Sunday afternoon, working on my annual with another EAAer in my hanger at KCPK, we heard an aircraft which had just taken off start backfiring and lose power. Running out of the hanger we saw a Lancair 360 making a steep turn back towards the runway he had just departed at no more than 200' altitude. As we watched in horror, we saw the stall/spin entry we have all been taught from the beginning of our PPL lessons in full view. The right (inside wing) dropped and the plane impacted the ground nearly vertical. We rushed to the aircraft, which was upright with the canopy ejected, and both occupants were unresponsive, still strapped in and blood emanating from their ears. Both appeared to have broken necks. No pulses could be found (a doctor was also in our group of responders) and all that could be done was get extinguishers in case of a fire (did not happen) and let the police and FAA clean up. There were several fields to each side and straight ahead that could have been effective for a crash landing, hopefully with much different results for the occupants, but the pilot succombed to the impulse to turn back to the nice runway he had just left. My plan following witnessing this tragedy, is to edit my pretakeoff checklist to add as a last item something to the effect of "if power loss occurs prior to XXX feet, do not turnback and land straight ahead". My immediate thought when I saw the Lancair begin a turn was that it was way to low to turn, but I feel this would be a good thing to remind myself of prior to each takeoff.
I know I have read before where a number of persons have experimented with the amount of altitude needed, and that for a 6 it was about 400'. I was planning on 500' for a bit of a factor of safety and plan to experiment at altitude to verify and keep myself proficient.
The question I have for those with a lot of piloting experience here is on minimum airspeed during the turnback. I was curious if anyone had actually recorded their parameters, such as bank angle and airspeed in this maneuver when they were testing. Since my pitot is on the left wing, it follows to my logic that a right turn would be most limiting as the airspeed would read higher than the speed on the inside wing. If the airspeed indicated is sufficient for a right turn, then if a left turn was made with the same indicated airspeed, each wing would have a higher actual airspeed than with a right turn, giving additional margin for a left turn.
So the question is what bank angle and airspeed limit to use for an emergency turnback? I'll start there with my experimentation to find the best for my airplane (and then add an appropriate margin).
I know I have read before where a number of persons have experimented with the amount of altitude needed, and that for a 6 it was about 400'. I was planning on 500' for a bit of a factor of safety and plan to experiment at altitude to verify and keep myself proficient.
The question I have for those with a lot of piloting experience here is on minimum airspeed during the turnback. I was curious if anyone had actually recorded their parameters, such as bank angle and airspeed in this maneuver when they were testing. Since my pitot is on the left wing, it follows to my logic that a right turn would be most limiting as the airspeed would read higher than the speed on the inside wing. If the airspeed indicated is sufficient for a right turn, then if a left turn was made with the same indicated airspeed, each wing would have a higher actual airspeed than with a right turn, giving additional margin for a left turn.
So the question is what bank angle and airspeed limit to use for an emergency turnback? I'll start there with my experimentation to find the best for my airplane (and then add an appropriate margin).