Ramapriya wrote:

Wanted to know if you guys occasionally practice, at a safe altitude
with not too many passengers on board, stuff that *might* come in handy
should something dreadful happens - for example, shutting off an engine
or both and trying to judge, from the aircraft's rate of descent and
distance covered between two altitudes, how far ahead it can possibly
reach before reaching the ground, etc. Just to get a feel of things
real-time.

Yes, we practice dealing with emergencies. The most common emergency those of us
flying small planes practice is engine failure. Most of us do not actually turn
the engine off, however. We either reduce power as far as we can or we lean the
mixture out all the way.

Or is all of this restricted strictly to simulators?

Emergency procedures on large aircraft are practiced in simulators.

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.