Gasax has presented a good point. What is an engine failure? Failure to develope full power? Failure to develope any power? Failure to turn at all? Failure to feather?
There are many cases where an engine has suddenly decided to fail to develope full power while in flight. The surprised pilot took this to mean that a crash was inevitable, and followed through with it. When the true cause of the engine failure was later found, it was something like a stuck valve, blown out spark plug, or other very local failure, which would only affect one cylinder. With a six cylinder engine, you've still got five pulling for you. It's gonna shake like crazy, but it will continue to develope adequate power for level flight, you may as well take it somewhere where it can be landed safely, and fixed. For fun, I was particing 65% power takeoffs in the amphibian, it came off the water well, and allowed me to hone my technique. When you have the space, partice reduced power takeoffs, you will be surprised how well the plane performs!
In my younger foolish days, I was sent to fly a Cessna 150 off the ice, while conditions still permitted, becasue the pilot had landed it there with a stuck valve. The falure was diagnosed, and checked, with a ground run. With lots of takeoff room, and the easy opportunity to abort the takeoff, I flew it home. A Cessna 150 will safely takeoff at 2100 RPM, when enough space is available. It shakes a lot though.
Recognizing the nature of the failure, and the resulting need (or not) to conduct a forced approach, is, in my opinion, something which is not well taught. New pilots get the slightest shudder in the engine, declare an emergency, then land, hopefully on a runway. I hope pilots can be encouraged to evaluate the failure, and react with informed caution. If you're flying a single, and the prop stops in front of you, yeah, you're landing soon, if you don't get it running again, other than that, plan your landing, just in case, but try to keep it flying, and work your way to a good place to land, you might make it!
Pilot DAR