A real threat to the health of your Malibu is the potential to miss-load the airplane while on the ground. The Malibu can be loaded so that it rotates on the main gear backwards allowing the tail to strike the ground. If it does strike the ground, the rear tie-down will be the first part of the airplane to touch, and this almost always leads to structural damage to the tail cone and rear structural bulkheads, causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage. Yes…you read that right…tens of thousands! The whole tail must be removed to repair the damage lots of maintenance hours will be spent. Worse, and the aircraft will then have “damage history”, a phrase that can take hundreds of thousands of dollars off an otherwise valuable airplane. So, this is a real threat to the airplane. Be sure to read on…
If you load the Malibu rear baggage compartment with 100 pounds of “stuff”, allow a couple of heavy passengers to sit in the rear seats, then the potential exists that the airplane will be too tail heavy as soon as you put your body weight on the entry step. During pre-flight planning you probably intended to counter the heavy weight in the rear with weight in the nose compartment and a co-pilot, but by miss-loading the airplane with the heavy weight in the back, the tail became too heavy. Most people that load the airplane like this simply jump off the step once it begins to go down, but there is a point of no return once the critical angle has been exceeded.
Another way to fall back on the tail is to load the rear of the airplane, make a nice flight, and then crawl to the back of the Malibu to open the door. Usually, people in the center seats exasperate the situation by moving forward in their seats in anticipation of departing the airplane. You could climb over the spar to the rear of the airplane and al of the sudden the Malibu could end up on its tail. To avoid this occurrence, if you fly with the same passengers regularly, teach them to open the door properly and allow them to open to the door. Make sure to read my post on the importance of proper training in opening the Malibu door.
In any event, be mindful of the proper flight CG of the Malibu, but also be mindful of the loading and unloading as well as the . If the tail does strike the ground, it will cost you dearly.
