Jeff,

I get that your tailwheel works good. That is great, and I'm happy for you.

But I know FOR A FACT that some Maule tailwheels have issues with going full swivel in the air. This isn't just speculation. Did you not find Budd Davisson's comments about having the rudder pedal all the way to the floor while the airplane continued in the other direction a bit odd? How would you explain that? Remember, that was on a factory built Maule aircraft.

I already am well aware of multiple aircraft equipped with Maule tailwheels having that same issue, but if you don't believe me I would think Budd Davisson's comments about flying a Maule and having "a problem" with it while landing should support what I'm saying.

It is not a disservice to point out the issue associated with the Maule tailwheel. In fact it is just the contrary. I personally know of two homebuilts that were destroyed by this issue with the Maule tailwheel. During the FAA's crash investigation of the 1st one a very experienced aircraft mechanic PROVED that the tailwheel on the aircraft could unlock prior to landing, which resulted in the pilot losing control.

Unfortunately, because it was a homebuilt they never looked further to find out exactly why it would unlock in flight, and just assigned blame to the Master CFI tailwheel instructor as a loss of control issue. But later the aircraft owner, the flight instructor, the aircraft mechanic, and myself inspected the aircraft further to learn the Avid Flyer had about 2 degrees more rudder throw one way than the other. So in flight when using full rudder delection the tailwheel would unlock every time the rudder pedal was full deflected in that one direction. The other pedal being full deflected would not unlock it.

To everyone reading this, I just don't want to see anyone get hurt or to damage their airplane because of this issue. I've been flying Avids, Kitfoxes, and Highlanders for the past 31 years. I've been around these things longer than anyone on this forum, and have flown pretty much every combination possible of these airframes. I am not just on a witch hunt against Maule tailwheels. This is a real issue.