Originally Posted by
Thud105
... I'd consider my options, use every tool available to me and fly the airplane.
Yes, of course. But there are not too many 6000ft or 9000ft runways in a lot of Europe and the engine does not always fail at 30.000ft. In Europe, most SETs don't cruise much at those levels either. RVSM and such.
I think I saw a statistics somewhere that engines fail most often when they are strained most, i.e. during takeoff and on initial climbout. This is also where fuel contamination will most likely strike. Neither a GPS nor pilotage will save you there, just luck or that higher being should you believe in one.
Sometimes I still instruct VFR night. But not too often because doing that means accepting that one will most probably die together with one's engine.