Todd,

Interesting what may be done in a low wing loading airplane.

In many flight test protocols, the procedure is for the pilot to wait a
full three seconds after an engine failure to take any action. The
idea is to simulate the normal reaction time for someone who is not
expecting an engine failure and goes through the mental exercise to
accept that it's happening and finally take action. By any chance did
you do that, or did you start your procedure immediately upon reducing
power?

All the best,
Rick

T o d d P a t t i s t wrote:
It was seriously hazy this weekend, and with a long cross
country coming up in our 1946 Aeronca Champ, I thought it
was a good day to do some engine-out landing practice. I
was flying with full fuel, but solo. Wind was light, 3
knots or less. Field elevation was below 1000' MSL, temp
about 77 deg F/ near 100. For those not familiar with the
Champ, it's a 65 hp taildragger with a max gross of 1220
pounds. I was flying it 150 pounds under that.

After some ordinary engine-out landings from downwind and
base I began to practice engine-out turn-back from the
initial climb out on takeoff. I thought others here might
be interested in my results.

I had no trouble turning back 180 degrees from 200', just
as I do in my glider. A rapid push to get the nose down and
maintain speed, and a rapid roll to about 40 degrees of
bank. Lots of back stick pressure. I never had to let the
airspeed drop below 60 mph. By the time it was turned back,
I still had 50-75' left to make a shallow alignment turn.

There was certainly no time to waste, but with practice it
was a comfortable maneuver. Of eight attempts, I would
have been in the trees once and the bushes once. The trees
are in a line at one end of the runway, with a cut through
them in line with the runway. My first attempt I didn't go
far enough to the side during the climb out, so when I
turned, I couldn't get back through the cut.

All the other attempts in that direction I let myself slide
off to the side so I could turn back through the cut. One
time I came through the cut and had to land diagonally on
the grass adjacent the departure runway. If I wanted to
land on the same runway, with no crosswind, I needed to get
really far to the side during the climb out.

The time I would have ended in the bushes at the opposite
end occurred because I did a touch and go from the previous
attempt. That put me farther down the runway than usual, so
on the 180 reverse, although I was turned back, wings level
and aligned, I couldn't glide far enough to get back to the
runway over the bushes in the overrun.

This is not a recommendation to anyone else as to the
altitude to turn back at. This was one specific light
airplane, flown solo, using a modified departure to put me
in the best position to turn back, by a pilot who knew
exactly when the engine would "fail" and who was current in
engine out and had lots of 200' turn back practice in
gliders.

I have seen lots of other reports of heavier aircraft
practicing turn backs and estimating more than 600 - 800'
needed for success.

I watched a friend lose an engine in a very similar aircraft
at a similar height. He turned back, following a very
similar flight path to the ones described above, and hit a
dead tree.



Do not spin this aircraft. If the aircraft does enter a spin it will return to earth without further attention on the part of the aeronaut.

(first handbook issued with the Curtis-Wright flyer)