I once hear about a guy that flew a C210 cross country with a tail tie down
bucket of concrete attached. at destination he was asked how it flew. he
said " well about like a bonanza" For who don't know the Bonanza wiggles in
turbulent air.

"Dylan Smith" wrote in message
...
At some airfields, you get tiedowns in the grass that consist of some
kind of weight (such as a concrete block or tire filled with concrete)
and a tiedown. Perhaps they aren't much use -- a plane apparently can
still fly with one attached to the tail.

In this month's 'Pilot' magazine (British) under Safety Matters:

Tiedown attached
----------------
AS A BEECH C23 Sundowner took off from Aldergrove, ATC saw an object
dangling from the tail. It was a car tyre filled witih concrete which
has been used as a tie down. The pilot landed safely after a normal
circuit.
During the pre-flight inspection, the pilot had removed tie-down weights
attached to the wings, but hadn't noticed the weight attached to the
tail.

I have to imagine the flight characteristics of a Sundowner with 50lbs
of concrete hanging off the tail had to be 'squirrely'!
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