Pace
I agree with everything in your post.
One hears of very few engine failures that occur instantly and without any warning or previous neglect.
In fact the engine failure I had almost fell into this category, albeit I suspect that I could have continued on the engine for maybe 10 minutes if it had been a single, before it cooked itself. In that much it certainly did not fall into an instant failure category and there would have been more than enough time to get on the gorund with some power. Clearly yours was similiar in so far as the engine started and continued to run.
I have had a few rough running engines for various reasons and any of these with hindsight could have stopped but I had warning.
Yes, as you say Mr Guppy clearly has a wealth of experience from all over the world in the most testing enviroments so I have no doubt we may have something to learn from his exploits. I shall look forward to reading his future posts.