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I have practiced engine out maneuvers in my cessna
a lot. At this point I think I would be comfortable doing a u turn
at 600' agl in the cessna. To do that successfully there's nothing
but dirt (well okay grass and cows where I live) in the windshield, which takes
some getting used to. ...and I'm practicing at pattern altitude when
I do this.
So when I got my lancair IVP I tried a 360 over the
approach end of the runway starting at 3000' agl. If you have any
illusions about getting a IVP turned around and re-aligned to the runway from
500' I highly recommend this exercise. I need more practice but I
think my min u turn altitude is going to end up being somewhere between 1000'
and 1500'.
Along these lines, it dawned on me last year that
forward g's are a lot friendlier than other kinds of g's. Somebody
said (okay - you math guys can compute this) it's something on the order of 19
forward g's to skid to a stop in 100' from 100 knots. If that's
true, how many g's is it to stop from 30 vertical mph in 1". 1"
because that's how far it is between your butt and the spar on a
IVP. that's the right side up version. The upside down
version is so ugly I don't want to think about it. Anyway, by that
reasoning a 100' - 200' patch of dirt might be survivable, right side up, air
bags or 4 pt harness. That helped my understanding of the
land-ahead rationale a lot.
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