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Old 18th Aug 2015, 19:08
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The price for being really nasty in this discipline, however, goes to the MD-11 Freighter. With a dry index of around 97, and a tipping point at index 100, it takes little imagination to see who razor thin the margins are. I've seen one sit on it's tail when an A/C hose was hooked up to the inlet mounted near the nose, and set on full blast. With a bit of fuel still left in the trim tank (less than 100kg) and a couple of loaders resetting locks down the back, the puff of cold air from the A/C unit was the straw what broke the MD's back, so to speak.

747s, freighters in particular, are a bit marginal at times - particularly the -400. But not overtly so, and it's fairly easily managed.

Tail-stands should be regarded as a last-ditch effort, as an aircraft bouncing off one will usually suffer some kind of damage of the structural kind. Which is not nice at all. Cheaper than sitting the kite all the way on its tail, yes, but can still be very expensive.
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