Very interesting thread. I can only comment on turnbacks I have practised in the military (Tucano/Hawk) many moons ago. I believe the Air Force has now stopped practice turnbacks after a couple of nasty accidents.
Notwithstanding the urgent need to get the aircraft back from whence it came, there are inherent dangers with turning directly towards the runway, funnily enough. Firstly, many people try to turn way too hard to get back to the centreline as quickly as possible, with the risk of stall/wingdrop - remember you only have 2 things in your favour, speed and height...turning too quickly washes off the former thereby losing the latter more quickly. Secondly, the final alignment turn is done perilously close to the ground at low speed which is another cause for concern. Slasher's roll out at 50ft is a case in point.
Now (I hope I can remember this correctly!) on the turnbacks I was taught, the first thing to do was to actually turn away from the runway! This allows you to do 2 things - see the runway before you turn back sooner and set the aircraft up for the turn -Vimd usually worked. I'm not saying a prolonged outbound leg, but enough to get you a little displacement to execute a decent turn.
I only proffer this up as food for thought. There will be those that say that you are wasting energy going in the wrong direction - I don't know the answer. Perhaps you may need more height for the manouevre - maybe someone can try it out in the sim (My next one's in Aug....so you'll have to wait for the Airbus answer!!!)
TSP
Last edited by The Scarlet Pimpernel; 19th May 2002 at 16:11.