First time poster here... I've read the first 20ish pages and last 5.. and I haven't seen it mentioned... I'm just an armchair observer, so I'd welcome some clarification on this
AoA vs pitch hasn't been mentioned, and while they're related, I'm quite certain they're not the same thing, and from reading the posts it sounds like the two terms are kinda used interchangeably..
AoA is the angle at which the air meets the wing, pitch is the angle at which the plane is flying relative to level.
boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_12/whatisaoa.pdf
Depending on inputs, load, CoG,thrust, and configuration (Slats, flaps) you can keep the plane flying level but have various AoA's?
From this, it would seem that pulling back and nosing up (in and of itself) does little to change the AoA unless you're increasing the lift from the wings.
silverstrata I've really enjoyed your posts throughout this thread
MCAS.. to me, it sounds like it has far too much authority to do what it wants.. perhaps if it was limited to half (or quarter, or whatever) the authority it has currently it would still be functional but not provide so much input that the pilots have to be superman pulling on the stick to negate what it's doing... Now at the risk of assuming, does it have an indicator that shows when it's active and how much it's compensating? An intermittent input from MCAS is also bound to be confusing, but that's been said a few times.
What I know is at 1000ft AGL I wouldn't want any automation nosing me down unexpectedly. First, realize something is wrong, Pick up the book, find the page, read the troubleshooting procedure and then start doing something about it, no matter how much training I have.
All this is moot if the MCAS wasn't at fault here of course.