A tiger will fly quite happily from a stationary three point attitude in a good stiff wind with two persons on board.. I recall some years ago I was maxed out at 1950 rpm watching a squall line approaching the air field that trying to get to in a 15 kt headwind. The line was picking up a lot of dust and was moving very fast from the opposite direction. I arrived over the perimeter fence at about 200 ft when the wind hit and actually the sprog the Tiger and I ceased all forward motion until I dived to ground level and crawled across the field at about walking pace to the grassed area in the centre of the runway triangle where I had about 3 or 4 goes at landing. When I reduced power to try a three point attitude the mongrel thing went about 20 feet in the air and started to go backwards..HMMM… tried a few wheelers, but every time I tried to lower the tail the thing would slide backwards, the skid would stick in the ground and the mains would lift off again, so full noise and back up into the hover. Eventually a few concerned individuals appeared form the hangars and looked like they would assist so I hovered over , settled down between two hangars and chopped the switches as about 20 guys grabbed onto struts and the rear fuselage and anywhere else there was a space and trundled it straight into one of the hangars. Time for ‘tea and medals’.
I do not recommend leaving a Tiger unattended outdoors, regardless of the apparent security of the tie downs. Use 1 inch rope and do a double bowline sheep shank with 222 and a half hitches, the rope and the tie down rings will most likely be there the next day, but not so sure of the Tiger….. still no great loss I suppose, they are a very poor excuse for an aeroplane, though it seems they are highly valued by collectors and enthusiasts (of Tigers that is) and sometimes they are quite a lot of fun, but only sometimes.
I have used some sort of knot that I was taught as a young ag pilot, by another aggie who was also a seaplane/flying boat pilot, don’t know what its called but its halfway between a partial bowline finished with a couple of half hitches, locks tight when under load, but very simple to release, even when wet.
HD