When I was undergoing aeros instruction in the Chippy many years ago, we'd often transit out to the aerobatic area and back without using the stick. Just rudder, power, and trimmer. We did this for practice, and reverted to use of the stick once in the circuit.
It was quite possible to fly the aeroplane like that, albeit not very accurately or elegantly, and I'm not sure how successful a landing would be especially in turbulent winds. It's certainly not something I'd like to do for real.
I'll be very interested to know what the engineers find, Whirls.
SSD