If I may be permitted a little thread creep here, there has been a few comments on this thread regarding turnbacks. We do not know whether or not Dan attempted a turnback or whether such a manoeuvre was an appropriate action following the failure that he suffered. Therefore, none of what I have written below is a comment on the recent Spitfire accident. However, it is a timely reminder for all of us who fly single engine aircraft of some considerations for potentially attempting such a manoeuvre.
At the dawn of aviation, "Never turn back" was a mantra and for a very good reason. Early aeroplanes had low power and high drag. Therefore, climb gradient was less than glide ratio and so if runway heading was maintained after take-off the aircraft would, following a total loss of power, never be able to glide back to the take-off airfield (unless it had turned off runway heading).
High performance aircraft, such as the Spitfire, accelerate to climb speed quickly and then have a climb gradient that is greater than the glide ratio. Therefore (and again assuming that runway heading is maintained) a height/speed combination will relatively quickly be reached which is high enough above the return-to-airfield glide profile to allow a turn to be made to point at and glide towards the airfield then fly positioning turns to align with the reciprocal of the take-off runway with sufficient height to lower the gear and flaps to make a controlled touchdown; that is a turnback. To use the Tucano as an example (an aircraft with similar but slightly less power:weight ratio than the Spitfire), from 150 KIAS and 500 ft a turnback can be made to the reciprocal of the take-off runway. At Linton-on-Ouse, which has a cross runway with a mid-point intersection, it is possible to turn back to the cross runway from 130 KIAS and 500 ft. However, making a successful landing from such a manoeuvre is not guaranteed and at least in the Tucano you have the option to eject if you judge (by 300 ft) that you are not going to land safely on the runway. If you do not have an ejection seat, such as in the Spitfire, you are committed to an off-runway landing, hopefully within the airfield boundary, but for which you really want the gear to be up as per an off-airfield forced landing.
The actual turnback manoeuvre should normally be a hard turn into wind. This is because one of the main factors in order to achieve a successful landing is minimising the lateral separation from the runway centreline. The problem now is that the nose needs to be lowered significantly in order to maintain manoeuvring glide speed and one of the biggest risks is losing speed and stalling. I believe that this is the main reason that such manoeuvres have never been taught to students undergoing flying training. If the take-off roll has been very short and the initial climb out steep, the required manoeuvre is a turn downwind through approximately a 45 deg heading change then a reversal to dumbbell back to the runway. Up to a point, the greater the crosswind component the greater the chance of a successful turnback because it helps to minimise the lateral displacement from the runway centreline during the turn. There are parallels to these manoeuvres with cable-break procedures for gliding winch launches.
Having said all of the above, once you turn off runway heading after take-off you just have to apply judgement as per any engine failure. But next time you fly and plan a straight climb from take-off, it is worth thinking about what height and speed you need in order to fly a turnback and which way you will turn.