How do you deliberately ground-loop a Cessna single?
Without going overboard about it, it is good airmanship to keep an eye open for potential clear areas on the ground in case the engine should suddenly fail in a VFR single engine aircraft.
Flying over the suburbs of a city like Melbourne there are few open areas available apart from the occasional golf course, a few race courses and a river here and there. Ditching in a river is probably the safest bet if you can swim, that is.
That leaves innumerable sports ovals into which a competent pilot might just squeeze his Cessna single as long as he misses the telephone and power lines that festoon suburban streets - in Melbourne, anyway.
Almost certainly there is a good chance that our hero will hit the far side of the field at a fair pace and rely on his shoulder harness to save the instrument panel from being damaged by his face...
In the old days it was usual to belly land an tail-wheel type aircraft that had retractable gear, to minimise the chances of tipping upside down and for a theoretical shorter landing run. It was also easier to deliberately ground-loop those types of aircraft as some types did this quite naturally, thank you very much. RAAF Wirraway pilots will agree, I am sure.
Enter the American designed Pipers and Cessna's with their fixed tricycle landing gear and their natural stability after touch-down.
You make an accurate touch down on a playing field after engine failure over the suburbs and the far fence looms up real fast with perhaps houses just over the fence line.
You cannot retract the fixed gear, the brakes are not that effective at the relatively high speed at touch down and you need to pull up fast without hurting yourself too much. So you try to deliberately force the aircraft to ground-loop in a chosen direction to avoid the goal posts.
The question is: Should you hit one brake hard and push full forward on the control column to lift the weight of the main wheels and so pivot on the nose wheel? In other words the classic wheel barrow manoeuvre.
Or should you hit one brake hard and pull back on the stick to lift the nose wheel off the ground and thus pivot on one main wheel?
Or do you accept the inevitable impact straight ahead and apply full braking on both wheels while pulling back on the stick to ensure more efficient braking?
The subject is rarely discussed in how to fly books.