Utah-Jay wrote:Why did ASA ditch his Scout for the Maule?

I just got a good deal, wasn’t looking to sell it - it was a great airplane. Shitbox Maule plus 2 ass loads of money for my pristine scout. I get bored with pristine airplanes, so it made sense for me. Rebuilding the Maule as we speak. Maules and Scouts are similar in many ways - parts availability, built tough, factory still operating, all drawings available, etc. Different in obvious ways - tandem vs not, cargo area, etc. Scout fit/finish is better than Maule.

Both of them are pretty ideal Alaska planes. Fast enough to go places, slow enough to go places.

asa wrote:

Utah-Jay wrote:Why did ASA ditch his Scout for the Maule?

I just got a good deal, wasn’t looking to sell it - it was a great airplane. Shitbox Maule plus 2 ass loads of money for my pristine scout. I get bored with pristine airplanes, so it made sense for me. Rebuilding the Maule as we speak. Maules and Scouts are similar in many ways - parts availability, built tough, factory still operating, all drawings available, etc. Different in obvious ways - tandem vs not, cargo area, etc. Scout fit/finish is better than Maule.

Both of them are pretty ideal Alaska planes. Fast enough to go places, slow enough to go places.

What are your landing speeds in the Maule with a pretty good load? And a light load?

asa wrote: all drawings available, etc.

This brings up something I was thinking about the other day – why doesn't anyone build experimental Scouts?

The experimental Super Cub is a standard. Northland drawings, off you go if you have the skills to build.

But many people want an alternative to the Cub. Why not a scratch-built Scout? Comfy, perfect for big butts easy ingress/egress with the barn door.

Zzz wrote:

asa wrote: all drawings available, etc.

This brings up something I was thinking about the other day – why doesn't anyone build experimental Scouts?

The experimental Super Cub is a standard. Northland drawings, off you go if you have the skills to build.

But many people want an alternative to the Cub. Why not a scratch-built Scout? Comfy, perfect for big butts easy ingress/egress with the barn door.

Look up BBI aviation in Ontario. They build one using a Scout/Citabrua fuselage and can wings. I think its a great idea and am going to build one of my own one of these days...

Utah-Jay wrote:What are your landing speeds in the Maule with a pretty good load? And a light load?

Both scout and maule are in the 50-65mph speed range. Not sure exactly. I ended up with 160 hours in scout and only have 25 in maule and I’m rebuilding it now so no flying.

In terms of speeds and capability they are pretty damn similar. They’ll both get on/off shorter than a C180 and longer than a cub. Maule just doubles the seats and cargo area and the cost is feeding and maintaining a bigger engine and an airframe that’s ugly as freakin shit heck.


Scouts are underrated for rough landings. The spring gear seems bomber and with 31’s I never noticed any springiness even on rough rough tundra.

We ran Scouts off airport for 30 plus years servicing remote gasfield locations. Great aircraft! Won’t break ground like a cub, but once in the air, outperforms a cub in most every way. And you’re not in there with your knees up around your ears.

When I sold the last one a couple years ago, I did not have time to pursue an experimental Scout build. (Should have had you build me one David). Would love to try one with a 540 in it. The spring gear does well off airport. Ran 8:50s or wheel skis most of the time when we were working them. Put 31s on the last one when I was just playing with it. Really liked the 31s and the big tailwheel. They are heavy on the tail, it helped significantly.

Would recommend one any day.


UpNorth

UpNorth wrote:We ran Scouts off airport for 30 plus years servicing remote gasfield locations. Great aircraft! Won’t break ground like a cub, but once in the air, outperforms a cub in most every way. And you’re not in there with your knees up around your ears.

When I sold the last one a couple years ago, I did not have time to pursue an experimental Scout build. (Should have had you build me one David). Would love to try one with a 540 in it. The spring gear does well off airport. Ran 8:50s or wheel skis most of the time when we were working them. Put 31s on the last one when I was just playing with it. Really liked the 31s and the big tailwheel. They are heavy on the tail, it helped significantly.

Would recommend one any day.


UpNorth

Haha. You have a nice plane right now Rod. I would like to try one with a Yamaha Apex motor. High HP and low fuel burn, and nice and light.

It should be noted the size of people giving scouts praise. I’m a fairly massive person, and Rod is (respectfully) not a small guy.

Scouts are great.

My engineering background really likes the aluminum gear on the newer ones or as was the case on mine, retrofitted. Aluminum has inherent damping so it’s not like steel gear, it absorbs some of the impact like shocks. Obviously to a lesser extent than shocks but still. Also the aluminum gear is drilled so no brake lines. I’m a Scout fanboy for sure, and I still sold mine. I’ll regret it soon enough.

James May from Top Gear / Grand Tour etc bought a Scout on 31's with VG's.



https://www.instagram.com/p/CTu0pIto0x8 ... _copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/p/CTNQLF9ioEN ... _copy_link

My "formative" years of taildragger flying was in a Scott, if all I need/wanted was two seats and had access to a hanger I'd be owning one now.

Scouts are great planes for all the reasons noted above. Build quality from factory these days is excellent. They did have some issues twenty or so years ago.

They are also FAST for this category plane. With the big tanks, they have amazing range as well.

Maules are also very capable aircraft. Build quality has never been very good, frankly. If I were going to look for a Maule, I’d do what David is doing: find one that’s had a quality rebuild or rebuild one myself. They are pretty capable backcountry planes.

That said, while they are generally equipped with four seats, if you fill all four seats with adults, you’re not going to legally carry much else. Those big fuel tanks make that tempting, but.

But, if you’re disciplined, they can be a great two person and gear long range machine, or a short range hauler, with a big cabin. Not a bad combination of capabilities.

My all time favorite was an M-6-235 with fuel injection, aux tanks, a thorough rebuild, including seriously increasing the number of top wing rivets, and Baumann floats.

I’d go there in a flash, except those pilot seats totally suck if you have a bad back.

MTV

BRD wrote:James May from Top Gear / Grand Tour etc bought a Scout on 31's with VG's.



https://www.instagram.com/p/CTu0pIto0x8 ... _copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/p/CTNQLF9ioEN ... _copy_link

I congratulated him on Instagram. I hope he notices me!

Flown both the split door and the one piece. Curious why the split one is favoured, I never thought much of it, but maybe I'm missing something.

Karmutzen wrote:Flown both the split door and the one piece. Curious why the split one is favoured, I never thought much of it, but maybe I'm missing something.

I also prefer the solid door. One nice thing with the split door is being able to open the top if the door in flight though. I always just took my door right off when it was nice enough for that...

Karmutzen wrote:Flown both the split door and the one piece. Curious why the split one is favoured, I never thought much of it, but maybe I'm missing something.

The split door is the "go to" for float ops, you have to be part acrobat to get around the single door on floats. I've witness more than a couple unexpected swims, usually in early Spring or late Fall but rarely on a hot afternoon in August

I don't understand the split door either. Actually more of a hassle that the solid door in my opinion, both on floats and wheels. You have to open two doors to leave the airplane. A single piece with an opening window would be all around better. Nothing beats the seaplane doors for sure though.

If anyone is looking for one, I know of a real nice Canadian one for sale...