mutt:
As for the mountainous terrain, whats wrong with turning the aircraft around and returning it to the airport? We have a habit of ending OEI procedures over a defined point in order to ensure that all obstacles are accounted for, rather than jump into a 5 mile cone without accurate information.
As to accurate information, 1:24,000 topo quads are available for the entire U.S., except Alaska which is (I believe) still pretty good with 15 minute quads. In other parts of the world the data are limited to a varying degree, in spite of the U.S. taxpayers having spent a bundle on the Shuttle mission that obtain good topo data.
As to turning around and landing, that often is not a very good idea. Even when it's day VFR some mountain airports have a severe balked landing obstacle environment. So, the crew may want to proceed, for example, to Montrose or Grand Junction rather than returning to Aspen, Eagle, Hayden, Gunnison or Rifle.
If the weather is IMC the departure may have been made at standard takeoff minimums, which are usually well below landing minimums in the mountains. And, that often holds true even at many flat-land airports, thus the requirement for two-engine bird to have a takeoff alternate in such circumstances.
Further, in the mountains, the end of the takeoff flight path may be too low to turn around in either VMC or especially in IMC to get to the appropriate instrument approach procedure IAF.
Very true......but with the introduction of BCOPS and PEP that might change.
Don't know those acronyms.
