Youtube -On board a Mark 5 Spitfire

[Nickodell]

Bill: It wouldn't roll over, but any high-powered tail dragger will pitch over on its nose if you gun the engine while stationary, or even when on takeoff while you're still going too slow for the elevators to have "authority." If you have to run the engine up to high revs on the ground, you need to tether the tail or weigh it down. In the RAF (and for all I know other air forces) the procedure, when a fitter needed to test-run an engine, was to get a couple of "bods" (slang for odd-bodies, i.e. lowest-rank personnel) to sit on the horizontal stabilizer. Must have been real fun to sit in the howling propwash, on a 20 Degree F day, at the same time breathing exhaust.

Here's a couple "tail squatting" a Seafire in happier times:

Sometimes, on a bumpy grass field, one would have to do this while the pilot taxied out, and drop off as he began his takeoff run. One WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force) bod didn't drop off soon enough, and ended up being taken aloft on a Spitfire. How long she could have remained, arms around the vertical stabilizer, nobody knows, but the pilot reported to ground control that he couldn't trim out an excessive tail-heavy condition. Not wanting to panic him, they said to complete the circuit and land, which he did.

When introduced to the WAAF, he told her to "put in for ten minutes' flying time." She has appeared on several UK TV shows, and her log book was on sale on ebaY:

http://cgi.ebay.com/WAAF-Who-Flew-O...book_W0QQitemZ260039888002QQihZ016QQcategoryZ 112473QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The actual plane, Ser. # AB910, coincidentally, is a member of the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

 

[Nickodell]

I have read that with in flying the P-51 you needed to empty the fuselage tank before the wing tanks were used otherwise the center of gravity could move back and alter the handling.

Not quite. The fuselage tank, which in some versions could carry as much as 85 extra Imperial gallons of fuel, actually made the plane tail-heavy in proportion to how full it was. Except on very long range bomber escort missions, the tank was only partially filled. However, you're right that on long trips the practice was to first run the fuselage tanks down to about 30 gallons, and then switch to the external tanks (the opposite sequence to all other fighters). This way the pilot was always ready for combat; he could jettison the external tanks instantly, and be ready for anything.

There were two reasons for this: 1) as the fuselage tank's fuel was used the plane's trim actually improved; 2) more important, with a lot of fuel in the tank, the dogfighting qualities of the P51 were seriously degraded, particularly in falling off in a tight turn. Luftwaffe pilots learned to spot a rookie (or an "old hand" who thought he knew better than the instructors) who had released his drop tanks prematurely, as they knew they could out-turn the P51 then. Not a few 8th. AF pilots were downed in this way.