Knackered Nigel
It won't pitch up erroneously in manual flight.
I disagree I'm afraid... and I fly the thing as well
A lot of posters are getting hung up on the AP... which in the Airbus is a fairly dumb thing, and subject to the same Flt Control Laws as we are in Manual Flying...
If we limit ourselves to Normal Law, then the Airbus, with/without AP, has defined Pitch, Roll and AoA limits. If it determines it is exceeding those, then it will apply controls to try and get within those limits, whether AP is in or out e.g. if it (thinks) is at 70AoB to the left, it
will roll right. Trouble is if it was in, say, a 45AoB turn to the right, but thought it was 90AoB to the left, it will roll to 75AoB right, and try to roll more
Of course, the design of multiple IRs / sensors, and degraded Flt Control modes as things fail, is designed to prevent the scenario above occurring. However, it did in the QF72 incident, where, as I understand it, in Manual Flight it "pitched down hard" to reduce a perceived excessive AoA.
Quite where, even if, this fits in to this accident we have yet to find out... and whether the test schedule requirements, with/without known sensor errors / failures, created the final loss of control....
AFAIK the 777 has had similar control "issues" due faulty sensors... although full control inputs are supposed to "override" any protections... ?
NoD