Originally Posted by
rickair7777
I have a relative who is 40+ year ASEL patrol/spotter pilot. He swears by a wing-over like maneuver which converts almost all of your AS to altitude, then uses the remaining AS to rudder the nose around toward the ground...you then just pull up as you regain AS and land on the reciprocal of the departure runway. Obviously you have to be prepared to execute this INSTANTLY on engine failure.
He has demonstrated this to me with a hard deck on more than one occasion, and it works with only a few hundred feet. I don't fly GA enough to feel proficient doing something like this so it's not in my bag of tricks. I wouldn't recommend it either, unless you satisfy yourself that your airplane, your ability, and your proficiency is up to the task.
Keep in mind, on those wingover/hammerhead style maneuvers where airspeed approaches zero at the apex, a lot of the rudder authority comes from the prop wash hitting the tail. With an engine out, you might just find yourself pointing up, with full rudder and nothing happening. Not a good place to be. Plus, did he start this maneuver at Vy, or at a higher speed? Most GA planes at VY do not have the energy to increase the pitch more than 10-20 degrees momentarily without exceeding critical angle of attack, and that's WITH a working engine. If you pull too fast, accelerated stall. Too slow, and you bleed off too much of the (very little) airspeed you have. That sounds like a bad idea. General thoughts on the majority of CAP weekend warriors withheld out of respect for your relative (I've seen a lot of antics from the inside, and I've been less than impressed).