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In my '73 P337, I fly as taught at Recurrent Training Center. I rotate at 80 mph, and put the gear up when I have a good positive rate of climb (which is always above 102 mph blue line). I'd say this happens at about 200', although I've never looked closely at the altimeter.
In case of engine failure, except in the case of a VERY long runway, RTC's procedures (which are Cessna approved) are that if the gear is down, land, even if there is not enough runway ahead. If the gear is in transit, or up, then go. My normal climb speed is 130 mph unless best rate (110) is needed for some reason.
Obviously, this has to be tempered with the reality of how much runway you have left. If my gear is still down, obstacles are very low, and there is almost no runway left, I might go. But according to their training, this is what often kills people. It is better to run off the end of the runway (on the ground) and hit an obstacle at 40 mph than it is to hit in the air at 100.
When and if this eventually happens to me, will have the discipline to pull the throttle back on the good engine and land, knowing that it will be a crash? I hope so. But I hope more that I am not faced with this choice...
As for truly short fields, all this goes out the window. I have RSTOL, and for a truly short field, I rotate at 60 mph and climb at 75 mph, with gear down and flaps at 2/3, until the obstacles are cleared, at which point I start adding airspeed, milk off the flaps to 1/3, raise the gear, and then get rid of the last 1/3 of flaps. An engine failure during the early part of this procedure is very definitely a crash straight ahead event, just like a single, and is part of the risk I take when operating out of short fields (not often).
I sometimes use the RSTOL procedure in moderate length fields (say 3000') if there are lots of obstacles ahead, preferring to get as high as possible as fast as possible, rather than follow the normal procedure and buzz the obstacles at a higher speed. I am not sure this is the right choice. An example of a field where I use this procedure is Nelson BC, if anyone has been there.
I will be interested to hear your comments.
Kevin
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