What Pontius said.
As little as five years ago, I was teaching turn backs to QFI students in the PC9.
800' was the standard, however, at some airfields (carnavon IIRC) 500' feet was briefed as it was not a reciprocal turn back. The way we used to fly them was:
Practice!
sh&t, F68K, LOWER NOSE and obtain IAS. Look out the FRONT at the ATTITUDE and HOLD that for the required IAS. Only once that was set, would the TB be commenced.
The biggest problem I saw in possibly many many hundreds of turn backs over five or so years, was when a student LOOKED at the RWY and NOT the ATT. As soon as their head went searching for the RWY, they would invariably pull back on the stick and get into heavy buffet with the nose high... not good!
If at any stage it looked like it wasn't going to work (I think from memory a 'D' was required by 200') then wings level and eject.
The PC9 has two oxy bottles under the seats, right next to the fuel collector tank, so a wheels up forced landing was not recommended.
ATT, IAS, ATT, IAS.
I did not teach a reciprocal TB's in the CT4. If there was a strong wind, a crash ahead left you with a lower GS and a better chance of survival.
The PC9 however, if flown well, would easily get a reciprocal TB in less than about 15 kts. Any more and without the determination to 'push into wind' prior to the turn, most students would overrun the runway after the turn back.
In a civvy Cessna and the like - look out the front and crash ahead visually.