moderator you asked
Assume you are teaching student pilot to fly in a light piston twin - what do you deem to be a suitable asymmetric commital altitude, and does it change with time, experience and rating they hold or are training for??
I assume you are talking about what we used to call perf group c twins which only guarantee climb with the engine feathered and the gear in the bay and generally seem to take pilots to the scene of the accident after a real engine failure!
interesting to see that no one mentioned go around flight path obstacles. a big difference in a ga at lydd then say at mull!
everyone will have a different height i would imagine. surely the most important thing is to have a limit and stick to it.
if i was writing a pilots order book these are some of the things i would consider
my first consideration would be that in an a/c of marginal SE climb performance a ga has to be fully warranted and a last resort. certainly better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air scenario etc.
I would also take the following into consideration.
Problem-- fly the a/c to a safe place, if your on fire a safe place is generally the runway not the GA! Instructors always talk engine failure but engine fire happens too(happened to me on a GA in france on an aztec for real and its very unpleasant!) (in fact thinking about it I have never had an engine failure as such but only engine fires, one exactly at V1 at Jersey, christ that dosnt alf concentrate your mind!)
Wx.
obvious one but also consider nav aids do you really want to to come back for another NDB let down on one engine!
Obstructions
consider what you are climbing into.
dosnt matter how perfect your GA is, a hill or mountain will serious alter the profile of both you and the a/c!
Experience/ability
Who rembers the citation that ended up in the garden on the right of 27 at jersey off a low level IMC GA and that was with both engines running!
who remembers the BMA viscount at manc were the first officer stuck in a bootful of wrong rudder and the a/c went right over on its back during an assymetric training exercise.
A/C
i seem to remember on ceratin aztecs you had to pump the gear up if a certain engine failed. I think I would like to have a few more feet under my backside in that situation for real.
PS One of the most dissapointing features i found in twin instruction is the belief by students and some instructors is that a perf C twin a/c would always climb away on one engine.
the company i worked for even used to close the cowl flaps for t.o. to improve single engine perf.
Personally if I had an engine fire i would be landing off the approach on a perf c a/c not considering a go around unless landing was physically impossible.