Originally Posted by
itsnotthatbloodyhard
FWIW it looks unfeasibly high to me, such that the base of your hand would end up level with the wider portion at the top of the stick. Not how you’d want to try and fly it. The armrest would generally be much lower - the picture looks like a short person’s seat height with a tall person’s armrest setting.
I disagree. The higher up the stick you hold it, the finer control inputs you make for the same hand displacement, think of the geometry of a lever (which it is.) You also get to rest your forearm on the armrest not leaving any muscles in tension. I was always surprised when young pilots held the stick at its base. They in turn were surprised at the finesse they were capable of when they changed their grip.
Chugalug2, your idea of a visual guide in front of the armrest is a cheap and simple one and has much to commend it. Whilst a picture paints a thousand words it is as nothing compared to handling what you are looking at. It would probably be worth going to see the real thing.
I managed to do a similar thing with a clipboard, when moving my seat in a a320 fixed based trainer a few years ago. Obviously not a situation physically similar enough to be meaningfully comparable to this accident, but the point is that I was unaware of the position of my clipboard when I adjusted my seat and suddenly the autopilot disengaged and the aircraft started pitching down. I thought there must have been a fault introduced by the instructor until I happened to notice the clipboard dig into the side of my hand while trying to correct the flightpath. It was before this incident and I thought nothing more of it until I heard the detail about it.
I am surprised that you used a clipboard instead of the clip on the table to hold any paperwork and also surprised that the clipboard wasn't on the table nor in the document stowage on the cockpit wall. Perhaps most surprising is that neither you, nor your instructor submitted an occurrence report of any type.