Hiya Capt PB,
With regards to Hot n Highs second paragraph, the points are valid, but trainable.
Quite agreed but, my assumption is that we are talking about your average PPL who flies maybe twice a month, so I would think such precession flying is probably best avoided from the outset as such an evolution would require fairly constant practice to keep things safe. I have checked out the odd PPL for whom the taxy to the holding point is something of an adventure!
Low level steep turns? Mmmmm. Even I would not consider it unless I was totally out of other options.
Miserlou has a good point with the benefit of landing back anywhere on the airfield – oh, and I would have told ATC exactly where they could have stuck their NOTAM! Think my Mayday would sort of invalidate that bit of paper they were waving at you – particularly as it was a fake. The
Gimli Glider springs to mind! Where I have had to return rapidly to the field for rough running engines etc, ATC have always said words to the effect of “Plonk it down anywhere you want Mate!” Thankfully, always made it back to the runway but it’s good to have such positive support from ATC in the hour of need!
RMC, at 300 ft in a PA-28 you will be flaring the aircraft before you can say “It’s all gone a bit quiet up front!” LOL! But, as you say, if there is no-where to go ahead, you have to give it a go to the side or behind. Having a plan up your sleeve is definitely the order of the day and the concept of getting to anything large and flat is what you are after. If it is grey and has numbers painted on it – who cares. Green and flatish would do me! Doesn’t even need to be within the airfield boundary! Just as long as it’s flatish. As you can tell, H‘n’H is not really that picky!
I guess, at PPL level, what they are formally trained to do (and checked during routine 6 monthlies etc) is to make a good go of landing in a field +/- 30 deg to the track if at all possible, or, where they know this is not possible, they can tell me exactly what they would do. After all, all you are doing is utilising the last few hundred feet of a normal glide landing approach (which is not far removed from a normal powered landing) so stick with what they practice each time they fly. KISS definitely is the name of the game. No low-level semi-aeros for me!
Anyway, just my views – an interesting Thread this!