siemprerojo

I went out and practiced this the other day with one of my former students who I still give flight reviews to. We did it in a 172 and determined that 500 AGL was a good altitude to turn around. 400 feet AGL was the actual altitude but we added 100 feet to get his bearing if it should ever happen in real life. I reminded him that, like any manouver, you have to practice on occasion. And like every takeoff, you should go through your mental checklist in the run up area addressing the various scenarios that could happen during and after the takeoff including an engine failure.

Badkharma

It's all about bank angle. The steeper, the better (to a point). 45-60.

Michael Church has written extensively about this. Assuming you've practiced and your decision comes quick (additionally I don't know who would try a restart during failure right after takeoff), you should be good for a turn-around after 400-500 agl. No reason why you shouldn't be able to do this after some practice.

Article:

http://blog.skytrekker.net/2011/01/impossible-turn.html


Turning back after engine malfunction

Ewfflyer

One thing I haven't seen mentioned here yet............runway length. 3000', 5000', 6000'+...........

That's a lot of distance to be made up on the first few thousand that's right there when you have the longer ones. I might have to attempt this one day in the luscombe I borrow time to time, the bad thing is the climb-performance will keep me a little lower vs. distance, but makes it an equalizer to the event in which someone isn't expecting and/or prepared for such an instance.

MarcS08

First off Barry Schiff is the man. I have played with this impossible turn a few times. My personal rule is: If climbing out at VY or slower (C172) and the wind speed is 10 knots or less, I can make it back to the airport if I react within a 5 second window after engine failure at 750 AGL or above. I always am on the lookout for fields to land on when I climb out from any airport and wouldn't attempt the turn at all if I had an atleast semi-suitable field within glide range. I saw in someones post earlier that a C172's glide ratio was 12:1. I think thats being a little optimistic (for the birds I fly anyway). In my opinion, for the math to turn out close to actual performance, a glide ratio of 8.5:1 or 9:1 would be more accurate. I would recommend just trying one every now and then in different conditions and see what you get. Only you can make the decision to turn back in the event of an engine failure, and while i teach primary students to never turn back on climb out, I believe its priceless to have the experience of experimentation with the maneuver so you will have an idea of what has to happen for YOU to make it back to the airport in a real situation.

Ewfflyer

Just found out they sold the plane before I could fly it.........well there goes my tail-wheel flying in the near future.