Originally Posted by
Big Pistons Forever
And there is the rub. At a moment of high stress induced by the engine failing you have to fly the aircraft right at the edge of its envelope at an altitude that leaves no margin for error.
If you are a proficient aerobatic pilot who practices regularly this is no big deal. However at the risk of sounding arrogant, if you are the average PPL with less than 250 hours total time who flies 15 to 20 hours a year, this is a recipe for a low altitude stall/spin accident, and those are almost invariably fatal, a sad fact confirmed by the accident statistics........
Which is why in a full research programme we need to include a reaction delay, and assess the ease of maintaining the best speed and bank angle, and ease of stall avoidance, and the overall pilot workload. With other things.
But, at a first look, what N did was show that Rogers' figure of 45 degrees bank angle for minimum height loss per degrees of turn seems to be correct. That in itself is a useful conclusion because it gives a bank angle that *probably* should be used by a pilot who is sharp enough and positioned well to fly a turnback. It is however only a part of a much bigger problem.
G