Originally Posted by
mmaviator
I would perform a slow, on glide speed, and coordinated type turn. 6k is sufficient alt for a 180 but I have no idea in your situation where the airport is(ie how far away). I took a student(mature, really smart, and good stick/rudder guy) up on a flight to test just this question. Got permission from tower and took off from a parallel runway. At 600'(btw I had another area to land just in case something did go wrong) I idled the engine and made it back to the other parallel. We actually had to use flaps to lose altitude and thought about the possibility of making it back to the original runway.
Results may vary.
One thing tought to glider pilots when the rope breaks close to the ground is to do a 45deg banked turn. Next time you get a chance, bring the engine back to idle, trim for best glide and call out an altitude to start a turn at. Use your slow coridinated turn and see how much altitude you loose in a 180deg turn. Then try it again, but this time use a 45deg turn and maintain best glide. You will loose half the altitude in the 45deg bank turn.