A few rambling thoughts.....
If a reasonable landing area is available, one of the two prime concerns is to reduce the ROD at touchdown to a safe, survivable level. If a low airspeed is recovered too late, it can only be done by lowering the nose, which will increase the ROD and decrease the Nr.... decreasing the chances of a good landing.
A minimum height for attempting to recover airspeed should be considered. My (military) training taught me that constant attitude autorotations were a good thing to consider at night, offering the pilot a better view ahead. Flaring the aircraft sends the landing light beam skywards of course, leaving the pilot with an unlit area ahead. We were taught minimum speed autorotations (IAS off the clock) as a manoeuvre to make a field almost directly below but to recover the IAS at 600' due to effects of lowering the nose to recover airspeed / Nr. In any event, we were taught to aim for wings level and a "recovered" airspeed by a minimum of 300' agl if possible.
Whirly asked:
Unless the wind is really strong, could your novice fairly safely forget about it?
In the real case of engine failure, the second prime concern is the likelihood of a gatepost between the legs
. A 5 knot tailwind is 10 knots worse than a 5 kt headwind when it comes to considering the possibility of impending forward impact......
I think a mental picture of the wind direction is vital at all times when flying a single.