jrock836
Well Known Member
All of the talk about vapor lock got me to thinking about "turn backs". I personally haven't practiced turn backs in my RV12, but will certainly make a point of getting it done very soon(at a safe altitude of course).
It just so happens the recent May 2021 of EAA's Sport Aviation magazine had a really thought provoking article about turn backs.. They listed a data point for RV12 performance. If you get a chance to read the article, I highly recommend.
So how many of your guys have practiced turn backs? What's your average amount of lost altitude during a 270 degree turn? What's your turn back altitude and length of your runway? Based on the data in the article, it looks like I would need 450 ft AGL minimum, to manage a turn back to my 2000 FT runway and that's assuming the turn back can be done without losing more than 450 ft. and also assumes that I climbed out at Vx. Considering that I have open pasture land at the departure end of my most commonly used runway, if I were only at 450ft AGL, I would probably just continue straight and land on pasture land, rather than attempting the turn back even though a 450ft AGL turn back might be possible.. I need to practice and think more about it, but something like 600ft AGL might be a more realistic number for me to consider turning back.
It just so happens the recent May 2021 of EAA's Sport Aviation magazine had a really thought provoking article about turn backs.. They listed a data point for RV12 performance. If you get a chance to read the article, I highly recommend.
So how many of your guys have practiced turn backs? What's your average amount of lost altitude during a 270 degree turn? What's your turn back altitude and length of your runway? Based on the data in the article, it looks like I would need 450 ft AGL minimum, to manage a turn back to my 2000 FT runway and that's assuming the turn back can be done without losing more than 450 ft. and also assumes that I climbed out at Vx. Considering that I have open pasture land at the departure end of my most commonly used runway, if I were only at 450ft AGL, I would probably just continue straight and land on pasture land, rather than attempting the turn back even though a 450ft AGL turn back might be possible.. I need to practice and think more about it, but something like 600ft AGL might be a more realistic number for me to consider turning back.
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