Spoke to an ex ATO (Nomad) Pilot today.
It was suggested that the aircraft would go past VNE within 10 seconds of a vertical dive and contrary to my earlier comment whilst you could try beta you would tear the engines off her apparently if you tried. (certainly can try zero thrust) He said based on this, the circumstances leading to that photo of ATO in a dive would be hard to come by!
The use of flaps in this beast was interesting given that the ailerons lower with them so anything more than 20 degrees could be quite challenging in gusty conditions if the "spoilers" weren't able to do the job.
Heard an interesting tale on what went on with the tail however I'll search and see if there's another thread on that before dragging it up again.
Last edited by VH-XXX; 10th Apr 2011 at 10:59.