Sycamore
Thank you for your advice and deep criticism of my flying decisions. This is part of the benefit of participating in this forum.
Had I been able to operate the unfeather mechanism but not restart the engine my decision would have been just the same... to land at the nearest airfield which was 2000 ft below me. The flight conditions would have been just the same - a single engine approach to land. Had the engine started then stopped with the prop unfeathered I might have taken a different decision as I had not extensively practiced landing on a relatively short strip with the additional drag of one unfeathered prop.
This was a positive decision to shut down the engine, feather, and restart, to pre test prior to a full test flight for C of A issue.
This was not pushonitis nor was it attempting to impress the test pilot with whom, I fly frequently and would not see a wrong decision as something to impress him, and he would certainly have intervened if he felt anything was being done wrong (given that he intervenes on a lunch trip to Le Touquet if the ball ever moves more than half a ball width on the slip indicator!).
I accept that I will have an 'irresponsible pilot' mark in your index of aviators but there was no other traffic in the circuit, the wind was known, the visual cues to the approach were known, this was a manouvre I had practiced many times, and I have not yet had to perform a go round from not getting the speed / height correct.
Of course there was a greater risk than opting for a runway twice as long but I would also have been increasing the risk of the second engine failing in the cruise en route to the diversion field. How do these two risks play against each other and any other risk factors - probably leaving only a small margin either way. In any event I took an informed decision which given the circumstances I regarded as appropriate as did the other occupant of the aircraft. If we had got it wrong we would have damaged / injured / killed only ourselves (not that this justifies bad decisions!).
I am prepared to accept advice. I am prepared to have it suggested to me that with all the circumstances known a decision might have been better had it been different - after all this is how we learn and all pilots still have something to learn.