I knew this was going to happen!! Ohhh. OK.. I think engine failure wise I'm not sure what you do or what environment the aircraft are operating within BUT if I relate you stats to the UK then I think the differences will start to emerge. In the UK effectively the only Subaru powered gyro we can fly is the RAF2000 and there are few flying and not a single ex-student of mine has ever gone on to fly one in recent years. In the UK we have no Lycoming powered gyros (although I have many hours on various Lycomings in both Heli and Aeroplane) and the Rotax engine we do have are Rotax 9-series - 912 and 914.
So for context for people who perhaps get one view otherwise... I've never had an engine failure (no doubt I will this coming week!) despite having similar hours P1 to yourself and in the UK as a whole - which includes some very experienced guys, one with over 7000hrs P1 in a gyro, I can only think of 1 x Rotax 9 series engine failure EVER in "factory built" gyros in the UK which was a Cavalon down with the instructor at Exeter and that was a manufacturing fault at Rotax after circa 400hrs as I recall. So if you had 5 x Rotax failures are 9 series related it would be interesting. If it is 2 stroke related then again in the UK pretty irrelevant in the current climate.
However I predicted the debate didn't I in my prior post and again our final flight test is somewhat different. Your power off requirement has a lot of holes in it - for example when do you have to nominate the point, from what height? i.e. am I at 1000ft, nominate a point and close the throttle? Or do I fly the approach to 300ft, nominate a point and close the throttle? Does the examiner decide the points? Do I have a choice ? Do I have to do it away from the home airfield? What about entry speed? Because these things matter don't they? I can practice this at my home airfield for months within my own parameters and get pretty good...
indeed that is exactly what people do for...spot landing competitions for things like the world air games. Now go and YouTube things and see the shambles being made at the WORLD championships..
Back to the point. Suddenly we threw +/-300ft (which is a 600 diameter circle with a bullseye) which makes spot landings less of a spot and more an entire runway in some cases. So again in the US (and its exactly the same as in the UK we have the same non-thinkers around the table when these things get made up) you can get very good at something that you don't actually need and in any event the test demonstrates to the examiner that you practiced it a lot at your home airfield. Well done FAA.
Yes good job on the engine failures on take off - probably more relevant to the preservation of life than landing to a point - however not sure you do S turns as part of it?
However lets return to the rational - engine failure. Come on if you have a student with <10hrs P1 suffer any sort of failure then I think if they can walk away from the event they have done well. I don't really care if they float into the hedge beyond the runway or damage the aircraft when a more experienced man could have saved the machine. Where is the wind? Pick a spot as well as possible (wires, wires, wires and surface? the size and shape looks after itself frankly), forget the radio <1000ft, fly the aircraft, airspeed, airspeed airspeed to be accurate at 60mph. Be lucky in the UK that your airmanship meant you were not over congested areas and you had been looking for fields as part of your en-route.
Over a built up area? Flying too low to have no options? Spot landing isn't going to help is it? We know how it does work out. If I was the FAA examiner I think the time spent on the spot landing nonsense - and no doubt the examiner special tips and hints lecture - would be better spent drilling airmanship for the 1% and a focus of the regular landings for the 99%. Oh and maybe some theory on engine maintenance.
I don't see your item B as no vertical descent. Why do you read that? Further if you are using a 600ft AGL reference you boys have pretty poor altimeters if the lag and that height combination pose a threat! More than that enroute in the UK we fly on QNH so anything that references AGL across country the altimeter isn't really going to help beyond a best guess. Happily we fly by day in VMC... Again look at my vertical descent film.. I don't think there is anything very complex in any of that. Oh and you can see the terrain near my home. The little industrial unit we are next to is the Ford GT Le Mans program for Europe - like your Chip Gannasi.