Simulated engine failure - turn-backs with fatal results.
Several decades back the Royal Australian Air Force Central Flying School introduced practice turn-backs following simulated engine failure after take-off (single engine types). The height chosen was around 800 feet for prop aircraft and in Vampires you needed to have reached 290 knots to ensure sufficient energy margin, by which time, of course, you were a couple of miles from the departure end of the runway.
It was in the flying instructor course syllabus as a dual exercise only. Regardless of the reasons why such a practice was introduced, I personally thought it was a dangerous macho exercise. The RAAF lost a Winjeel and a Vampire while practicing these turn-backs, with four pilots killed as a result.
I understand that the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Australia currently do the same exercise in the PC12 during conversion and recurrent training, as do RAAF CFS in their PC9's.
Does anyone know of any measured trials carried out by a competent authority in past or recent years on turn-backs? The risks involved seem to vastly outweigh any training benefits.
In the case of the pilots killed in the RAAF training accidents, in one case the aircraft would have been better off with a simulated ditching in calm seas ahead, and the other had unobstructed fields ahead. A case perhaps of more people killed practicing turn-backs than has happened with real engine failures after take-off with forced landing straight ahead.
[This message has been edited by Centaurus (edited 05 April 2001).]