Mxsmanic wrote:
I'm not familiar with best practices for glides,

Indeed.

but I'd expect an
attempt to turn around to be a bad idea for them as well.

You admit your opinion is uninformed, yet you post it anyway. When
uninformed, the rational thing to do is to either ask what the best
practices are or research them, not invent assertions and then draw
conclusions from said assertions.

For those interested, here is an interesting sampling of videos of low
altitude 180 degree returns to the takeoff airfield:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMTqOkmn2Oo
(Note the 200 ft callout at :16 and the oblique angle approach beginning
at :38.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7VPC-whu0U
(Same oblique angle appears beginning at 1:46.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHcgextOUlg
(Pretty straightforward.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAeuGRnnN6I
("Where is he!? Hello!?")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8FP_MIB7gw
(Real rope break during winch launch - OK, this is really an abbreviated
360 circuit and not a 180 turnback.)

It's certainly a bad idea for a powered airplane.

Elsewhere you wrote "I suggest that you and other readers do research
rather than listen to me...." to which I would heartily agree.