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On one landing in my '65 337, I had just touched down, nose was still in the air, wheel back nearly all the way. I had 3 passengers so CG was about in the middle of the range. Anyway, the airplane suddenly felt like it was overbalancing to the rear - like it was about sit on its tail. I applied nearly full down elevator, and it recovered, and the nose came down (not hard, like it normally would with this control input.) I am *certain* the aircraft was not out of CG aft, because with 320 lbs of me in the front seat, and a 200 lb passenger, getting a 337 out of aft CG is nearly impossible. (Getting inside the forward CG can be challenge.)
Anyway, perhaps it was a gust of wind from just the right direction, at just the right time. Or perhaps, even if I had done nothing, the tail would not have hit, but it felt like it.
When I bought the 337, the previous owner, who flew it for 10 years, told me to watch for this. I thought he was imagining it, until I experienced it once myself.
It may be a characteristic of the earliest models, I don't know. I have never experienced anything even remotely like this in my '73 P337.
Not really related to your question, but as an aside: if you leave a lot of baggage in any Skymaster, with no people in it, be careful during ground handling. You can easily get a tail strike that way. Also, an accumulation of snow on the tail will cause it to sit on its tail, as has been frequently discussed on this message board.
Kevin
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