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I had a partial power loss (about half) during cruise due to a turbocharger that self-destructed. It was a non-event.
I have never had a mechanically induced engine failure on takeoff. But. During my initial multi training (in a 337), I was making a normal approach to our home airport. At about 100', he screamed "go around go around go around". I firewalled both throttles, and at that moment, he pulled the mixture on the rear engine. I froze for a moment in shock, since I had had multi-engine drills in RTC's simulator, but during this phase of my initial training, he had never pulled an engine on me. The airspeed was bleeding off, and the airplane began to sink. He looked at me and said "well, what are you going to do?". I woke up, and ran the drill: power up, clean up the flaps, identify, verify, feather. After I got the rear engine feathered, I regained blue line and began to climb agonizingly slowly, maybe 200 fpm. When I was sure I could stand the temporary sink, I raised the gear, and climbed for a while. I also had to do a 90 degree turn toward lower terrain. I climbed to pattern altitude, and we returned to the pattern, and I did a single engine approach, with the instructor talking me throgh the entire process.
When we finished, he told me he would never do that again, but that he felt every student should experience something close to the real thing once in their life, and that the best time to do it was when I was least expecting it. And he kept his word, he never pulled the mixture again.
Many will argue that it was unsafe of him to do that, and you are probably right. But it *was* very worthwhile to see exactly how crappy that airplane would perform on one engine, at sea level, on a 70 degree day. (Still far better than any other twin in or near its class. I did a simulated engine failure in a normally aspirated 310 at 3000' on a hot day and could not maintain altitude, let alone climb, and neither could the instructor.) It was worthwhile to see what the airplane was like before, during and after feathering. There was a significant increase in risk on that flight as well.
250 fpm is like a C150 on a hot day I guess. But it sure seemed slow. It took a lot of space to get back to pattern altitude.
End of war story. You asked...;-)
Kevin
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