barit1:
Thanks to all - for the reassurance my memory is not totally gone. Actually I was pretty confident it existed, but wasn't sure it carried on to the production 727, or whether it was only flight test hardware.
I have a lot of time in that beast, both the -100 and -200.
I only got a tail skid once. It was in a -200 making a Flaps 5 takeoff on Runway 8 at KABQ. We could feel it from the cockpit.
At the next station they inspected it and replaced the crush cartridge. The cartridge was not completely contracted so that was the end of it. But, had the cartridge been unable to absorb all the energy then it would have been reported to my chief pilot. Don't know where they would have led.
