B.P.F.
Its nice to see you changed your teaching methods, any idea where the goofy idea of not cleaning up a multi engine airplane as soon as safe came from?
There is one other facror that comes into the equation when flying any airplane and that is inertia, when training waterbomber pilots I used to be amazed at how fast some of them would immediately go through their rote learned engine failure exercise with no thought process at all.
Here is the engine failure checklist I teach.
(1) What the fu.. is this thing doing now.
(2) Fly it under control, and really identify what the fu.. it is doing.
(3) When the problem is identified carry out the procedure that will solve the problem.
A fully loaded PBY waterbomber with the critical engine failed and propellor windmilling would only lose approximately two knots in the first five seconds, providing the speed at failure was at or above best single engine climb speed.
Five seconds will give you time to think, all you do is fly it straight while thinking and looking. Of course it is always easier with a well trained and co-ordinated crew of two.
Bottom line is do everything right the first time, dont just rush into something you may not be able to fix.
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The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no.