An engine failure in a SEP in IMC/Night over the terrain I usually fly is pretty much guaranteed death.
Hence the Cirrus with CAPS comes in handy.
Enroute the cloudbase doesn’t matter. There is sufficient time to deploy CAPS, even navigating overhead a more favorable area prior deployment is possible.
During an approach in IMC I think it makes sense to be visual from min caps alt or below (roughly 600ft agl). In case of an engine failure while still in IMC one can activate CAPS, and if below, the deadstick approach/landing will be visual, giving at least a chance to avoid obstacles and to pick the most suitable surface.
What do you do if you fly in a SEP in IMC down to 200ft and the engine fails at 500ft? I’d say you crash, because by the time you drop out of clouds you will impact seconds later.
Engine failures in general are rare. Which is worthless if that „one“ engine failure per year during approach happens to you. The point is: Engines fail, and in a SEP flying in IMC down to 200ft if you have an engine failure you will most probably die.
That’s all true, if you are looking for the BRS to always provide a fallback position.
However, the SEP engine failure stats don’t support this position, and adopting it would make the SR22 pretty well useless for IFR, and a non BRS SEP almost totally useless for IFR, or indeed any flying anywhere 
It’s a bit like the one-time FAA position that any flight in IMC below 0C requires a FIKI aircraft. That kills IFR in non FIKI pretty well comprehensively, anytime of the year. They dropped that soon afterwards due to the objections. But logically it is like the BRS position above.
One should be able to force land from OVC002, so long as there is some reasonable ground down there. You have some tens of seconds, especially if you have not allowed the speed to bleed off.
Engines fail, and in a SEP flying in IMC down to 200ft if you have an engine failure you will most probably die.
I completely disagree. By 200 ft you should be somewhere close to a runway, so at worst you’re going to glide short and trash some approach lights.
Published minima for me too. For any bushplane with proper tyres 200 ft agl is plenty to glide to a survivable landing site unless an engine failure is only the start of a run of rotten luck. In fact, touching down at about 25 kts, one could probably stuff a Cub-alike or Maule straight into a brick wall and walk away shaken but not stirred.
No runway in front of us? No problem. On the first landing here we flare quite aggressively and touch down at about 22 knots. Easy.
BTW there’s not much difference between 500 and 200 feet AGL on approach in case of engine failure if you don’t have BRS – you’re probably best continuing straight ahead.
and adopting it would make the SR22 pretty well useless for IFR, and a non BRS SEP almost totally useless for IFR, or indeed any flying anywhere
I wouldn’t say OVC006 is useless. Even OVC010 works most of the time (given I don’t fly much and never fly anything critical such as business appointments etc.).
Peter wrote:
That’s all true, if you are looking for the BRS to always provide a fallback position.However, the SEP engine failure stats don’t support this position, and adopting it would make the SR22 pretty well useless for IFR, and a non BRS SEP almost totally useless for IFR, or indeed any flying anywhere
Peter, challenge with the stats is that they are good only if you have many lifes, and if one is lost then you just use the next one. :)
For me it is much easier to decide as club policies expressly prohibit flights in such bad weather.
Although my question was more about the planning phase.
There is a misunderstanding here. I’m not talking about engine failure at 600 vs 200ft. In a SEP if wx is imc down to 002 and your engine fails at 5000‘ what do you do? In a Cirrus you can pull the chute, so some chance of survival. So keeping that option available by raising minima makes sense.
I’m talking about personal minima and why it makes sense to me to set those according to the airplane‘s capabilities. In a Cirrus, it makes sense (to me) to have OVC006.5.
I completely disagree. By 200 ft you should be somewhere close to a runway, so at worst you’re going to glide short and trash some approach lights.
Again, not talking about an engine failure precisely at 200ft. What do you do if in IMC and the engine fails at 3000ft, and it is IMC down to 002?
No runway in front of us? No problem. On the first landing here we flare quite aggressively and touch down at about 22 knots. Easy.
That’s as amazing as it is particular to this specific airplane. You can do this but it doesn’t really work in a TB20 or SR22.
In fact, touching down at about 25 kts, one could probably stuff a Cub-alike or Maule straight into a brick wall.
In fact, hitting a brick wall at 25kts will probably hurt!
If you stand by that statement I am curious if you would also jump down from a height of 9 meters onto hard ground – and walk away shaken but not stirred. :)
