My preferred way to do an APART is to start with the Performance Planning Card (PPC).
Why is single engine max torque available higher than dual engine (if it is)? This leads to questions/discussion on engine control functions. At a minimum you had better know about TGT limiting, Ng limiting, which component of the engine does which, and a little something about failure modes. Hint: You might encounter one or more failure modes during the flight evaluation.
Why do we have a minimum and maximum single engine airspeed? How are they derived? Why is max rate of climb airspeed different from max endurance? What airspeed will you use to climb out on a rolling takeoff? How can you tell if you are about to take off over max gross weight? Hint: You will need this information to correctly fly some of the maneuvers for the flight evaluation.
Some other favorites. Why does the backup pump take 3-5 seconds to come on during the TR backup servo check but only 0.5 seconds when we are flying? Just how fast is a hovering turn at the 30 degrees per second limit? I have demonstrated it in a spinning chair. Nearly all are surprised when they realize it is not as fast as they thought.
My approach is to ask a limitation, then discuss why or how that limitation is likely to affect them in a typical flight. For a junior pilot, it may be more of a teaching event. For a seasoned PC, I expect some thought, coupled with experience and a solid knowledge of aircraft systems and limitations.
As to the original question, I HATE the way the Army wants you to hand write EPs verbatim for emergency procedures exams. It's gotten better, but we used to have EPs that said "lower the collective" while others said "adjust the collective". Some would have you adjust/lower collective first, then establish SE airspeed while others were the opposite. Write it down incorrectly and you missed the question. WTF? As if you don't actually do the steps simultaneously in the aircraft/sim?
