stickyb: clearly, there are no pushrods and for FBW you will always have an electronic middle-man to some extent. However i thought the idea of direct law was to have a simple backup bit of software that was highly unlikely ever to cause control problems due to software/sensor malfunction. I'm just surprised that the pilot apparently cant easily select it.
i understand why its designed to degrade automatically to direct law in some non normal situations when you drop the gear etc - to ensure the thing will definitely flare when you pull the stick back etc.. but what about the oh !!!! scenario where the plane suddenly bunts towards the ocean for no apparent reason? Don’t you need a way to tell it to stop obeying the busted AOA probe and deflect the elevator back to where you want it?
(this discussion is not intended to speculate on the accident cause)