50 Years Of Maule
Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2021 1:21 pm
A Maule is not a swanky or prestige airplane. It's a farmer's airplane, actually.
BD Maule built an airplane and taught himself to fly from reading a book. Amazing.
Sold tailwheels for a while, then went into airplane manufacturing, first in Michigan
then moved to Georgia. Incredibly, they are still going, despite everyone else exiting
the light aircraft manufacturing business in the 1980's from out of control litigation.
In 1971 Dear Old Dad purchased a low-time, no damage 1967 Maule M4-210C for the
ridiculous amount of $11,000 which doesn't sound like much today, but was a pile of
dough back then. It was like new. I was 8 years old, and I had been wiggling some
flight controls at that point, but it was a pretty intimidating airplane for an 8 year old.
In 1973, Dear Old Dad thought I should get serious about my flight training - I had
aged to 10 by then - and round and round we went, at Toronto Island, me propped
up on cushions to see over the dash and reach the rudder pedals. No headsets,
no intercom, no boom mikes, just a mic on a springy cord and an speaker in the
ceiling and a lot of shouting. No brakes on the right hand side, which is where I
sat.
I think I've mentioned that I was on base in 1973, power reduced, and speed was
bleeding off. All I had to do was relax pressure on the control column to descend.
As I've said elsewhere, the airplane knows what to do.
Dear Old Dad leans over and shouts in my ear, "If you don't do something, we're
going to die". What instructional technique, from a fanged ex-fighter pilot that
used to work as a nuclear weapons test pilot! I aspire to that level of teaching :^)
Made friends with the Maule, as I always do. I almost always make friends with
machines and dogs. I like them all. A lot.
Soloed in it, and later, my son soloed in it. Learned a lot and had a lot of fun in the
Maule over the last 50 years. A member of the family. 50 years, three generations
of pilots and no accidents. None of us have ever ground-looped it or even cracked
a cylinder.
A good VFR day in the lee of the Great Lakes:
Continental IO-360 210hp. Smooth, powerful and in the right hands, reliable:
Two generations:
Interesting guys. One of them knew about long-distance shooting:
Dropping USN Seals at an airshow in NY:
Crosswind Landing Technique:
On the way to OSH, around 1990?
Thanks BD!
PS. I wasn't going to post all those pictures, but I remember what some four
bar who attacked me a while back said - my photos really pissed him off. He
never posted any photos, so I try to make up for it.
BD Maule built an airplane and taught himself to fly from reading a book. Amazing.
Sold tailwheels for a while, then went into airplane manufacturing, first in Michigan
then moved to Georgia. Incredibly, they are still going, despite everyone else exiting
the light aircraft manufacturing business in the 1980's from out of control litigation.
In 1971 Dear Old Dad purchased a low-time, no damage 1967 Maule M4-210C for the
ridiculous amount of $11,000 which doesn't sound like much today, but was a pile of
dough back then. It was like new. I was 8 years old, and I had been wiggling some
flight controls at that point, but it was a pretty intimidating airplane for an 8 year old.
In 1973, Dear Old Dad thought I should get serious about my flight training - I had
aged to 10 by then - and round and round we went, at Toronto Island, me propped
up on cushions to see over the dash and reach the rudder pedals. No headsets,
no intercom, no boom mikes, just a mic on a springy cord and an speaker in the
ceiling and a lot of shouting. No brakes on the right hand side, which is where I
sat.
I think I've mentioned that I was on base in 1973, power reduced, and speed was
bleeding off. All I had to do was relax pressure on the control column to descend.
As I've said elsewhere, the airplane knows what to do.
Dear Old Dad leans over and shouts in my ear, "If you don't do something, we're
going to die". What instructional technique, from a fanged ex-fighter pilot that
used to work as a nuclear weapons test pilot! I aspire to that level of teaching :^)
Made friends with the Maule, as I always do. I almost always make friends with
machines and dogs. I like them all. A lot.
Soloed in it, and later, my son soloed in it. Learned a lot and had a lot of fun in the
Maule over the last 50 years. A member of the family. 50 years, three generations
of pilots and no accidents. None of us have ever ground-looped it or even cracked
a cylinder.
A good VFR day in the lee of the Great Lakes:
Continental IO-360 210hp. Smooth, powerful and in the right hands, reliable:
Two generations:
Interesting guys. One of them knew about long-distance shooting:
Dropping USN Seals at an airshow in NY:
Crosswind Landing Technique:
On the way to OSH, around 1990?
Thanks BD!
PS. I wasn't going to post all those pictures, but I remember what some four
bar who attacked me a while back said - my photos really pissed him off. He
never posted any photos, so I try to make up for it.