I’m in the middle of a recover on my M5-235 and I’m doing a few upgrades while it’s down. The goal is to decrease the stall speed as much as possible to get even shorter landings and takeoffs. So far I’ve added VG’s, elevator gap seal, and 4 position flaps. Is anybody doing anything else to decrease the stall speed? Thanks!

Longer wing......

How about... anything I can do without taking my plane experimental and renaming it bushwacker?

THe long wing is a TC'd thing so no EXP. so other than looseing a few pounds .... out of the airplane it sounds like you are pretty much on the right track

last i checked, the factory would sell you 2 "universal" wings plus the paperwork to effectively turn your short wing M5 into a long wing M6.

does anyone have any experience before and after? is it really worth the cost?

I spoke to Maule and you where right, you can put the longer wings on and they do come with paperwork. It would run me around 28,000 after shipping and everything. So the million dollar question is.... is it worth it? Who has done it and what did it do for you? Seems like for that amount of money I'd be better off selling the plane and buying one with the longer wing already on it. Or maybe just be happy with the M5 the way it is.

Yes it has been done and there are other wings out there that you can get for less than the 28K but the 5 can be made to perform as well as the 6,7,MX7 but you have to work a little harder. Not to mention you could sell your wings and drive the cost down some more. but it all comes down to what you are wanting and willing to do. I would recomend that you fly a long wing with the TT Flaps and feel the difference and then decide if it is worth it for you. It was for us (Bill) and the "Universial" wing seems to be just about right. (I have uni wing on my MX7, Bill has 33'10'' wing on his Converted M5)

I have used all models and still made my shortest landings in an M5-235 with stock wings, gap seals, extra flap notch, double puck brakes and 26" tyres. With the short wings, I had two landing sites that a cub could not get into because the gap between the upper tree boughs was too narrow, and the rapidly banked and re-leveled M5 could be fitted. You will find the M5 to be a very responsive machine and faster in cruise than with the longer wing.
Jeremy

Jeremy

On your M-5 with the extra notch of flaps, what degrees of flaps did that give you? I know you measured the angle. Was it over 40 degrees in flight?

Thanks

Flyer

By rebushing and rebolting the bell crank, and working all play out of the cable system, you can end up with 45deg + in flight, however it isup to the pilot to limit airspeeds at the different flap settings to eliminate stretching the system. Absolute max speeds of 90, 80, 70mph for the 3 flap speeds is important, also, reinforce the area of the flap lever where the wire push rod exits the lever or it may break.

With a short runway, less than 1,000 feet, and 45 degrees of flaps, what technique did you normally use in your M5? Did you do a steep approach with low or no power or a more standard approach with more power.

How many mph did the extra 5 degrees of flaps lower your stall speed?
What was your stall speed with 45 degrees of flaps?

In this short runway approach, how far above stall speed did you fly?
Did you use a stabilized low speed approach? What speeds did you shoot for?

Thanks

Flyer

Steep approach at the stall/stall edge, adjusting longtitudonal position relative to touchdown point with throttle. Arrest stall with brief nose down to reflow air across wing, add power and elevator input if needed, raise flaps to negative or zero, elevator back (very little elev. trim) and brake as hard as possible to keep max weight on mains without noseover.
I don't do this with airspeed readings, the airplane will tell you what yu are doing to it. It does take practice.
The idea is to arrest the mass to a stop and thus the lowest forward speed the mass has, the quicker the stop. So, some of the speed forward can be absorbed by downward speed.
A 10% gross wt. decrease is a 10% landing distance decrease.
A 10% groundseed decrease is 20% landing distance decrease.

If you are looking at going the long wing route, I may well be interested in purchasing your M5 wings!