Originally Posted by
Bergerie1
I think it all goes back to basic trraining. A little upside down time on limited panel instruments goes a long way, and stays with you for a long time - it helps to reduce the 'startle effect' and teaches basic aircraft control. Whether, or how much, these skills should be practised later is a mute point. And I doubt that the UPRT simulator training is sufficient.
Let me first mention, that I agree with you about the URT at a young age. Where most pilots just hate these upset items, I personally liked these challenging things the most (these trainings being largely outside the normal curriculum).
However, with a B737, we should not forget, this is not a Pitts, Extra, Van, or even a C172. A B737 does have a large (roll-) inertia, implying, once it rolls, it'll take significant forces and time to "undo" that. And, for this case, they had "wings level" (but significant nose down) within some 6-8 seconds after the AP alarm kicked in. Not bad, I'd say, for a large aircraft. So, yeah, they reacted pretty fast (though initially forgetting the throttles).
What killed them, was the lack of height to undo the nose-down situation. IIRC, for AF447, it was calculated, that once they passed down 20K ft, they no longer did have enough height to recover, before splashing (let alone, they lost the plot and did go through 20K ft in a flat, but stable, stall).