Flying directly into a setting sun would have been a significant factor, the rest is pure speculation.
Isn't that statement in itself pure speculation? Why wouldn't everyone have their heads inside. The instructor monitoring the students actions and the student dealing with the simulated engine failure. The report states that there was limited information in which to base the sequence of events on. However the fact that it was a training flight and that the live engine, despite not having any defects, wasn't developing full power suggests that it was a training exercise gone wrong. Not an unusual event and why this type of exercise is best done in a simulator.