Evgeny Savitsky, a WWII ace, Field Marshal in Soviet Air Force, wrote in his memoirs that in 1944 he (then in the rank of Major General) had to fly an urgent night mission in a Polikarpov Po-2 (a two-seat wooden trainer/liaison/light bomber aircraft). The flight was fairly uneventful, except that the aeroplane felt very tail-heavy. As it turned out, he took off, flew and landed with a weight (an almost man-sized old gas cylinder) hanging off the tailwheel on a 3-metre cable.