Over the last 20 years of flying in bush Alaska, I have flown most all of the classic “bushplanes”. I have commercially operated Supercubs, Huskies, Top Cubs, DHC-2 Beavers, Cessna 185’s and 206’s. When my wife and I started our own flying business in 2014, it was with the legendary PA-18. After the first year, we had need for a larger, faster plane, but we also still had the need for the STOL capabilities of the Supercub for the really short, rough strips we use on a regular basis. We debated between buying something like a 206 and running two planes or selling the cub and running one Maule. We decided on selling the cub and buying a 1984 Maule M7-235.
We quickly found that we could go everywhere we went in the Supercub, but with bigger loads, and much faster speeds. We found we were getting twice the work done in a day as what we did in the Supercub.
Another nice surprise was we were able to continue doing game and fish surveys with the Maule. Many of the biologists we have flown prefer doing the surveys in the Maule over the Supercub. I do not know of another plane that would allow us to do everything we are currently doing with our M7-235. In the Spring of 2018, we sold our 34-year-old M7 and picked up a brand new M7-235 from the Maule factory. We were concerned that it would not perform as well as our previous plane which performed better than other Maules we had flown and would land and takeoff shorter than all of the Supercubs we were working alongside. Our concerns were all quickly put to rest. This new M7 out preforms our last Maule in every way. It cruises faster, lands slower, takes off shorter, and generally handles better. My wife and I are so happy to have a plane we can load up my family of five, fly to the mountains, and land in strips less than 300 feet to go camping for the weekend. Isaac and Renae Bedingfield God’s Country Aviation Bethel, Alaska