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Old June 13th 05, 09:36 PM
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Todd,

Thanks fort the additional information.

This is, sadly, a subject that has been explored in aviation since the
early days of the Wrights. No matter how many times we hammer on
pilots not to turn back to the runway, a huge proportion of them insist
on trying, even if they have never, ever practiced the maneuver (um,
lessee, I've got a full-fleged emergency, I'll try something I've never
practiced before...Doh), and a staggeringly high percentage of those
who try it, die or get seriously injured. I worked a matter about 10
years ago involving a pilot who lost the engine on a Cessna 150 at
somewhere around 400 feet and tried to return; he survived the crash
but has serious brain damage. (Roughly half of the pilots faced with
an engine out forced landing stall the airplane at up to 20 feet AGL,
sometimes higher, especially if in a turn-which reduces their chance of
survival measurably. That pilot stalled at an undetermined altitude.)
I'm also interested in the amount of time it takes a pilot to react to
a power loss. With pilots on flight reviews, I've seen some of them
sit there and do nothing or "swim in glue" for as much as 10 seconds
before taking meaningful, effective action. I've had more than one
event in which an engine quit and in each one there was a period of
"this can't be happening" thinking before I dealt with it - don't know
how long it was - on one twin during the takeoff roll it was long
enough to get pretty close to the edge of the runway, and I used every
bit of the runway getting stopped.

There have been a number of serious academic studies on the subject of
the best turnaround procedure for minimum altitude loss, and it seems
to involve a fairly steep bank-on the order of 60 degrees if I recall
correctly. The problem is, as aerobatic and ag pilots know, practicing
that maneuver at altitude is different than doing it down low; the
world looks different below 500 feet, the horizon is subtly different
and it can bite a person unless it has been practiced - recently.

You have, IMHO, a major advantage over most pilots in that you have
glider experience, and, I suspect, the idea of your engine taking the
day off is not nearly as traumatic on a very visceral level.
Nevertheless, from the point of recent experience, if you had not
practiced a rerturn maneuver within the last 6 months and lost the
engine of the Champ at 250 feet AGL, would you be willing to bet your
life you could pull off the return maneuver successfully the very first
time g? Based on the fact that you have just practiced the return
maneuver, can you put a number on the minimum altitude AGL at which
you'd attempt it for real if you had to today? Would that number
change if you hadn't practiced it for 3 months? (I'm curious, as my
own "minimums" for various events get more conservative as the time
since my last recurrent training gets longer.)

Thanks again for putting up your experience.

All the best,
Rick