying. Dave Wiley was a good friend, and he talked me into the T-Cart on Edos I had, specifically as a training aircraft. He wanted me learning underpowered/underfloated on purpose as a way of fine tuning the feel for the step. It was a wonderful aircraft for that role. But there's no way that airplane would have worked past that level for any kind of utility as a backcountry airplane. For me.

You can learn basics just fine in a Maule. And move forward from there without having to change airplanes.

Gump

Just buy that damn Maule and learn to fly in that!! Get over it and move on!



But yeah. Learning to fly in the 182 was the best thing I did for where I live and for the type of flying missions that I'm doing. Back during my airplane shopping days, I even came across a salesman trying to sell a 182 I was interested in tell me that a 182 was not the proper plane for me to learn in

So I say call John and get that Maule!