fastj22 wrote:My next flight, I'm planning on getting to a safe altitude and practice emergency turn backs using the LRI. Find out where the demons are and what is the minimum altitude I can safely do it.
It's actually interesting you say that...it jogs a memory from back in the day. Does anyone remember "Wide World Of Flying" videos? I remember Barry Schiff did a bunch of videos, and one episode dealt with this exact same thing.
In the video, Barry's recommendation was to take off, climb out normally, and once at a safe altitude perform a test to determine how much altitude you would loose if you had an engine failure on takeoff. The test was to establish yourself in a climb, pull the engine to idle, then while pitching down to maintain airspeed wait 3 seconds (for the reaction time), then use an approximate 45 degree bank turn to complete one 360 degree circle, execute a simulated "flare", and see how much altitude was lost. This would give you a rough idea of how much altitude you'd need to even attempt the turn back to the runway since, if you do this for real, you actually turn more than just 180 degrees. He went on to describe how a 45 degree bank turn was about the best compromise between turning radius, rate of turn, and increase in stall speed.
I haven't done this test but at some point I'd like to, just to see what the results are. Something to try this summer maybe.