Maule Tailwheel

[dumbbell daddy]

Hey Colonel. It seems that the popular Aviation Products Inc. (known as API tailwheels) has officially went out of business. It’s probably going to be hard to find suitable replacement parts in the future. I imagine the Maule tailwheel demand is going to go up again in the future, especially for homebuilder’s.

I heard you wrote a great article on one of the acro forums about correcting shimmy and servicing the Maule. Any chance you could share it here?

[Colonel]

Oh no. The APS tailwheel was the best on the market- cheap, simple and it lasted forever.

Sigh.

The Maule tailwheel is ok but it’s a bit like a ‘57 Chevy. Great in the day but … I remember I had one on back order for years.

The Scott/Alaskan tailwheel is good but I have bought cars that cost less than one of those new.

We use the Lang on the two seat Pitts but it’s really not up to the job. Expensive too. I think I paid us$1300 for the last one I got?

Single seat Pitts used to use the weird Henry Haigh manual locking tailwheel which was strange but worked. Probably unobtainable now.

I’ve written articles for magazines about tailwheel maintenance and diagnosis - I will see if I can dig them up.

PS this is what you need to know about tailwheel shimmy

[dumbbell daddy]

Thanks Colonel. It’s a shame. What would you recommend for a single seat Pitts then?

[Colonel]

My personal choice for an S-1 might be the Lang tailwheel if you can’t get the original Haigh.

Lang is under-engineered for the two seat - but has paper - but would work better on single seat, with the slower speeds and less weight.

You can always spot a guy with a Lang - he’s got a spare 4 inch solid General tire on the hangar shelf!

[Colonel]

Note that the Maule tailwheel is available with both solid tire and inflatable tire for larger-than-Pitts aircraft.

Although you can purchase incredibly cheap tubes and tires for the inflatable tire at TSC you should not because they are not rated for use on public highways and if you need to land on a road they might not work.

[Slick Goodlin]

Package: Not for highway use

Me: Good thing it’s just going on a runway…

[Colonel]

Let me know if I owe you an iPhone. :^)

[Slick Goodlin]

Let me know if I owe you an iPhone. :^)

Give me a couple months to thaw and annual the airplane, then we’ll see.

[Colonel]

We are similarly in the depths of winter here. We had a tremendous snowfall which closed the roads and everyone stayed home.



You can see the snow if you zoom in the top left extreme corner.

This explains why people were panicking.



We even had clouds, which scared people.



You can see why all the roads were closed.

[Slick Goodlin]

My heart bleeds for the people of California. Will there be a fundraiser?