FSX will look in the following folders for aircraft objects (this is defined in the FSX.cfg, if you add some AI packages they may create a new SimObjectPaths folder pointer)

 

[Main]
User Objects=Airplane, Helicopter
SimObjectPaths.0=SimObjects\Airplanes
SimObjectPaths.1=SimObjects\Rotorcraft
SimObjectPaths.2=SimObjects\GroundVehicles
SimObjectPaths.3=SimObjects\Boats
SimObjectPaths.4=SimObjects\Animals
SimObjectPaths.5=SimObjects\Misc

 

It is possible you have accidentally copied your Maule folder into one of these folders so a quick search of your SimObjects folder may be all that is necessary. If you have copied it somewhere else then FSX will not recognise the folder and you wouldn't be getting the error message.

 

If you want to get your Maule back and can't be bothered searching for the duplicate Maule you could just edit the aircraft.cfg and change all the titles to something unique eg:

 

"title= Maule M7 260C paint1" to "title= Maule M7 260C paint1new"

 

remember there is one title for each [fltsim] entry and each [fltsim] entry represents one repaint.

 

Also worthwhile would be looking through the whole of the aircraft.cfg for duplicate titles. Most [fltsim] entries are at the top of the file but they can appear anywhere in the aircraft.cfg. I have seen [fltsim] entries added to the end of an aircraft.cfg and they still work fine.

 

AI traffic files reference aircraft by the title so normally you shouldn't do this for any default aircraft as it would mean they would disappear from your AI traffic plans but as you already have a duplicate of this aircraft.cfg somewhere it would mean the AI traffic files would still be able to find this mysterious duplicate.
 

Hey thanks to all you who posted helps for the OP.  He may have had little luck, but you guys saved me.

 

I just downloaded Eaglesoft Citation X 2.0. and attempting to go through their modification for WS edits I ended up with the same error messages.  Well being "smart" or so I thought I backed up the whole Citation X aircraft folder as a copy file.  Getting these messages now the next time I ran FSX was not fun.  I had NO IDEA that the aircraft.cfg file with identical titles in ANOTHER aircraft folder would set these off.

 

I went back deleted my "backup" of the Citation X 2.0 copy file and no more messages.

 

Thanks!