Just awful.
Looks like a classic stall/spin. Almost did a full turn in the spin! Must have had a lot of left rudder still in there as the wing stalled; it rolled right over. It might have been more or less recoverable were it not for that... they'd have probably still hit the ground pretty hard, but belly or wingtip first, not nose first.
Straight ahead, or turning back, or turning aside, you just have to dump the nose first. Not a lot, necessarily- just enough to keep flying as the airspeed drops from what is usually already a number closer to stall than cruise. If you're lucky enough to have more airspeed than you need when the engine quits on takeoff (and that would make you very lucky indeed), it might be OK to trade some of that for altitude, but I sure wouldn't try that while banking steeply.
This guy seemed to sort of tease it into the turn, still pulling for a climb with power, then started feeling desperate and just yanked and banked. He never really lowered the nose at all. Maybe it was just getting rough initially, but regardless, if you're gonna turn around, that means you've written off thrust, so you have to pitch for airspeed immediately, then turn as steeply as you can right away.
It's never happened to me (yet, knock wood), but I'm pretty sure my glider "programming" will keep me from delaying that important first step if and when it does happen. We all hear a lot of talk about how gliders make "real stick'n'rudder flyers", etc... well, maybe not across the board, but definitely in this scenario. You can, flying power planes, hone all the same skills, but you usually don't
have to in order to pass muster. The "impossible turn" is part of the glider PTS- you have to
do it, not practice it with extra altitude. It's educational.
Without the experience of doing the "impossible turn" from almost the bare minimum altitude,I can't honestly say I wouldn't do what this poor Mooney pilot did. Another carryover from the glider training is to visualize all this before the takeoff begins: wind direction dictates which way I will turn, and I say aloud and visualize the below-200 and above-200 scenarios. It's not a bad idea for power pilots to do the same, with altitude numbers appropriate for the aircraft. When taking off from an unfamiliar field, a wise pilot will have taken a look when
approaching this field earlier, and thought about the possibility of having engine trouble on takeoff.
The odds of button-hooking back safely from about 200 AGL are much better with a glider, but only, and I mean
only if you get the nose down first... mostly because Step 2 is a 45-degree bank turn towards the runway, and a wing is a wing. Rudder coordination is essential throughout- you might misjudge your airspeed in that steep turn, and if a stall begins, you'd better not have a lot of inside rudder, even if you instantly change pitch to check the stall. The Mooney looks like it was quite a bit higher- maybe closer to the normal base-to-final turn altitude. It could have gone much better if he'd resisted the urge to try to force the airplane to gain more altitude when it was unable to do so. And without proper use of ailerons and rudder, even if he'd pushed to break the stall, he wouldn't have had much of a chance.
I don't worry about landing downwind after a rope break... if I overshoot, so be it. Better to roll or slide into something at 10 mph than to hit the trees at 40 or 50... and even worse to spin in. All I care about is being pointed at open ground or a runway, at a speed between best glide and normal approach speed, after making a nice coordinated button hook with minimum altitude loss.But if the plan is to turn around, again,
gaining altitude is just not something to think about. That'll just exacerbate the downwind problem, assuming you succeed (which is very unlikely).
On tow, even during the initial climbout behind our "wimpy" 150hp Citabria, the gliders will be going at least 10mph faster than best glide speed... but if the rope breaks or you have to release, that airspeed bleeds off quickly. It's a lot like losing thrust in a power plane. A of A is usually lower than that of the tow plane, but still high enough that an immediate pitch change is vital.
Below 200 AGL, it's straight ahead or slightly to one side, but again, Step 1 is to get some more airspeed by lowering the nose. The danger is not just stalling; getting below Vbg before you are aimed for the intended spot could seriously spoil your chances of making a reasonably safe arrival. Most times, if you are landing off-airport straight ahead right after takeoff, you're going upwind... so you have to at least get to Vbg right away, to get the most out of the situation. Since a wing is a wing, all of the above applies to any fixed-wing. I guess for rotary wings, the equivalent is to keep up the rotor speed if power is lost.
