Originally Posted by
24Carrot
n5296s, the input was very useful. Though in real life I guess the prop might be windmilling?
Thanks also to Big Pistons Forever, I have seldom seen such concentrated common sense, especially "under fire".
It seems to me, (by no means a "Sky God"), that I wouldn't even consider the turn back under 500 ft in a C172 or similar, by which time I'm typically turning onto cross-wind, or even earlier for noise abatement etc, as somebody else posted.
So could we perhaps tone down the "Health and Safety" warnings a little if we re-cast the question as "what best to do with Engine Failure On Crosswind?" (EFOC?)
What we generally need to know is how much turning an average pilot can squeeze into any given height, especially if much draggier than usual because of a windmilling prop.
Just my 2c.
If you are on a crosswind leg and the engine fails you are probably at or above 500 feet AGL and a 90 degree turn with 30 degrees of bank to the nearest flat surface within the aerodrome boundaries would IMO be completely doable for the average pilot and is in fact what I tell my students to do for this particular situation.