An interesting question is this: when a control failure happens, what should your initial reaction be?
For example, on this thread we've touched very briefly on the difference between a jammed control (not impossible if the previous pilot "forgets" to mention that he lost his pen, and it finds its way into the control mechanism), and a fluttering control (again, not impossible if the control cable snaps). So to simply talk about "aileron failure" doesn't give us the full picture.
If you were to realise that the ailerons had "failed", how would you go about determining the nature of the failure? Would it be a good idea, for example, to climb up to a safe height, and experiment at various different airspeeds, to see how the other controls react, especially as you slow down (after all, you will need to slow down to flare and land at some point)? Let's assume it's day, and good VMC.
If we agree that it's going to be necessary to explore the nature of the failure before attempting a landing, then maybe we could argue that it's a bad thing to practice this type of failure too much beforehand. After all, if we practice one type of failure, and then another similar but different failure happens, would we be likely to make (possibly incorrect) assumptions about how the aircraft will react on landing, based on our previous practice, and therefore not spend as much time exploring those controls we have left as we ought to? Would it not be better to have not practiced any type of "generic" control failure, but instead to find out the exact nature of a control failure when it actually happens?
Before you answer, though, what if the control failure happens at night? Or in IMC? Maybe now it's not quite so appropriate to try to explore the failure when it happens? And how about rudder failure - would we want to risk stalling the aircraft, even at a safe height, knowing we have some kind of rudder failure and may not be able to avoid or recover from a spin?
Just food for thought - I don't know the answers, I'm not even sure if there is actually a "correct" answer..... My only experience was a flap failure, at night, last year. I considered taking the aircraft up to a safe height to explore the low-speed envelope before landing, to make sure I didn't get any unexpected wing-drop. But since it was night, I decided this was more dangerous than just attempting a landing and seeing what happened. Turned out the flaps were both deployed evenly, so no adverse effects on landing, but I couldn't be sure of that until I landed. I think I'd probably handle the situation the same way if it happened again.
FFF
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