Originally Posted by desmotronic
How often would you shut one down in flight just to practice?
NEVER!!!
hmmm.... I guess that depends on who -and how thorough- your FTO is. In-flight shut-down, complete to feathering and securing the engine along with an (eventual) in-flight restart and warm-up was a regular feature of my recurrency checks in years past. And I still seek that FTO out when possible to do those exercises again. We have even done
simulated failure of both to a forced-landing.
I'm of the opinion that, properly executed, these exercises are of tremendous benefit, not only to your confidence that you do have the ability to handle these situations correctly, but to your confidence in your aircraft. You
know what she'll do.