A question the examiner asked him: "You're flying cross-country and
trimmed at 110 knots. You die, and the engine quits. At what airspeed
will the aircraft strike the ground?"

So if you flip the order of events: "the engine quits, and you die" my
guess would be best glide. First step in engine failure... although
kinda pointless if you know you are dead in the next 10 seconds. Also
setting the airspeed might be a race with death?