Originally Posted by
hans brinker
Just stating the obvious: Steady state tailwinds won't change anything about the rotation from a physic's point, and changing wind conditions apply the same to HW as they do to TW.
The thing I can imagine happening with a strongish TW vs the more normal HW in combination with a heavy AC is the ground speed will be much higher, and that sight picture might have led the pilot to make an inappropriately large ANU input.
...except that, steady state at the measurement height does not equate to no vertical velocity gradient. From the turbulent layer of the ground there will a lower velocity near the surface than higher up, and the direction alters slightly in most cases as well. That will give a very small undershoot shear condition in a tailwind case, but it is in the noise level.
Historically, tail strikes are over-represented in crosswinds and tailwinds, due to pilot input, and not the conditions themselves. An increase in tailwind component (TWC) will result in a higher pitch attitude required to fly off the ground, and as most often the crew are not scanning the airspeed indicator, (ASI, AS, or MASI), then an increased TWC at the point of rotate will reduce tail-ground clearance at liftoff. Most cases but not all tail strikes I have investigated occur immediately after the wheels come off the ground, although the total events were pretty evenly distributed between takeoff and landing cases. The control inputs are usually found to be more abrupt and larger displacement than a zero wind or simple headwind case. Humans are curious creatures. In almost all transport category aircraft, a rotate commenced at the correct speed and rate will result in V2 being achieved immediately before the wheels come off the ground, when operating a multiengine aircraft without a power loss, yet we removed the call of achieving V2 around 1990... and loss of tail clearance events increased.