The second engine in a PA31 will take you to the crash site!
The only real use for it is en-route, so you can adopt a 'drift down procedure' and land. I'd seriously have to question someones sanity for blasting into the soup in a piston twin when the cloud base is below 1000 feet AGL (let alone 300 feet!). It's not really even a real IFR machine, if one lets go on an approach in the soup, I'd almost take the single over the PA31!
And 42" on takeoff? I never really saw them get over 40" They certainly never got anywhere near the 46" limitation!