"I would have thought as it was facing the wind that it would have tried to push it to the unfurled position."
Me too!
But something held the tail there, and if it was facing the wind, and not binding itself, then I think the answer has to be in the tail's lift properties and related to crazy-fast wind speeds.
I can not believe it is simply the prop's seeking force alone.
I wondered about the tail causing these types of issues since I saw a TV show about "Rods" (A mythical creature like a pencil with maybe 8 pairs of wings). These 'rods' were photographed while parachuting into a vertical cave. The program had a few groups looking into different possibilities.
The math Geeks did wind tunnel tests showing a flat plate had lift, and a lot more than they thought. And more than they could calculate at the time (IIRC).
My first thought was lift in the tail could screw up furling calculations. More so based on straight level wind, not moving like threads on a screw.
I thought the concept would be compounded depending on blade efficiency and direction of rotation because they would greatly alter the angle of attack seen by the tail.
Obviously the left/right side offset.
Next was if the tail was connected to the left/right side of the tail boom.
The wind sees (| or |), not ||.
(I still think thats worth considering when you can't sleep)
I stopped thinking about it because my gray matter was blowing fuses.
(today, mind-numbing piece-work gets the gray matter stimulated)
Before the end of the program (by accident?) the camera Geeks pretty much proved "Rods" were moths photographed with a digital camera.
Same crazy stuff happened in the cameras as when taking a pic of a fast moving windmill.
G-