Originally Posted by
extreme P
High angle of attack
Autopilot disengaged
Flaps are up
The kicker being, if I recall the LionAir mishap discussion, the AP disengages when the AoA goes pear shaped (or rather, the
AoA signal to the system).
That linkage informs my understanding of
the fix that Southwest went for.
(As I recall, we beat to death in various AF447 discussions (all now in the Tech Log forum) whether or not having an AoA gage for the pilots to refer to was a good idea or not. SW, it seems, has decided that it's a good idea at this point in time.