Seriously ? Glide back after an engine failure ??? At 50 feet ????
I don't understand the objection though to using a 'best angle' climb (VX). All pilots should have been properly trained to do this safely and at many airfields due to obstacles it is the standard practice.
Sure, the plane is
capable of climbing away at Vx, and that is a required pilot skill. But the part of the training which is (and nearly always has been) missing is that a low altitude engine failure at Vx can have you in a situation from which a gliding return to a safe landing is not possible. I've done the certification flight testing for this requirement, and it's terrifying!
So, to practice safely (before you assert that I'm wrong), try the following: Establish a safe hard deck for yourself, a few thousand feet up in the practice area. Do your HASEL check ('cause you're probably going to need it!) Slow the airplane at cruise power to Vx at exactly that altitude. Apply takeoff power, and climb from that altitude while maintaining Vx. At 50 to 100 feet, close the throttle. Now you're going to have to push the nose down fairly promptly to enter a glide, But, because you were actually expecting this, delay one second before you push to make it more realistic. Now establish the POH glide speed, and then, while referring to the altimeter, and leaving the throttle closed, momentarily arrest your descent at your hard deck altitude, just long enough to see the altimeter pointer pause there. If you can pause the altimeter there long enough to see that you did, you succeeded in a simulated flare and landing. If the plane just stalled, and kept on down through your hard deck, you crashed.
When I teach this, nearly every time, my student will descend unarrested through the hard deck altitude, with the stall warning blaring. Understand that generally, Vx is somewhat slower than the glide airspeed you'd like to have when you go to pull to flare. 50 to 100 feet is not enough altitude to push over, accelerate to glide speed, and still have altitude to spare to flare with. In my opinion, it is a serious omission that flight manuals do not contain this warning. Rather, they usually say words like: "lower the nose and accelerate to Vy when the obstacle is cleared". So, if there's no obstacle, don't be flying at Vx in the first place.
The design requirements for many GA planes do not require that a glide landing be possible from Vx. When applicable, the requirements ris that a glide landing be possible from Vx + 5 MPH:
(my bold)
Sec. 23.51
Takeoff.
...................
(2)
Upon reaching a height of 50 feet above the takeoff surface level, the airplane must have reached a speed of not less than--
(i) 1.3
; or
(ii) Any lesser speed,
not less than VX plus 5 miles per hour, that is shown to be safe under any condition, including turbulence and complete engine failure;
Any GA planes for which I've looked it up, have a Vx which is noticeably slower than the best glide speed. In a draggy plane, the effect suddenly slowing down with sudden power loss is greater.
If you need to climb at Vx to make it out, certainly do that. If you don't need to be at Vx, Yv, or best glide speed for climb will keep you safer. And remember that the best glide speed is predicated on an engine failure in cruise flight, when you're level, and you slow to that speed, rather than shortly after takeoff, and you have to lower the nose that much more to
speed up to that speed, and still have enough altitude with which to glide and flare. This should be practiced by all single engine pilots - at a safe altitude!