L39 Guy's comprehensive post contained:
. . .in the Ethiopian case, engaging the autopilot at 400 ft is a definite faux pas as it is contrary to the memory UAS drill and, if the aircraft was indeed stalled, another definite faux pas as one does not recover from a stall with the autopilot. cont.
I have wondered over these weeks if indeed prior knowledge of the MCAS effectively being inhibited by the autopilot, might have played a role in his hurried attempts. Yes, it would have been desperate action, perhaps born of the vivid Lion Air memory mingled with the feeling of unreality. Imagine just what was going on in his mind. Form the point of view of utter disbelief, it would almost have been better if he'd no prior imagery filling his thoughts. Of course, I'm assuming he knew the autopilot would inhibit MCAS.
Stall? I feel that after a few seconds he would have been fairly confident he wasn't stalling - given the power settings and assumed general feel but yes, there were two column, rather sharp forward pushes, the first coinciding with a marked UP attitude spike. He trimmed AND in what looks like a double pulse, but nothing that would make me think he's countering the STS at that point. I would need to compare these to a lot of normal flights to draw any conclusions,