Fascinating thread. Guppy, your posts really are very interesting to read. You should write a blog or something, if you don't already.
I had my first engine failure, well, loss of power, about two weeks ago. Engine decided to quit in a descent at idle at altitude. Fortunately my hand moved to the fuel pump switch and switched it on before the rest of me had fully realised what had happened. Power restored immediately. Bit of a non-event really, but it was my first taste of a potentially big problem in 335 hours, and it has come at a good time for me. I was beginning to have faith in aero engines!
I flew with a sub 100hr PPL recently. He chose to fly a very long final over water to a runway on the coast. When I asked him why, he replied "my instructor used to do it". When I asked him the obvious potential gotcha, he replied "I don't give a sh1t about the engine failing. If your times up, your times up". He's doing an ATPL, so if you ever hear a bang followed by a similar comment over the PA, you may remember this post.
